Opinion ID: 1453407
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: admission of inadmissible evidence

Text: At trial numerous evidentiary issues were hotly contested. The trial judge chose to admit all of the disputed evidence, stating only that he would later give his ruling as to its admissibility. The judge later did deny defendant's motion to strike the testimony of defendant's oldest son and oldest daughter, but there are no other instances in the record where the judge made a ruling on any of the objections he had earlier deferred. Defendant objected to the testimony by his oldest son and oldest daughter, on the grounds that it was irrelevant because the events testified to were remote in time and space. Initially, the court allowed the testimony on the basis that it was a court trial and the disputed testimony was subject to a motion to strike. Tr. Vol. III, 259. The son testified as to events which occurred in 1984 and 1986, not in Idaho, but in North Carolina and Illinois. He testified that he had sex with the youngest daughter, that this daughter had told him that her father had sexually abused her, and that his father sexually abused another one of the daughters. The oldest daughter testified that her father had sexually abused her from 1975 to 1984 while they lived in North Carolina and Illinois, and that her father physically abused the youngest daughter in Illinois. At the close of the oldest daughter's testimony the defendant again objected to the testimony of his oldest children as irrelevant and prejudicial. The trial court denied the motion to strike, stating that the testimony was relevant but furnishing no reasons to support its relevance. The trial judge abused his discretion in admitting this evidence. The defendant correctly points out that the prior uncharged acts of sexual misconduct testified to were too remote in time and place to be relevant to the question of whether the defendant abused his youngest daughter in Idaho. See State v. Boothe, 103 Idaho 187, 646 P.2d 429 (Ct.App. 1982) (prior acts occurring one year earlier were not too remote in time; court cites to a case holding that act three years prior was too remote); State v. Maylett, 108 Idaho 671, 701 P.2d 291 (Ct.App. 1985) (trial court properly limited testimony on prior acts to a period of one year prior to the act charged). The prior acts of misconduct that defendant's oldest son and daughter testified to occurred between two and eighteen years prior to the act defendant was charged with and were therefore inadmissible as being too remote in time to be relevant. The prejudice to the defendant resulting from the admission of the oldest son's and daughter's testimony requires that the defendant be given a new trial. The defendant also objected to the admission into evidence of the contact notes of Kim Huitt, the youngest daughter's caseworker and a witness for the state. When Huitt concluded her testimony, the prosecution offered her contact notes into evidence. Defense counsel objected on the grounds that the notes had only been used to refresh the recollection of the witness and contained extensive hearsay regarding conversations with several persons occurring during the investigation of the case. The trial court overruled the objection and allowed the notes into evidence, stating only that it would take into account what was legally admissible. Tr. Vol. IX, 912. It is impossible on review to ascertain from this ruling what parts of the contact notes the trial judge found to be legally admissible or inadmissible, or even to verify that the court indulged itself in the exercise of allowing in or weeding out evidence. Since the judge made no finding as to which parts were inadmissible, it is possible that he found the entirety of the notes to be admissible. Where a large part of the notes contained inadmissible hearsay, it is almost certain that the defendant was prejudiced by the admission of this material. The primary contention on appeal, and a sound one, is that the district court's repeated failure to rule on defendant's evidentiary objections has resulted in defense counsel's inability to mount a meaningful appeal. This failure to rule on the evidentiary objections requires that the conviction be vacated and the defendant be granted a new trial.