Court Opinion

ID: 9630399
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:10:25.812752+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:38:59.834707
License: Public Domain

GOLDEN, Justice,
specially concurring, in which CARDINE, Chief Justice, joins.
I concur in the result in this case, but disagree with the analysis in Part III, The Van Alyne Notes. I believe that Deputy Van Alyne’s notes were properly excluded as evidence only because there is a foundation problem with the trustworthiness of the statement offered, and not because the investigative notes of a cooperating law enforcement officer are inadmissible hearsay within hearsay. Treating the investigative notes of all participating officers other than the one who ultimately files the report as hearsay outside an exception unnecessarily excludes evidence “with special trustworthiness * * * by virtue of the de-clarant’s official duty and the probability that the duty has been accurately performed.” Combined Insurance Company of America v. Sinclair, 584 P.2d 1034, 1046 (Wyo.1978). Investigative notes contributed by a cooperating officer are more accurately characterized as a public report within a public report. In this light they are competent evidence under W.R.E. 805, since both the notes and the report they are incorporated into conform to the W.R.E. 803(8)(C) exception.
Investigative notes, though the product of an outsider, should generally be admissible so long as the foundation requirement of trustworthiness is met. Usually an adequate foundation may be laid with a showing that the notes were prepared by a trained law enforcement officer in the performance of his duties. In this case, however, a trustworthiness problem arises from the structure and content of Deputy Van Alyne’s notes.
Deputy Van Alyne provided Patrolman Kotzbacher with a diagram of the accident scene and five pages of notes. The first page lists names, addresses and telephone numbers of two witnesses. The remaining four pages record measurements made by Deputy Van Alyne. The first of these measurements, on the page immediately following the one listing witnesses, states:
Initial point of contact with gravel causing accident: 192'10" No. of So. curbline
west bound on ramp 1-80 2'9" E. of W. curbline 1-80
Because this statement about causation appears just after the witness identification and there are no other comments on causation, it is not possible to establish with any certainty whether the statement is a factual finding by Deputy Van Alyne, or the statement of one of the witnesses he contacted.
Although a factual finding resting in part upon the statements of outsiders is properly admissible under W.R.E. 803(8)(C), an outsider’s statement found in a public report is hearsay unless it is itself within an exception and may not be offered for its truth. 4 D. Louisell & C. Mueller, Federal Evidence § 455 at 739 (1977). Because the statement in Deputy Van Alyne’s notes may itself be that of an outsider, one of the witnesses, it fails to meet the W.R.E. *209803(8)(C) foundation requirement of sufficient trustworthiness that is otherwise normally present in the investigative notes of a law enforcement officer.
It is neither desirable, nor necessary to a sound result, to sweep so much competent evidence aside. Notes of a cooperating officer may address aspects of an investigation not observed or recorded by the reporting officer that will be helpful to the trier of fact. If there is no reason to question their trustworthiness, they should be admissible under the W.R.E. 805 hearsay exception as a public report within a public report. In this case the disputed statement of causation in Deputy Van Alyne’s report was properly excluded as lacking in trustworthiness.