Court Opinion

ID: 9566134
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:34:17.094955+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:14.648278
License: Public Domain

PARKS, Presiding Judge,
concurs in result:
The allegation that the officer intended to hurl an evidentiary harpoon is simply not supported by the record. Notwithstanding the majority’s absence of doubt, the record is hostile to the conclusion that the testimony amounted to an evidentiary harpoon. A careful review of the characteristics of an evidentiary harpoon reveals that each characteristic is interwoven with the other in such a way that any testimony that is relevant to the question asked cannot be labeled as an evidentiary harpoon. The record does not indicate that the testimony was totally unresponsive to the question asked, willfully jabbed or was calculated to prejudice the defendant. Rather, a close inspection of what transpired prior to the trial judge’s admonition to “stick to PCP” and “stay away from any other crimes” (Tr. 35) reveals that the following occurred:
Q. (by the Prosecutor) Okay. Delineate, please, exactly what was found in regards to this case?
A. (by the police officer) I believe there was a total of thirty-two vials, which these are the vials containing the liquid that we considered to be PCP, the eyedropper, which I have here in front of me, I believe there also was a pipe found in some of the other evidence, miscellaneous drug paraphernalia with some marijuana found in the residence also.
Mr. O’Carroll (defense counsel): If your Honor please, may I approach the bench?
(Tr. 34)
The resulting discussions at the bench, including an objection to the testimony about the marijuana, occurred outside the hearing of the jury, and presumably outside the hearing of the witness. (Tr. 35). While it is true that the trial judge told the prosecutor to “stay away from any other crimes”, id., nowhere in the record is there any indication that the witness was told not to say anything about other crimes, or marijuana. Nonetheless, the majority finds “[t]he fact that Officer Whittington saw fit to disregard the admonition of the court and reveal this evidence”, as the Court’s basis for finding that the testimony was an evidentiary harpoon. How this “fact” is discovered by the majority from the record is unclear to me. It is elementary that every witness is sworn to tell the whole truth. The question, as posed, asked the officer if the total amount of controlled drugs was limited to the value of the PCP. *79(Tr. 39). Therefore, without being apprised of-the objection to his previous testimony about the marijuana, it was proper for the officer to complete his initial response of “right” with a follow-up answer that was the whole truth concerning the total amount of controlled drugs.
In any event, it is improbable that the statement can be categorized as voluntary in the sense that it was simply offered out of the clear blue sky. See Anderson v. State, 704 P.2d 499, 501 (Okl.Cr.1985). Absent evidence on the record that the officer was informed not to repeat his testimony about the discovery of the marijuana it seems manifestly repugnant to suddenly classify his truthful testimony as an evi-dentiary harpoon. An experienced police officer cannot be transformed into a legal scholar, making sua sponte decisions about which evidence his testimony should include, simply because he has testified in hundreds of trials. Moreover, to allege that the officer’s testimony about the marijuana was in response to “the question, ‘Okay’ ” is frivolous. (Appellant’s brief 12).