Opinion ID: 1501117
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 20

Heading: Impeachment Testimonies

Text: Brown argues that the trial court erred when it overruled his motion to present testimony of Patty Scherzinger, a registered nurse at Cardinal Glennon Hospital, and Robert Gerald Clark, a chief protective investigator from the State of Illinois, to impeach the credibility of Brown's stepchildren Christopher Moore, Jason Moore and Tommy Johnson. The stepchildren testified that Brown sexually abused them. Brown alleges that Scherzinger and Clark should have been allowed to testify to statements that the stepchildren made to them about being (or not being) sexually abused by their mother, Kathy Moore. The trial court reasoned that the evidence went to a collateral matter and, therefore, sustained the state's objection to introducing the evidence. The trial court did not err in preventing this collateral issue from being litigated. See State v. Thomas, 965 S.W.2d 396, 401 (Mo. App.1998) (trial court did not commit plain error in preventing impeachment of prosecution witness on collateral issue on whether she lied when police first questioned her about staged robbery at restaurant).