📄 Sidebar: Randall Petee witness status — Wednesday, December 4, 1996
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C:\DEPT103\CIVIL\1996\DEC\4\SIDEBAR-RANDALL-PETEE-WITNESS-.DOC
TRIAL
▲ Day 25 of 57

Sidebar: Randall Petee witness status

Date: Wednesday, December 4, 1996 • Utterances: 8
Defense attorney Robert Baker objected to the plaintiff's use of private investigator Randall Petee as a witness, arguing he should have been designated as an expert since his testimony concerned timed driving experiments conducted the previous Sunday night. Judge Fujisaki disagreed that Petee qualified as an expert, found the matter de minimis, and overruled the objection.
1 (The following proceedings were held at the bench, with the reporter.)
2 MR. BAKER:

Your Honor, apparently Mr. Petee, who is a private investigator, made certain round trips last Sunday night to and from 875 Bundy, the alley, to various routes.

We were just given this piece of paper in the last 30 minutes and -- and so he is not a percipient witness, because he didn't see anything.

He's got to be an expert witness for driving his car. He was not designated as an expert. And this is after the joint pretrial statement. And he's here to testify as to how much time it took on various routes. And I object to it.

You can't have pretrial discovery frozen and have their guy go out Sunday night and do this particular experiment, and come in here and present it to the jury. I think that's inappropriate under the pretrial order and orders of this Court and the -- and the expert designation.

3 MR. GELBLUM:

Expert witness? He drove his client. How long it took. There's no expertise. It's a five-minute witness.

KEY QUOTE
4 THE COURT:

Number one, I don't consider this an expert.

Number two the streets are still there and you certainly have ample opportunities to run your own --

5 MR. BAKER:

That isn't the purpose of the discovery statute, number one.

Number two, things have changed, like he goes to barricade 360 North Rockingham. That barricade wasn't there on June 24th.

6 MR. GELBLUM:

He goes and comes around. That's cross.

7 MR. BAKER:

That isn't cross; that's -- this is ambush. That's what discovery is for.

8 THE COURT:

This is -- I frankly say, this is very de minimus.

Overruled.

KEY QUOTE

Temperature

tense

Key Quotes (3)

Robert Baker
You can't have pretrial discovery frozen and have their guy go out Sunday night and do this particular experiment, and come in here and present it to the jury.
Core of Baker's objection — arguing this was a discovery violation and ambush tactic
Peter Gelblum
Expert witness? He drove his client. How long it took. There's no expertise. It's a five-minute witness.
Plaintiff's rebuttal minimizing the evidentiary significance of the testimony
Hiroshi Fujisaki
This is -- I frankly say, this is very de minimus. Overruled.
Judge dismisses Baker's concern as trivial and rules against him

Evidence (2)

Informal
Document summarizing Petee's timed driving routes from 875 Bundy to various locations, conducted the Sunday before testimony
disclosed to defense 30 minutes before proceedings
Informal
Barricade at 360 North Rockingham — not present on June 24th
referenced by Baker to argue conditions had changed

Notable Exchanges (2)

Robert BakerPeter Gelblum
Baker calls the late disclosure 'ambush'; Gelblum says the route conditions are fair game for cross-examination
heated
Robert BakerHiroshi Fujisaki
Baker argues changed road conditions (new barricade) undermine the experiment's relevance; Fujisaki brushes it off as de minimis
dismissive

Objections

1 objections (0 sustained, 1 overruled)
Proceeding 8482 • 8 utterances
Civil Trial
Department 103
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📂 DEC 4, 1996 📄 Sidebar: Randall Petee witness
DEC 4, 1996 KRT DvH TD