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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Good case (and reminder) for us prosecutors: Be vigilant. Always make the defense lay the proper foundation (many times they won’t be able
to)!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">EVIDENCE—C</span></b><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">HARACTER
</span></b><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">E</span></b><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">VIDENCE
</span></b><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">(OEC 608(1)): Trial court properly excluded a<span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">defense character witness’s opinion about the victim’s character for truthfulness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><i><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">State v. Paniagua</span></i></b><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">, 268 Or
App 284, __ P3d __ (December 31, 2014) (Washington)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">(AAG Erin Galli). Based on a domestic-violence incident, defendant was charged with<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">misdemeanor assault and harassment. At trial, he and the victim offered different versions of the<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">incident. Defendant then offered testimony from a witness, Shaw, about her opinion of the<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">victim’s character for truthfulness. Shaw testified that she met the victim four years ago, she had<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">five or six brief contacts with the victim within the previous year, and she and the victim “just<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">kind of saw” each other because they were in the same social circles. On one occasion, Shaw<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">went to the victim’s house and “hung out.” The prosecutor objected to the “foundation” before<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">Shaw offered her opinion, and the trial court (Judge Gayle Nachtigal) ruled that Shaw’s contacts<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">with the victim were not sufficient to establish the foundation necessary to admit her opinion of<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">the victim’s truthfulness under OEC 608(1). Defendant made an offer of proof in which Shaw<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">testified that the victim had lied to Shaw and to people Shaw knew. Defendant was found guilty.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">Held</span></i><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">: Affirmed (Nakamoto, J.). The
trial court properly excluded Shaw’s testimony.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">[1] To offer a witness’s opinion of an individual’s character for truthfulness under OEC 608(1),<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">the proponent must establish that the witness has had “sufficient personal contact with the<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">individual to have formed a personal opinion,” and the contact must be “sufficiently recent so<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">that there will be a current basis for the testimony.” Thus, the admissibility of the evidence<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">depends on whether, in the court’s discretion, “the contacts on which the opinion is based are<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">frequent enough and recent enough to have probative value.” [2] Here, the trial court could<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">conclude that “Shaw’s own brief, recent contacts with [the victim]—the only permissible basis<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">for Shaw’s opinion testimony—were insufficient to permit her to testify about her opinion as to<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">[the victim’s] character for truthfulness.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:blue">http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/docs/A152638.pdf</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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