Opinion ID: 1975422
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Impeachment of Dr. Austin

Text: The Wagners claim that the trial court erred in allowing Dr. Kobrine to impeach Dr. Austin with his pending censure by the American Association of Neurological Surgery (AANS) for providing unethical testimony as an expert witness in a prior medical malpractice case. We conclude that the trial court ruled correctly on the only objection to the impeachment that the Wagners made, and that other aspects of the impeachment, which might have been subject to objection but were not, are not grounds for relief.
During his cross-examination of Dr. Austin, Dr. Kobrine's counsel Mr. Nash asked him if he was a member of the AANS. The Wagners' counsel, Mr. Camenisch, aware of what was coming, immediately asked to approach the bench. There Mr. Camenisch represented to the court that a committee of the AANS had recommended discipline against Dr. Austin based (he said) on the complaint of a doctor against whom Dr. Austin had testified. Mr. Camenisch objected to cross examination of Dr. Austin about that recommendation because the matter was still pending in the AANS and had not been finally resolved. Mr. Nash confirmed that he intended to impeach Dr. Austin with the AANS censure recommendation which, he represented, had been adopted and ratified by the full executive committee of the organization. Acknowledging that he did not know the exact status of the recommendation within the AANS, Mr. Camenisch asked for a proffer and a ruling precluding cross examination about something that is not final. He added that if this situation is final, we still would need some evidence. The prejudicial [effect] outweighs the probative value. The trial court decided to permit a voir dire of Dr. Austin outside the presence of the jury in order to clarify the status of the AANS sanction. In a brief examination conducted by Mr. Nash, Dr. Austin confirmed that both the Ethics Committee and the full executive committee of the AANS had recommended that he be reprimanded for unethical conduct with regards to providing testimony. Dr. Austin further testified that he had one more level of appeal, to the full membership of the AANS. Mr. Camenisch did not elect to examine Dr. Austin. [20] No one asked the doctor to reveal the nature of the alleged unethical conduct or to describe the events that triggered the AANS disciplinary recommendation. After the voir dire, the trial court asked for argument. Mr. Camenisch contended that the prejudicial effect of the proposed impeachment outweighed its probative value. The sole reason that he gave for that contention was that there was still a possibility that the full membership of the AANS might reject the censure recommendation and exonerate Dr. Austin. [21] The court rejected this argument, stating that what's important here is the basis, the reasons for the determination. Concluding that the proposed impeachment had a legitimate bearing on Dr. Austin's credibility, the court decided to permit the questioning, as well as any explanation that might be offered. When his cross examination before the jury resumed, Dr. Austin acknowledged that the AANS ethics and executive committees had recommended that he be censured for unethical practices in the giving of testimony. He said that he was appealing the censure to the full membership of the AANS. The Wagners did not object to this testimony, and they did not request a limiting instruction. Dr. Austin was questioned no further about the matter. He was never asked about the circumstances which underlay his AANS discipline, and the jury was never told the specific nature of the unethical practices in which he allegedly engaged.
[A] witness may be cross-examined on a prior bad act that has not resulted in a criminal conviction only where (1) the examiner has a factual predicate for the question, and (2) the bad act bears directly upon the veracity of the witness in respect to the issues involved [i]n the trial. Portillo v. United States, 609 A.2d 687, 690-91 (D.C.1992) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). The trial court is vested with broad discretion in deciding whether to permit such cross examination. Murphy v. Bonanno, 663 A.2d 505, 509 (D.C.1995) (quoting Roundtree v. United States, 581 A.2d 315, 323 (D.C.1990)). In exercising that discretion, the trial court should assess both the sufficiency of the examiner's factual predicate and the relevance of the prior bad act to the witness's veracity. The court should also evaluate whether the probative value of the proffered cross examination is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. See ( William) Johnson v. United States, 683 A.2d 1087, 1099 (D.C.1996) (en banc); see also Clayborne v. United States, 751 A.2d 956, 962-64 (D.C.2000) (discussing test in context of cross examination for bias). Challenging the impeachment of Dr. Austin on appeal, the Wagners contend that the trial court abused its discretion in failing to inquire or make findings regarding the factual predicate for the impeachment, the relevance of the AANS censure to Dr. Austin's credibility, and the probative value of the evidence versus the danger of unfair prejudice. In making these claims, the Wagners emphasize especially that the nature of Dr. Austin's supposedly unethical practices in testifying was never disclosed. The only reason, however, that the Wagners gave the trial court for resisting the impeachment of Dr. Austin was that the AANS censure was on appeal and not yet final. By itself that reason, though arguably relevant to the court's evaluation of the factual predicate for the impeachment and the danger of unfair prejudice, was insufficient. The Wagners presented no evidence to show that the censure would be reversed on appeal. Even if the censure recommendations of the ethics and executive committees of the AANS were not the last word on the subject, they were a more than sufficient factual predicate for the proposed cross examination of Dr. Austin. See Clayborne, 751 A.2d at 963 (factual predicate requirement is flexible and lenient). Similarly, the fact that an appeal was still pending did not without more give rise to a presumption that cross examination about the prior bad act in question would be unfair. Cf. D.C.Code § 14-305(d) (1995) (pendency of an appeal from a conviction does not render evidence of that conviction inadmissible for purposes of impeachment, though evidence of pendency of appeal is also admissible); accord, Hale v. United States, 361 A.2d 212, 214-15 (D.C.1976). The Wagners failed to make their other arguments in the trial court. The Wagners did not dispute that the unethical practices of which Dr. Austin was accused bore directly on his veracity, and they made no attempt to adduce evidence to disprove the accusation on its merits. Apart from their suggestion that Dr. Austin's appeal to the full membership of the AANS might turn out to be successful, the Wagners did not argue that Dr. Kobrine's counsel lacked an adequate factual predicate to examine Dr. Austin, or that his impeachment would result in unfair prejudice. Furthermore, the Wagners did not contend that the court needed to make further inquiry into the underlying facts before it ruled on the proposed impeachment. As a general rule, matters not properly presented to a trial court will not be resolved on appeal. Williams v. Gerstenfeld, 514 A.2d 1172, 1177 (D.C.1986); see Miller v. Avirom, 127 U.S.App. D.C. 367, 369-70, 384 F.2d 319, 321-22 (1967) ([q]uestions not properly raised and preserved during the proceedings under examination, and points not asserted with sufficient precision to indicate distinctly the party's thesis, will normally be spurned on appeal). This rule is especially applicable to a litigant's failure to make an objection to evidence promptly and specifically, at a time when it might be possible for the opposing party to meet its force or for the trial court to cure any omission or error. In re T.H.B., 670 A.2d 895, 902 (D.C.1996) (quoting JOHN W. STRONG, MCCORMICK ON EVIDENCE § 55, at 221 (4th ed.1992)). A court deviates from this principle only in exceptional situations and when necessary to prevent a clear miscarriage of justice apparent from the record. Williams, 514 A.2d at 1177. We perceive no just reason to deviate from the waiver rule in this case. The Wagners had a fair chance to be heard, and there is no evidence that the impeachment of Dr. Austin was in fact misleading. Counsel for the Wagners was not caught by surprise; he was aware ahead of time that the defense might seek to impeach Dr. Austin based on the AANS censure recommendation, and he was aware of the factual basis of that recommendation. In such circumstances it is fair to presume that counsel's decision to raise certain arguments and not others was an informed one. Moreover, if counsel thought the court needed more information about the AANS censure to assess the probative value or the prejudicial effect of the proposed impeachment, he had the opportunity to voir dire Dr. Austin and elicit that information. It was counsel's choice  perhaps a deliberate tactical decision in order to blunt the impact of the impeachment  not to make use of that opportunity. If the Wagners had made their objections known in the trial court, Dr. Kobrine and Georgetown might well have been able to meet them. For example, it would have been easy to rectify the failure to ascertain the nature of Dr. Austin's allegedly unethical practices in testifying had that issue been raised while Dr. Austin was still available for examination. [22] Accordingly, we reject the Wagners' challenges to the impeachment of Dr. Austin. As the issue was presented and argued to the trial court, however, we cannot find that the court exercised its discretion erroneously.