Opinion ID: 867478
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of Teibel Testimony

Text: ¶ 134 Moody alleges as error the trial court's failure to preclude the testimony of David Teibel, a newspaper reporter who interviewed Moody and wrote a story about the murders that appeared in the Tucson Citizen in 1994. Following a pretrial hearing to review the scope of the reporter's privilege, the trial court ordered that questioning of Teibel be limited to matters concerning the authenticity of statements attributable to Mr. Moody that were contained in one or more news articles authored by Mr. Teibel and published in the Tucson Citizen.  Moody alleges that the trial court abused its discretion and denied him a fair trial by failing to preclude Teibel's testimony altogether or, in the alternative, by limiting the scope of his cross-examination of Teibel. ¶ 135 Whether to preclude or limit a witness's testimony lies within the discretion of the trial court. See State v. Tucker, 157 Ariz. 433, 439, 759 P.2d 579, 585 (1988) (noting that the sanction of preclusion of testimony for disclosure violations is reviewed for an abuse of discretion); State v. Fleming, 117 Ariz. 122, 125, 571 P.2d 268, 271 (1977) (holding that the trial court has the discretion to curtail the scope of cross-examination when appropriate). Consequently, we will not reverse the court's ruling on this issue absent an abuse of that discretion. See Tucker, 157 Ariz. at 439, 759 P.2d at 585. ¶ 136 Both the United States and Arizona Constitutions guarantee a criminal defendant the right to confront witnesses. U.S. Const. amend. VI; Ariz. Const. art. 2, § 24. This right includes the right to cross-examination, Pointer v. Texas, 380 U.S. 400, 404, 85 S.Ct. 1065, 13 L.Ed.2d 923 (1965), and may be violated if a defendant is prohibited from engaging in otherwise appropriate cross-examination designed to show a prototypical form of bias on the part of the witness, and thereby `to expose to the jury the facts from which jurors... could appropriately draw inferences relating to the reliability of the witness.' Olden v. Kentucky, 488 U.S. 227, 231, 109 S.Ct. 480, 102 L.Ed.2d 513 (1988) (alteration in original) (citations omitted). ¶ 137 In Arizona, a trial judge may place reasonable limits upon the scope of cross-examination, without infringing upon the defendant's right of confrontation. State v. Lehr, 201 Ariz. 509, 518, ¶ 30, 38 P.3d 1172, 1181 (2002). These limits become unconstitutional only when they deny the opportunity to present information which bears either on the issues in the case or on the credibility of the witness. Fleming, 117 Ariz. at 125, 571 P.2d at 271. ¶ 138 In this case, the court limited cross-examination to questions [that] probe the veracity, accuracy and authenticity of the statements made by the defendant, and expressly precluded any questions about unpublished information, [or about] reportorial or editorial processes, practices, policies or activities of Mr. Teibel's employment. He had two grounds for doing so: his belief that Teibel had a reporter's privilege that protected the information and his determination that the information was not relevant. ¶ 139 Moody claims that Teibel had no valid reporter's privilege and that the trial court abused its discretion in finding one. In Arizona, a reporter has a privilege to shield a confidential source for an article. See A.R.S. § 12-2237 (2003). We agree with Moody that the reporter's privilege is not implicated in this case because Teibel's article did not involve a confidential source. The question then becomes whether the trial court's limitation on the cross-examination of Teibel was justified on other grounds or whether it violated Moody's right to confront a witness against him. ¶ 140 We conclude that the trial court's limitation is sustainable on relevancy grounds and because the information allegedly sought from the witness would not have reflected on the witness's reliability or was cumulative. Evidence is relevant if it has any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. Ariz. R. Evid. 401. Moody argues that he was unconstitutionally denied the opportunity to question Teibel on two relevant subjects: unpublished information and the editorial process. As the State correctly observes, the record undermines Moody's claim. ¶ 141 Defense counsel had ample opportunity to cross-examine Teibel on the reliability of the article, despite the limitations imposed by the court. In fact, defense counsel stated at the outset of Teibel's examination that it would treat Teibel like any other witness and would ask him appropriate cross-examination, leaving it to the trial court to sustain or overrule objections to his questions. Throughout cross-examination the State objected only twice and its objection was sustained only once. ¶ 142 By the time cross-examination had concluded, Teibel had conceded that he did not record the interview with Moody, that he had destroyed the only notes he took of the interview, that he attributed language to Moody that Moody never used, that it was possible that Moody described his actions differently from the way Teibel reported them, that Teibel paraphrased Moody's words, and that Teibel's first draft had been edited and was not published as originally written. ¶ 143 Ultimately, it is difficult to imagine what relevant information Teibel might have had that Moody was denied an opportunity to bring out. The examples Moody cites in his briefs range from the completely irrelevant (for example, who the editors were) to material that was merely cumulative. Despite Moody's claims that he was denied the opportunity to impeach Teibel, bring out his own version of the events, and question Teibel about the editorial process, the record reflects that defense counsel did all of these things. Consequently, we cannot conclude that the trial court abused its discretion by allowing Teibel to testify under an order that limited the scope of examination.