Court Opinion

ID: 9682836
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:18:20.703055+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:42.022415
License: Public Domain

*700FRANKS, Judge,
concurring.
I concur with Judge Todd’s analysis and conclusions. However, the manner in which this trial was conducted should be addressed. As Judge Todd’s opinion notes, the trial judge deplored counsel’s trial “tactics” which the judge concluded “greatly protracted the ease”.
A trial court is not without authority to diminish or avoid such occurrences.
A trial judge has broad discretion in the conduct of a trial. He has discretion to limit the number of expert witnesses on each side as to a particular issue, Conlee v. Taylor, 153 Tenn. 507, 285 S.W. 35 (1926); Powers v. McKenzie, 90 Tenn. 167, 16 S.W. 559 (1891), and “may and should limit the number of witnesses on collateral matters.” Conlee. Our Supreme Court has adopted Federal Rule of Evidence 403, which permits the trial court to exclude evidence upon considerations of “undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence.” Fed.R.Evid. 403; State v. Banks, 564 S.W.2d 947, 951 (Tenn.1978). Moreover, a trial judge has broad discretion in refusing the admission of evidence in rebuttal which should have been introduced as evidence in chief. See Hughes v. State, 126 Tenn. 40, 148 S.W. 543 (1912).
“Limiting the time for the examination of witnesses, limiting the number of witnesses to a given point, and stopping repetitions and irrelevant examinations, are matter necessarily confided to a trial judge, whose discretion in such matters will not be interfered with on appeal except in case of abuse.” 75 Am.Jur.2d, Trial, § 136, at 232.
The better practice is to establish these limitations in advance, which limitations of necessity must remain flexible throughout the trial. Id., § 139.
An article in the current issue of The Judges Journal1 states:
Court-ordered evaluations are one means of ensuring that all the parties participate. Court-ordered evaluations can also help to avoid multiple evaluations of the child by experts retained by each parent. Most mental health professionals skilled in sexual abuse assessments would concur with the following psychiatrist’s assessment:
I don’t want to be a hired gun for either parent, although I know that won’t stop people from finding hired guns. My policy was to take only court orders and only cases where both parties and their attorneys agreed. I prefer that all relevant parties be specified in the court order. Everyone might not actually participate, but at least you start out from a strong position.
As a general rule, experienced evaluators suggest that reports addressing the issue of sexual abuse which are based on single interviews with the parties should also be viewed with caution. One psychiatrist warns that:
Good procedures would mean multiple interviews with all relevant parties. Any evaluation with a single interview with a child that produces highly charged or sexually aggressive materials from a child is suspect. I know that a lot of ... people would be very upset by that [statement]. They feel you have to get out the [anatomical] dolls and get it in one session. I don’t know what you do about that attitude, but you can’t produce reliable results that way.
Clinicians stress that neither a sex abuse nor a custody evaluation should be exclusively focused on the issue of sexual abuse. The evaluator is not attempting to prove whether or not a specific abuse episode occurred. In order to assist the court best, clinicians should be considering all aspects of the family in order to ensure that they do not mistakenly assign symptoms caused by other problems to the alleged abuse. This *701point is especially noteworthy in cases where children and parents may be reacting to a separation, divorce or conflict over visitation and custody, or to other stresses such as spou'sal violence. Id., at 18 and 48.
A trial judge may and should enter a protective order in furtherance of the child’s best interest to avoid subjecting a child to repetitive evaluations and examinations relating to the issue of sexual misconduct, and consider a court ordered evaluation to avoid multiple evaluations by “hired guns”.
The foregoing suggestions are only some of the means at the disposal of the trial judge to avoid a repetition of the trial court’s experience in this case.
TODD, P.J., and LEWIS, J., concur.