Cliburn v. State, 96-03744
| Decision Date | 24 April 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-03744,96-03744 |
| Citation | 710 So.2d 669 |
| Parties | 23 Fla. L. Weekly D1057 Anthony CLIBURN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Kevin Briggs, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and John M. Klawikofsky, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
A jury convicted Anthony Cliburn of burgling his former girlfriend's apartment and of violating a domestic violence injunction she had obtained against him. Cliburn challenges these convictions based on alleged evidentiary errors at his trial. We first note that Cliburn took the stand and admitted violating the domestic violence injunction. In the face of his testimony about this crime, the alleged errors were harmless. Accordingly, we affirm his conviction on that charge.
The evidence about the burglary charge was in conflict, and boiled down to a credibility contest between Cliburn and the victim. She testified that he broke into her apartment before she arrived home; he claimed that he waited outside her apartment until she returned home and invited him in. In this regard we hold that the circuit court erred when it limited testimony about the victim that could have cast doubt on her credibility and revealed a motive for her to testify untruthfully. We reverse the burglary conviction and remand for a new trial on that charge.
Before Cliburn's trial, the court granted the State's motion in limine to exclude evidence that the victim had met with Cliburn following his arrest and release on bond, and that she had previously filed a false kidnapping charge against another boyfriend. During cross-examination of the victim at trial, Cliburn's counsel proffered the excluded testimony. Under questioning outside the jury's presence, the victim admitted that in 1987 she told the Jacksonville police that her live-in companion had put a gun in her mouth. She later made a written statement confessing that what she had told the police was not true. As a result, she had been jailed for filing a false police report. The victim also conceded that she had met Cliburn several times after his release on bond, and had sexual relations with him. She denied telling Cliburn that she could not tell the truth in this case because of the problems she encountered after filing the false report in 1987.
The defense also proffered Cliburn's testimony on this subject. He stated that he met with the victim two times after he was released on bond. During the first encounter, she agreed to contact his attorney and resolve the pending charges. But at...
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State v. Long
...section 491.015. 4. Morgan v. State, 54 P.3d 332, 333 (Alaska App.2002); State v. Walton, 715 N.E.2d 824 (Ind.1999); Cliburn v. State, 710 So.2d 669, 670 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998) (prior false allegation of kidnapping admissible); Beck v. State, 1991 OK CR 126, 824 P.2d 385 (1991); Miller v. State......
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Eaglin v. State, SC06-760.
...to the decisions of the Second District Court of Appeal in Williams v. State, 386 So.2d 25 (Fla. 2d DCA 1980), and Cliburn v. State, 710 So.2d 669 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998). In both cases, the Second District held that the trial court erred in precluding the defense from cross-examining the main p......
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Kovaleski v. State
...to the determination of the cause is dicta). That dicta, however, is supported by two cases from the Second District, Cliburn v. State, 710 So.2d 669 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998) and Jaggers v. State, 536 So.2d 321 (Fla. 2d DCA Because there was no proffer that there had been a prior false accusation......
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Baker v. State, 1D01-9.
...impeachment with prior acts of misconduct that involve prior false accusations of a crime by the witness. See Cliburn v. State, 710 So.2d 669, 670 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998)(in burglary prosecution, when only witnesses were the victim and the defendant, who was a former boyfriend, it was reversible......
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The trial (conduct of trial, jury instructions, verdict)
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Evidence
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