📄 Motion: 402 opening — Thursday, November 7, 1996
Address:
C:\DEPT103\CIVIL\1996\NOV\7\MOTION-402-OPENING.DOC
TRIAL
▲ Day 11 of 57

Motion: 402 opening

Date: Thursday, November 7, 1996 • Utterances: 7
The plaintiff opened a 402 admissibility hearing for Dr. Park Dietz's expert testimony. Gelblum argued that the Kelly-Frye standard does not apply because the testimony is not novel to psychology and cannot be mistaken for scientific infallibility, citing People v. Stoll. The defense declined to make an opening statement.
1 (REGINA D. CHAVEZ, OFFICIAL REPORTER)
2 (The following proceedings were held in open court, outside the presence of the jury.)
3 THE COURT:

This is a 402 motion.

Plaintiff, go ahead.

4 MR. GELBLUM:

Your Honor, thank you.

We'd like to start with the issue of the admissibility of the testimony of Dr. Park Dietz.

And before I call Dr. Dietz to the stand, we did submit a brief this morning on this issue of the admissibility, and particularly on the applicability of the Kelly Frye testimony.

We think that under the People v. Stoll case, which is a California Supreme Court case, very recent chronologically, the Kelly Frye test is not even applicable to this testimony because -- for two reasons:

It's not new to psychology, as you will hear from Dr. Dietz;

And secondly, it is not even conceivable for this testimony to be considered in the words of Stoll, misleading of a scientific infallibility. It will be clear that it's Dr. Dietz' testimony, his personal opinion based on his expertise, there's no way the jury can say, oh, that must be the answer; we'll have to go with that under Stoll. That means Kelly Frye doesn't apply.

We would like to proceed with the testimony subject to your ruling.

5 THE COURT:

Do you want to make an opening statement, too?

6 MR. LEONARD:

No.

7 THE COURT:

Okay.

Temperature

procedural

Key Quotes (1)

Peter Gelblum
It is not even conceivable for this testimony to be considered in the words of Stoll, misleading of a scientific infallibility. It will be clear that it's Dr. Dietz' testimony, his personal opinion based on his expertise, there's no way the jury can say, oh, that must be the answer.
Core argument for why Kelly-Frye doesn't apply — framing Dietz's opinion testimony as personal expertise rather than novel scientific methodology.

Notable Exchanges (1)

Hiroshi FujisakiDan Leonard
Judge asked defense if they wanted to make an opening statement; Leonard declined with a single word.
strategic

Objections

None recorded
Proceeding 8194 • 7 utterances
Civil Trial
Department 103
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📂 NOV 7, 1996 📄 Motion: 402 opening
NOV 7, 1996 KRT DvH TD