Opinion ID: 1935220
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Written Reports and Dr. DeVault's Qualifications

Text: The trial justice permitted Dr. DeVault to testify extensively concerning his psychological tests and the conclusions that he had drawn therefrom. The defendant's psychiatrist, Dr. Ronald Stewart, relied upon this report and also a police report containing a statement by defendant concerning a sexual assault allegedly committed upon her by her boyfriend, Edwin Otero. The defendant sought to introduce Dr. DeVault's written report and the police report into evidence. The trial justice did not admit these written reports into evidence on the ground that the reports or the material therein contained were already in evidence as a result of Dr. Stewart's and Dr. DeVault's testimony. This ruling was an exercise of discretion by the trial justice pursuant to Rules 702 and 703 of the Rhode Island Rules of Evidence. The trial justice permitted the experts to rely upon these reports but felt that their introduction would be redundant. In so ruling, the trial justice did not abuse his discretion. The trial justice did not err in his ruling concerning the presentation of the qualifications of defendant's experts. The defendant was permitted to elicit all the expert qualifications of her witnesses save the one element of the type of criminal case in which Dr. DeVault had previously testified before the trial justice as a witness. The trial justice considered such testimony irrelevant and excluded it. This exclusion was not prejudicial and was certainly no abuse of discretion.