Court Opinion

ID: 9744008
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:52:08.716787+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:46.202174
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
In this case, the court, over objection of appellant, permitted the prosecution to present the testimony of the complaining witness by a video tape deposition, which was taken at a hospital in Prescott, Wisconsin with defense counsel present, but not appellant.
The Sixth Amendment bars the state in a criminal prosecution from using prior recorded testimony or depositions of an absent witness unless the state, as sponsor of the witness, supplies a required predicate. Gillie v. State (1987), Ind., 512 N.E.2d 145. That predicate exists where the prosecution shows the unavailability of the witness and the prior testimony shows adequate indicia of reliability. The unavailability prong of the predicate is not present in this case, and the Sixth Amendment requires the conviction to be set aside. The basis upon which the trial court determined unavailability is as follows. The alleged attack took place on May 1. The victim voluntarily entered a Wisconsin establishment called the Riverwood Center for Drug Treatment on about August 1. On August 7, she gave her deposition there. She stated that she was fearful because of threats from appellant’s family or friends, and she had been encouraged by her family to leave Lafayette. At one point, quoted in appellant’s brief, she denied having a drug problem when giving the deposition. Stretched to its very limits, the deposition could be considered sufficient to support the conclusion that she was a marginally drug-dependent person doing a three-week counseling stint at a pleasant Wisconsin venue. She was scheduled for release on August 21. On August 12, the trial commenced and it was completed on August 14 without her attendance. Her whereabouts were known throughout this period by the State and there is no basis in the record to believe that the condition for which she was being counseled was such as to prevent her *834from attending the trial and testifying. This is not unavailability in the Sixth Amendment sense. See Gallagher v. State (1984), Ind.App., 466 N.E.2d 1382. The trial right to confront and cross-examine the prosecutrix before the trier of fact cannot be lost on such a showing.
I would reverse.