Court Opinion

ID: 9666756
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:26:55.414697+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:32.548726
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, dissenting. With due respect to the majority’s analysis of the record, I strenuously disagree it supports reversal of this case. First, the trial court did not prohibit appellant’s proper use of the three summaries of interviews obtained by Mary Parker from the children.1 Second, Parker’s handwritten summaries do not qualify as statements which the appellant could use for the unlimited cross-examination of the three children. I will first consider appellant’s claim that he was denied the proper use of Parker’s summaries. The majority recites a remark made by the trial judge when ruling on appellant’s request for Parker’s summary interviews. At a rather lengthy hearing, the trial judge is quoted correctly as having said, “The main thing I want to put across is that you, you can’t use Court’s 1,2 or 3 (the summaries) for impeachment purposes.” The judge — if you put this remark in context with his other comments— was exactly right in his ruling. The judge perused Parker’s interview of each child and said the handwritten summaries were narratives of opinions, conclusions and consolidations of thoughts that Parker put together involving the three children. Parker testified, “I didn’t take actual statements”; nor did she tape the interviews. None of the interview summaries were signed or approved by the children.2 In other words, those summaries simply do not qualify as statements under Ark. Stat. Ann. § 43-2011.3(b) and (e)(1) (Repl. 1977). That being so, appellant clearly was limited in his use of those actual summaries when cross-examining the children. Even so, the judge told appellant’s counsel that he could ask about matters contained in the interviews. Of course, appellant would have been bound by the childrens’ answers, and appellant’s next course of action would be his examination of Parker, who was the actual authoress of those summaries. In retrospect, it is easy to surmise, perhaps, that appellant should have been more exacting in stating how he intended to use the Parker summaries, and the judge could have been more precise in his ruling. Nonetheless, it is clear to me what the trial judge ruled in the instant case when discussing the appellant’s use of the three summaries; it was not to preclude appellant’s examination of the children — only the manner in which appellant went about it. Again, the only way to make this point clear is to set out the judge’s entire ruling. Because of its length, I will take the privilege of highlighting those parts I believe support the judge’s intention to allow appellant broad cross-examination of the children: The Court finds that these statements do not constitute statements within the meaning of [11.3] . . . And while they contain information that summarize faults given by this witness, and the other two prospective witnesses, that they’re more in the nature of a work product of the Prosecuting Attorney’s office. They do, in my opinion, contain exculpatory information. And while, to the view of some, might contain information on which a witness could be cross examined, probably the only witness who could be cross examined is the person that wrote it. In other words, / don’t see how, Daemon, Adrian, or Kesia could be asked about statements that they made to another person about, did they say something that was different. That is, for the purpose of impeachment, to show a prior inconsistent statement, that’d be. This — the material’s simply not phrased, or put so as to adopt that kind of use of this. The Court also finds that the, the statements contain quite a bit more information than Kesia Franklin has testified on her direct examination. But the failure of the Prosecuting Attorney to inquire into those matters, which are not exculpatory by any means, doesn’t make her statement any more available to the Defense for the purpose of impeachment, or any other use. The attorneys for the defendants have had the opportunity to view the statements. They object strongly to each and every ruling of the Court. They are admonished that, during their cross examination of any of these witnesses, that is, Kesia, Adrian, and Daemon, they are prohibited from referring to specific references. However, they are permitted to inquire if they had made any statements to any kind of people. If, if the witness was asked about different kind of things that they would ordinarily be entitled to inquire about during cross examination. I simply, because of the method that I chose to apprise the defendants of that which the State felt like that it couldn’t — wouldn’t be required to provide, to give them a leg up, so to speak, against any other witnesses. In other words, while you may have a pretty good frame of mind about what’s contained in these statements, I don’t think that you have gained such an appreciation of exact terminology that you could pose questions, and, and that kind of thing. But I don’t want to limit you in any way to the things that I think the testimony has already alluded to, and that common sense would permit. And that is, did you make a statement to anyone? Have you told anybody? This, that, and the other. Have you alleged that there was other abuse involved, especially whatnot? Now, that kind of thing, I think, would be permissible. And the mere fact that something that you might inquire about may have been in this statement, you’re not going to be prohibited from inquiring about that simply because it’s duplicated. The main thing I want to put across is that you, you can’t use Court’s 1, 2 or 3 for impeachment purposes. But just because something appears in one of those statements doesn’t mean you can’t ask about it. And now, maybe the next time I do something like this, I’ll go about it a little differently. Because, it seems like, maybe I’m creating some problems for you. But I want you to be as aggressive as you feel like that you should be. I don’t want to limit your cross examination in any way. And I think that you probably maybe understand the spirit more than the words that I speak. And, and I would say this, that if you fault in any way, I would must prefer that you fault by asking a question that the State may object to as inappropriate. And if you do, the State will object, and I’ll rule upon it. So you are not pinned in in any way from the latitude that you can go into, and the scope of cross examination. Simply, you’re not going to be able to, to use this to that, to that extent. Now, the, the jury has overheard us say something about a statement being provided to you. And then we came back here. I think we just ought to leave the matter where it is. That I don’t need to say anything one way or the other about what was done in that regard. I find that the, the question, or the request by the Defense was quite appropriate. That it should have been requested under the statute. And that there’s nothing sinister, inappropriate, or whatnot by anyone. As can be seen from its ruling, the court suggested that the appellant cross-examine the children regarding Parker’s summaries and allow the state to object when it deemed the appellant’s questioning inappropriate. The court said it would then rule on the state’s objection. Appellant made no attempt to follow the court’s direction, and, instead, merely inquired of the children whether they had told Parker the truth, to which they said yes. In sum, Parker’s summaries did not qualify as statements under Ark. Stat. Ann. § 43-2011.3(b) and (e)(1) and (2) (Repl. 1977), and appellant was not entitled to the same use of those summaries as he would have had if they had been statements under that statute. Neither can I agree, from my view of the trial judge’s ruling, that the court prohibited appellant’s use of Parker’s summaries so as to violate appellant’s rights under the confrontation clause of the United States or Arkansas Constitution. The case fails to rise to one of constitutional magnitude. The trial court merely found that the summaries were not statements, which I believe is justified by the reading of any one of Parker’s three summaries. The trial court allowed appellant to cross-examine the children, regarding the Parker summaries, but limited his actual use of those summaries, viz., not allowing him their use when examining the children to show prior inconsistent statements made by them. In my view, that was a matter appellant was required to pursue with Parker, after having made inquiry of the subject matter with the children. I cannot say the trial court abused its discretion in making its ruling, and I certainly cannot agree appellant’s constitutional rights were violated by such ruling. I would affirm. [[Image here]] [[Image here]]   Parker was the case coordinator of the state’s Victim/Witness Assistance Unit.    For the reader to better understand the nature of the summaries, I attach to this dissenting opinion the shortest one which Parker made after her interview of Adrian. Although longer, the other two are the same style.