Opinion ID: 1225502
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Prosecutorial Misconduct: Presenting False Testimony; Disparaging Defense Witnesses

Text: (13) Related to defendant's claim that the trial court erred in not granting his motion for a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence is the claim that in presenting the testimony of Dr. Adelberg, the prosecution knowingly permitted perjured testimony. We reject this contention for several reasons. First, although it could have, the defense never raised before the trial court a claim that the prosecution knowingly presented perjured testimony. Given the conflicting nature of the expert medical testimony presented to the jury on the issue, the trial judge was especially well-equipped to resolve the question of perjured expert testimony. By not raising the issue before the trial court in the first instance, defendant has waived it. (See, e.g., People v. Clair (1992) 2 Cal.4th 629, 662 [7 Cal. Rptr.2d 564, 828 P.2d 705] [no exception in capital cases to general rule that claims of prosecutorial misconduct are waived unless timely raised at trial].) Moreover, in denying the posttrial motion of the defense for a new trial based on Dr. Bittle's assertion that the prosecution's medical expert, Dr. Adelberg, had committed perjury ( ante, at pp. 1251-1252), the trial judge noted the defense claim that Dr. Adelberg was either lying under oath or taking it at best that he was mistaken. [¶] I do not find that in his testimony. I do not think that that is an accurate interpretation of his testimony. And I don't think that each time witnesses disagree in a trial that automatically means that they are both lying or that either one of them is lying.... [¶] ... [¶] ... I don't think the result would be any different because in my view, their testimony really would be cumulative. There was a disagreement between Dr. Adelberg and Dr. [Rosenthal].... This is a situation where we're talking about credibility, and the jury found Dr. Adelberg's testimony more credible than the defense witness. Second, even if we were to assume that a statement by the prosecution's expert witness was shown to be demonstrably false, it does not follow the prosecutor knew about it. Certainly, there is nothing in the record to which defendant can point that demonstrates such knowledge. Third, like the trial judge, we doubt the misconduct alleged by defendant could have been prejudicial on this record. Reading the transcript of this trial, the controversy surrounding the particular BEAM device at Sierra Vista Hospital and the reasons for its removal strike us as being of marginal value to the defense. Dr. Adelberg's objections to the forensic utility of brain mapping went not to the particular device used at Sierra Vista or even to its manufacturer. Rather, it was based on expert opinion regarding the diagnostic value of brain mapping in general and relied in part on a defense document questioning the utility of the technique in a forensic or trial setting. This division of professional opinion among medical experts over the forensic value of brain mapping was ventilated before the jury at trial. It is highly unlikely that, even if the defense had been able to establish its claims of misconduct and perjury, they would have prejudiced defendant.
(14) Defendant's other claim of prosecutorial misconduct focuses on statements made during the People's closing argument at the guilt phase of the trial. In that part of his argument seeking to discredit defense expert testimony related to brain mapping and the use of the BEAM machine, the prosecutor made two statements that defendant asserts amounted to prejudicial misconduct. First, the prosecutor twice referred to the BEAM machine as the Marvel Machine. Anybody else can do the same thing. Go out and get your own data base and call it the Marvel Machine. Richard Gilmour's [the prosecutor] secret data base BEAM Marvel Machine. [¶] And everything is fine, as long as you trust that the data base is good. The prosecutor's reference to the BEAM machine as a marvel machine was based on the testimony of Dr. Adelberg, one of the People's medical experts. In the course of his direct testimony, Dr. Adelberg stated that his most serious concern about the specific device used to test defendant  the Nicolet version of the BEAM machine  was that it prints out interpretations based on secret data. He elaborated: The BEAM machine made by Nicolet differs from other types of brain mapping in that it contains a built-in test interpreter. That computerized function of the Nicolet device, Adelberg continued, is based on secret data. We have no secret data in medicine. We have no secrets in any scientific basis for any clinical medicine. And any sorts of conclusions based on secrets are, to my way of thinking, outside of medicine.... It was on the basis of that testimony that the prosecutor called the BEAM device used to test defendant a marvel machine. The trouble with this BEAM machine is not electronic mapping, it's that this particular entrepreneur ... made his own version of electronic mapping and computerized it. [¶] Anybody else can do the same thing. Go out and get your own data base and call it the Marvel Machine. Richard Gilmour's secret data base BEAM Marvel Machine. [¶] And everything is fine, as long as you trust that the data base is good. In context, the prosecutor's characterization was fair comment and a legitimate critique of the defense evidence on the point. It was not misconduct. The same is true of what defendant calls the prosecution's belittling of defense experts. The prosecutor did suggest to the jury in his closing argument that Dr. Bittle, a defense expert on the brain mapping issue, was biased because he had a financial interest in the BEAM machine. It appears from his own testimony, however, that along with Ms. Schade, Dr. Bittle in fact did have a one-fifth ownership interest in the mapping device. Both were part owners of the Sacramento neurodiagnostic laboratory whose chief physical asset is a BEAM machine.