Is Proof of Threat by Defendant Required Before Court May Grant Motion to Call Recanting Victim as 'Court's Witness?'

In Domestic Violence Case Where Recanting Victim is Only Witness to Crime

8th District Court of Appeals (Cuyahoga County)

ISSUE: A provision of Ohio's Rules of Evidence, Evid.R. 614(A), authorizes the state's trial courts, on their own initiative or on the motion of a party, to call a person to testify as a "court's witness" in a proceeding. Such a witness is called to testify and initially questioned by the court, rather than by either of the opposing parties in the case, and both sides then have the ability to cross-examine the witness and to introduce evidence calling into question the truthfulness or accuracy of the witness' testimony - for example, by comparing the content of the witness' statements in court to contrary statements the witness made about the same events at an earlier time. This case questions whether a trial court erred in refusing to call a domestic violence victim as a "court's witness" after she recanted her earlier statements to police, leaving the state with no alternative way to prove the charges against her accused abuser.