People v. Saldana, 81CA0769
Citation | 670 P.2d 14 |
Decision Date | 12 May 1983 |
Docket Number | No. 81CA0769,81CA0769 |
Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lloyd SALDANA, Defendant-Appellant. . II |
Court | Colorado Court of Appeals |
J.D. MacFarlane, Atty. Gen., Charles Howe, Deputy Atty. Gen., Joel Cantrick, Sol. Gen., Mary G. Allen, Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for plaintiff-appellee.
Hartley, Obernesser & Olson, Dennis W. Hartley, Colorado Springs, for defendant-appellant.
Convicted of the illegal sale of cocaine, defendant, Lloyd Saldana, appeals two evidentiary rulings made during his trial. We affirm.
The People called Timothy James, a special agent for the sheriff's department, as their sole witness to the alleged crime. During the cross-examination of James, Saldana's counsel, in an attempt to attack James' credibility, sought to elicit testimony regarding James' past use of marijuana. The People's objection was sustained. No testimony as to personal drug use had been elicited from James on direct examination.
Defendant's offer of proof was to the effect that James had testified at other trials that he did not smoke marijuana, but that other witnesses would testify that they had seen him do so. Thereafter, the People raised a similar objection when Saldana's counsel asked another of People's witnesses to cite examples of James' conduct to illustrate his reputation in the community for truthfulness. This objection was also sustained.
Saldana challenges these two rulings on the ground that the testimony which would have been elicited from either James or the other witness relative to specific instances of conduct would have been probative of truthfulness or untruthfulness, and, therefore, the trial court abused its discretion in barring the testimony.
Prior to the adoption of the Colorado Rules of Evidence, this state adhered to the general rule that evidence of misdeeds was inadmissible for the purpose of attacking a witness' character in regard to his truthfulness. People v. Taylor, 190 Colo. 210, 545 P.2d 703 (1976); People v. Roberts, 37 Colo.App. 490, 553 P.2d 93 (1976); see Hawkins v. People, 161 Colo. 556, 423 P.2d 581 (1967). Saldana argues that CRE 608(b) alters this rule. We disagree.
The rule states as follows:
While...
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People v. Pratt, 86SA401
...the conduct inquired into nevertheless must be probative of the truthfulness or untruthfulness of the witness. See People v. Saldana, 670 P.2d 14, 15 (Colo.App.1983) (approving trial court's ruling preventing cross-examination of the prosecution's investigator as to his past use of marijuan......
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