Opinion ID: 2997016
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The “missing witness”—Caterpillar’s expert

Text: Jodi Glunz Hoffman next argues that because Caterpillar decided not to call its expert Jodi Glunz, the district court abused its discretion when it refused to give a “missing witness” instruction and refused to allow Hoffman to encourage the jury to draw an adverse inference based upon Glunz’s absence. The district court has broad discretion in determining whether to give a missing witness instruction, see Doe v. Johnson, 52 F.3d 1448, 1458 (7th Cir. 1995), and in supervising closing arguments to ensure that counsel does not make reference to matters not in evidence, United States v. Brisk, 171 F.3d 514, 524 (7th Cir. 1999); Trytko v. Hubbell, Inc., 28 F.3d 715, 727 (7th Cir. 1994). Hoffman’s first challenge to the district court’s refusal to tender the missing witness instruction is based entirely upon Shvartsman v. Septran, Inc., 711 N.E.2d 402 (Ill. App. Ct. 1999), a case not binding upon this court. Regardless, and contrary to Hoffman’s understanding of the case, Shvartsman supports the district court’s determination. The 5 Hoffman also intimates that the district court abused its discretion when it allowed Hoffman four hours of training and fourand-a-half days of practice on the high-speed scanner, instead of a two-week training session, before the eight-hour videotaped test. But at a pretrial conference held on August 1, 2002, Hoffman not only expressly agreed to these particular conditions, but also stated that if the district court would allow an in-court demonstration in front of the jury, Hoffman would operate the machine without any training, and that in any case, two weeks of training was unnecessary. 10 No. 03-1604 district court correctly refused to give the instruction because Caterpillar offered entirely reasonable explanations about why Glunz was not called as a witness: (1) the district court’s March 28, 2002 order restricted the testimony of all experts to the abilities of one-handed persons generally and hence, Glunz’s testimony could not have been very probative of the ultimate issue; and (2) the jury could observe the videotape of Hoffman operating the scanner and draw inferences for itself, and thus, the testimony of Glunz would have been unhelpful and unnecessarily duplicative. See supra Part II.A.1. Consequently, there was no error. Second, Hoffman asserts that because three witnesses mentioned Glunz’s name and that she was an expert for Caterpillar, the district court’s decision to prohibit Hoffman from urging the jury at closing to draw an adverse inference based upon Caterpillar’s decision not to call Glunz was an abuse of discretion. But as we noted above, Caterpillar gave at least two cogent reasons for its decision not to call Glunz. Moreover, at trial Caterpillar never sought to introduce Glunz’s report or discuss it in any way. Despite Hoffman’s protestations to the contrary, there was absolutely no evidence indicating that Glunz had formed an opinion detrimental to Caterpillar. Allowing Hoffman to make an argument that Glunz’s testimony would have been unfavorable to Caterpillar, “would allow the jury to speculate about the meaning of a great deal of non-evidence.” United States v. Keplinger, 776 F.2d 678, 703 (7th Cir. 1985). “We see no constructive purpose to be served by such a procedure and conclude the district court did not abuse its discretion in preventing commentary on [Glunz’s] absence in closing argument.” Id.