Court Opinion

ID: 9795953
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:43:26.305952+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:43:08.247586
License: Public Domain

Malone, J.,
concurring and dissenting: I concur with the majority’s determination that Wendy DuMars’ conviction of child endangerment involving C.W. was not supported by sufficient evidence. I respectfully dissent from the majority’s conclusion that DuMars is entitled to a new trial on the drug manufacturing-related charges based upon cumulative error. I take no exception to the analysis concerning the uneven application of the hearsay rule. However, the violation in this case was not nearly as glaring as the violation in State v. Brickhouse, 20 Kan. App. 2d 495, 500-03, 890 P.2d 353, rev. denied 257 Kan. 1093 (1995). This error alone would not be sufficient to grant DuMars a new trial. The majority’s finding of cumulative error is based primarily upon the alleged instances of prosecutorial misconduct.
I disagree with the findings of prosecutorial misconduct in this ca.se, except for tire prosecutor’s awkward comment in closing argument undermining the unanimity instruction which was harmless. I take special exception to the majority’s conclusion that “[t]he State’s conduct in eliciting hearsay in [this case] undoubtedly constitutes gross and flagrant misconduct.” This finding is based upon two instances when the prosecutor elicited hearsay evidence during the course of a 3-day trial. In one of these instances, inculpatory instance No. 5, the prosecutor’s question did not directly elicit inadmissible hearsay because the declarant was Heather Metro who had previously testified at the hearing and was available for cross-examination. The response to the question was only objectionable because it contained hearsay within hearsay. In any event, I do not find either hearsay violation to be particularly egregious, and I am unable to discern any ill will by the prosecutor in presenting this evidence.
I further disagree that the isolated Doyle violation, see Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 618, 49 L. Ed. 2d 91, 96 S. Ct. 2240 (1976), based upon a witness’ nonresponsive answer to the prosecutor’s question, can somehow be labeled as misconduct by the prosecutor. Finally, the alleged misstatements about whether the drug ev*758idence was in open view at the residence were trivial. Much of the evidence at DuMars’ residence was out in the open, and DuMars only complains because the prosecutor stated that “all” the evidence was in the open. In any event, the jury was allowed to see a videotape of the entire search and could make this determination itself.
An appellate court should be wary of finding prosecutorial misconduct based upon the elicitation of inadmissible testimony, especially when the testimony is admitted at trial without objection. This is a far too convenient method of circumventing the contemporaneous objection rule which normally governs appellate review of evidentiary issues. There may be instances where a prosecutor commits misconduct by deliberately attempting to introduce inadmissible evidence at trial in direct violation of a court’s ruling However, I do not see evidence of such misconduct in this record.