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State v. Christian3/9/2004
een driving and wearing a seat belt, and each time the defendant responded in the affirmative.
On cross-examination, the defendant questioned Ruggiero about why she had marked the box labeled " confused" on the run sheet, and not the box labeled "oriented." She explained: "He was oriented to person, place, and time, which is what we go by. He knew where he was, he knew his name, and he knew what time it was. The reason why I checked confused was because he did not remember the accident, the actual impact." Ruggiero further explained that, in her assessment, "he was confused at time." On recross-examination, Ruggiero again acknowledged that the run sheet stated that the defendant had been "confused," and not " oriented," after the accident. Ford testified, on direct examination by the state, that the defendant "was confused at times," but that he was able to answer most of her questions. She asked the defendant, several times, if he had been driving at the time of the accident. Each time, he responded affirmatively. Ford testified that the defendant did not appear to be confused when he told her that he had been driving. On cross-examination, Ford acknowledged that she had marked the box labeled "confused" on the run sheet, and had not marked the box labeled "oriented." She also acknowledged that "there was some confusion," and that the defendant "was not totally oriented ...."
After the close of the state's case-in-chief, the defendant offered Ruggiero's and Ford's run sheets into evidence, as either prior inconsistent statements or under the business records exception to the hearsay rule. Specifically, the defendant argued that, because the run sheets "state that the defendant was confused and that he was not oriented" and "the testimony contradicted that," they were admissible under § 6-10 of the Connecticut Code of Evidence as prior inconsistent statements used to impeach the credibility of the witness. The defendant further argued that the run sheets were admissible for substantive purposes under State v. Whelan, 200 Conn. 743, 753, 513 A.2d 86, cert. denied, 479 U.S. 994, 107 S. Ct. 597, 93 L. Ed. 2d 598 (1986). Finally, the defendant argued that the run sheets were admissible as business records, because Ruggiero and Ford had reduced their prior statements into written reports on the date of the accident, as they had been obligated to do.
The trial court determined that the run sheets were inadmissible extrinsic evidence of a prior inconsistent statement. Specifically, the court determined that the statements on the run sheets were not inconsistent with the statements made at trial because Ruggiero and Ford had admitted making those statements on the run sheets. Therefore, the court concluded that the statements were inadmissible for both purposes of impeachment and as substantive evidence. The court did not make a determination concerning whether the run sheets were business records; during oral argument, however, in response to the defendant's assertion that the run sheets were admissible as "business record of ... prior statement ," the trial court stated that " f the witness admits to making the statement, extrinsic evidence of the statement is inadmissible."
A.
The defendant first claims that the trial court improperly precluded the run sheets as prior inconsistent statements for the purpose of impeaching witnesses and as substantive evidence. Specifically, the defendant contends that the prior statements included in the run sheets, stating that the defendant had been confused and not oriented, were inconsistent with the in-court testimony of both Ruggerio and Ford stating that the defendant had been coherent. The state contends, in respons
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