LEJUNE NEISON CHRISTIE
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA
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In a domestic violence offense case, the majority affirmed the conviction while Justice Warner dissented, arguing that multiple evidentiary errors—including admission of a 911 call as an excited utterance, hearsay testimony about other witnesses, and improper bolstering of the investigating officer—cumulatively violated the defendant's rights and warranted a new trial.
The majority affirmed the conviction, implicitly finding the evidentiary errors harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Justice Warner would have reversed and remanded for a new trial based on the cumulative effect of the errors.
[1] Testimony by a police officer that her interviews of non-testifying witnesses were consistent with a victim's testimony constitutes inadmissible inferential hearsay that…
[2] A police officer may not be permitted on redirect examination to testify that she would not proceed with an arrest or submit a probable cause affidavit unless she believe…
Previewing 2 of 2 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“when a police officer, who is generally regarded by the jury as disinterested and objective and therefore highly credible, is the corroborating witness, the danger of improperly influencing the jury becomes particularly grave.”
The dissent cited this principle regarding improper bolstering of officer testimony.
The case involved a domestic violence offense trial where the State introduced a 911 call from the alleged victim, testimony from an investigating off…
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PER CURIAM. Affirmed. CIKLIN and KLINGENSMITH, JJ., concur. WARNER, J., dissents with opinion. WARNER, J., dissenting.
I dissent. In the trial of this domestic violence offense, a litany of evidentiary rulings were erroneous. The court allowed a 911 call into evidence, when it did not constitute an excited utterance because the State failed to show that the victim who made the call did not engage in reflective thought. See State v. Jano, 524 So. 2d 660, 661–62 (Fla. 1988). The court erred in allowing an officer to testify that her interviews of other witnesses who did not testify were consistent with the victim’s testimony, thus providing inferential hearsay, defeating appellant’s Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against him. See Postell v. State, 398 So. 2d 851, 854 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981). In addition, the court allowed the investigating officer to bolster her testimony on redirect. The officer stated that if she thought she had been given false statements, she would not have submitted the case to the State Attorney’s Office. Further, she testified that in her twenty-five years of policing, she would not move forward with an arrest unless she felt it was warranted. Her “integrity [wa]s entirely too high” to put her name on a probable cause affidavit unless she thought her investigation warranted it. These statements amount to improper bolstering and commenting on the guilt of the defendant. See, e.g., Martinez v. State, 761 So. 2d 1074, 1080 (Fla. 2000) (“[w]hen a police officer, who is generally regarded by the jury as disinterested and objective and therefore highly credible, is the corroborating witness, the danger of improperly influencing the jury becomes particularly grave.” (quoting Rodriguez v. State, 609 So. 2d 493, 500 (Fla. 1992))). The door was not opened on cross-examination by the defense probing the extent of the officer’s investigation of the case. I cannot find that the cumulative effect of these rulings was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, a new trial is warranted.
* * * Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Martinez v. State, 761 So. 2d 1074 (Fla. 2000)
- Postell v. State, 398 So. 2d 851 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981)
- Rodriguez v. State, 609 So. 2d 493 (Fla. 1992)
- State v. Bret Edmund Jano, 524 So. 2d 660 (Fla. 1988)