Court Opinion

ID: 9518600
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 00:57:04.561351+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:28:42.360974
License: Public Domain

BAKER, Judge,
concurring in result.
While I concur with the majority that the trial court should be affirmed and I agree with the holdings of the other issues, I concur only in result with the majority's holding in Issue II. I cannot agree that the trial court erred in admitting the laboratory technician's testimony and lab report instead of requiring the State to admit the TDX analyzer's computer tape as best evidence. I do not believe that the technician's testimony and lab report merely constitute secondary evidence. Neither do I believe that a computer tape should be required in similar cases.
As the majority noted, "[the] purpose of the best evidence rule is to secure reliable information as to the contents of a doe ument when those terms are disputed.... Jackson v. State (1980), 274 Ind. 297, 301, 411 N.E.2d 609, 612." (Citations omitted). (Emphasis added.) The requirement of the best evidence is not a goal in itself. Id. Put another way, the purpose of the best evidence rule "is to assure that the trier of the facts has submitted to it the evidence upon any issue that will best enable it to arrive at the truth." Pinkerton v. State (1972), 258 Ind. 610, 620, 283 N.E.2d 376, 382. Furthermore, the best evidence rule is applied with respect to documentary evidence, such as written instruments. Id.
- Because Glasscock did not raise the possibility of error in transcription of the results from the computer tape and because the computer tape was not a document, the best evidence rule did not come into play. I find the technician's testimony sufficient evidence to apprise the trier of fact of Glasscock's blood alcohol content. The lack of a computer tape to corroborate the technician's lab report and summary goes to the weight of the test results, not to the admissibility of the lab report and summary.