Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

In a criminal trial, can the defense use police reports to counter testimony made in court by the officer who wrote the report?


Asked on 3/08/10, 9:20 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Neil O'Brien Eaton County Special Assistant Prosecuting Attorney

To an extent, yes. But issues of inadmissible hearsay, relevance, etc. come into play.

If the officer testifies to his/her own observations differently than the officer reported the same observations (example: direction of travel of cars), then the defense can use the officer/witness' prior inconsistent statement from the report to impeach the officer's credibility.

But, police reports often include information that other people tell the officer about (hearsay),in addition to what the officer reports he/she personally saw. If the officer testifies to "X & Y" in court, it is unlikely that the judge will allow the defense to bring out that the officer reported that another witness had saw/heard/reported fact "Z" to the officer (hearsay).

The officer's actual police report paperwork is not going to be admitted into evidence, in part because it contains too much third-hand information (hearsay).

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Answered on 3/15/10, 5:39 am


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