Reference no: EM133838931

Question

You are the prosecutor assigned to this case. You have the file with all of the evidence processed from the scene, including the detectives' investigative reports. There were some gaps in one of the detective's reports so you asked him if he took notes. Fortunately, he took very detailed field notes. You review them and find some critical items that you want to use at trial that were not in the report. Unfortunately, the detective wrote some personal and inappropriate commentary about people and items at the scene. Some of it could be construed by a jury to be biased or prejudicial. You have to make a decision about the notes. You use the notes because they could be critical in getting a conviction. You plan to question the detective on the witness stand and have him refer to his notes and hope the defense attorney does not scrutinize them. It's a risk; but you think it is worth it. You decide not to use the notes. It is not worth the risk of having the defense attorney access the notes and use the inappropriate portion of the notes to discredit all of the detective's testimony.