Court Opinion

ID: 9707854
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 02:23:19.487637+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:38.907791
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE REINHARD, specially concurring. While I concur in the majority opinion, I do not agree with those portions of the opinion which find error in the trial court’s rulings on two evidentiary matters. I disagree that the State’s cross-examination of defense witness Judith Kern was collateral to the issues involved. Kern directly contradicted the victim, who testified she was not aware of anyone else in the room besides the defendant and heard no other voices other than the defendant, until the door opened and she heard a nurse’s voice. On the other hand, Kern testified at trial some three years after the occurrence that she was in the defendant’s office during the entire time the complaining witness was there. Her testimony, elicited on cross, that she was always present with a patient from the time the patient was brought in to the time removed, was probative of the issues involved and subject to impeachment. Accordingly, I would not find error in allowing cross-examination of this witness on office practice and subsequent impeachment of her testimony by former patients. Given Kern’s long and present employment relationship with the defendant, the length of time that had transpired since the occurrence to the date of trial and the fact she was a key occurrence witness for the defendant, considerable latitude should be allowed in cross-examination to test her memory bias. See Her get National Bank v. Johnson (1974), 21 Ill. App. 3d 1024, 316 N.E.2d 191. However, as the majority correctly holds, this was a close case and it was prejudicial error for the State to call two rebuttal witnesses who testified to nurses not being present some 10 years prior to this occurrence and prior to Kern’s employment. Certainly this raised the innuendo of impropriety on past occasions which was improper and prejudicial. Also, I do not agree with the majority that certain F.D.A. reports offered by the defendant were wrongfully excluded. These were reports sent to the F.D.A. by doctors of adverse reactions to various drugs and kept as records by the F.D.A. Obviously, these reports would contain conclusions and opinions on cause and effect from a variety of circumstances upon which the accuracy of the report could not be tested by cross-examination. They were not official reports or records prepared by the F.D.A., nor were they in the nature of statistics or other similar data required by law to be kept by that agency. In my opinion, the public records exception to the hearsay rule allowing official records of a public agency into evidence is inapplicable under these facts. See Lombard Park District v. Chicago Title & Trust Co. (1969), 105 Ill. App. 2d 371, 245 N.E.2d 298; E. Cleary and M. Graham, Handbook on Illinois Evidence §803.12 (1979).