Prosecutor emphasizes police officers' view of defendant's credibility - reversed

In her boyfriend's house, the defendant told police that the meth they found was hers. Later she said it was her boyfriend's, and she had just been covering for him. At trial, the prosecutor elicited testimony from an officer about whether he believed the defendant when she said the drugs were hers. The defense objected, but the prosecutor came back to this several times, including in closing argument. Division 2 reversed and remanded for a new trial. State v. Jungers, 2005 Wash. App. LEXIS 279 (Wash. App. Feb. 15, 2005) (published in part -- and the prosecutorial misconduct part is what's published),Get a Document - by Citation - 2005 Wash. App. LEXIS 279

Students and supervising attorneys take note:

n3 A Rule 9 intern, supervised by a deputy prosecutor, appeared on behalf of the State for the suppression motions and trial. The record does not reflect what actions, if any, the supervising attorney took after the trial court had stricken the opinion and after the Rule 9 intern asked the officer his opinion of Jungers' credibility.

Categories: closing-arguments, prosecutorial-misconduct, credibility, Rule-9, cases