Court Opinion

ID: 9571246
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:30:13.198279+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:30:13.504745
License: Public Domain

*542MR. JUSTICE ADAIR
dissenting:
As Ms first specification of error on tMs appeal, the defendant, Thomas Porter, assigned the admission in evidence of the testimony of the State’s concluding witness, Major Francis B. Mael, Commander of the 694th Radar Squadron, Lewistown Air Force Base, Lewistown, Montana, and the placing in evidence by him of what he called his “derogatory file,” and his testimony of his estimate of the character of Airman Thomas Porter, and of two alleged military court martial proceedings, all of which were and are most damaging if not deadly, and all of which were wholly inadmissible.
Major Mael was a surprise witness. His name had not been endorsed on the information on which Thomas Porter was tried, and in my opinion the trial court committed reversible error in the overruling and denial of the numerous objections made by defendant Porter’s counsel to such procedure and the admission of the contents of the Major’s “derogatory file,” and of his oral testimony relative to the alleged court martial proceedings.
In my opinion, the defendant, Thomas Porter, has been denied the fair trial to which he was entitled under the law and the judgment should be reversed and the cause returned to the District Court for a new trial.