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Evans v. State12/14/2001
A Fulton County jury found David Matthew Evans guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol - less safe driver; failure to maintain a lane; reckless driving; failure to use a turn signal; and improper lane change. He appeals, contending that the trial court erred in admitting the arresting officer's police report into evidence, and that the trial court erred in refusing to permit his expert witness to extrapolate his blood alcohol content by applying the "Widmark formula" to the amount of alcohol Evans consumed. Upon review of the errors as enumerated, we affirm.
1. Evans claims "the trial court committed reversible error in admitting over defense objection officer Sears's police report when the defense had not made charges against the officer of improper influence, motive, or recent fabrication, the prosecution offered the police report solely to corroborate or bolster the officer's testimony, and the police report was not truly consistent with the officer's testimony." We find no error in the admission of the police report.
Arresting officer C. Sears was cross-examined extensively about the contents of her police report. Such examination began with the establishment of the necessity for accuracy in police reports:
And so, you know, in a - in a criminal case, DUI case, facts that - would you agree that facts that would be important would be facts that you observed that indicated to you that a person was under the influence of alcohol? . . . And you would put those facts in your report, right? . . . To the best of your ability. . . . Okay. But you're trained to put the important facts in. . . . I notice your report was very neat. It was typed up, so you do the best you can when you write your reports, right?
From this point on, Evans' defense attorney repeatedly questioned Sears about the validity of the contents of her report in relation to her trial testimony:
Q: And I believe your report indicates that you stopped Mr. Evans at 10:17 p. m.; is that correct? . . . Would you like to look at your report and refresh your memory if you can't recall?
Q: Now, you have testified that he told you that he was drinking at the Taco Cabana. A. He said we just came from the Taco Cabana and I've had a few, so I inferred from that that he'd been drinking at the Taco Cabana. Q. o you made an assumption - You made an assumption about what he meant, and you put in your police report [`]I believe that I asked him if he had been drinking, and he stated that he had just left Taco Cabana where he had only a few.[`] . . . That's what you put in your report. . . . Okay. So in your report, you write that he told you he'd been drinking at the Taco Cabana, correct? . . . Take a look at your report, eight or nine lines down. I asked him if he'd been drinking. Why don't you just read to the jury what you wrote in your report? . . . You didn't infer. You wrote that he told you that he had had a few at Taco Cabana. Do you agree with that? Or do you agree that's what you put?
Q: And there's nothing in your report that indicates any confusion on his part regarding that instruction and his ability to execute that maneuver, correct?
Q: So up to now he has been cooperative with you, but at this point you say [in your report] that he - he was refusing to cooperate; is that what you're saying? A. If that's what I wrote in my report, then yeah. It looked like he was refusing to cooperate. Q. Now, when you say if you wrote that in your report, does that mean that you don't remember, but if you said it in your report, then that must be the way it was, or what are you saying?
Q: I believe in your report you said you released the
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