Hostile Witness

• Hostile Witness

A witness at a trial who is so adverse to the party that called him or her that he or she can be cross-examined as though called ...

• West's Encyclopedia of American Law
• Fri–Jam

• State v. Griesmar, (Ohio 2010)

CRIMINAL – Burglary; Domestic Violence; Escape; continuance; ineffective assistance of counsel; manifest weight of the evidence; motion to suppress; hostile witness.

• Ohio Supreme Court

• Judge: No Early Hamm Testimony ; Second Motion to Treat Her As Hostile Witness Also Denied

CLINTON -- Amanda Hamm's account of how her three children drowned and how hard prosecutors can push her for that information will have to wait until her former boyfriend's murder trial. Hamm, 29, and Maurice LaGrone Jr., 30, each face nine counts of first-degree murder in the September 2003 deaths of Christopher Hamm, 6, Austin Brown, 3, and Kyleigh Hamm, 23 months. The children drowned when Hamm's car sank into Clinton Lake, but Hamm and LaGrone, who were present, say it was an accident.

• The Pantagraph Bloomington, IL
• October 20, 2005

• State v. Fisher, (Ohio 2004)

Evid.R. 607, hostile witness; ineffective assistance of counsel, failure to request limiting instruction; post-release control, remand.

• Ohio Supreme Court

• A Game They'll Never Forget

You want to do what? Rick Berne had to ask. He has spent much of his career in courtrooms asking questions in front of judges and juries as a prosecutor or defender. Now, instead of confronting a hostile witness, Berne was listening to a long-ago Harvard classmate who had come some distance to Berne's Falmouth home.

• Portland Press Herald
• March 31, 2009

• State v. Fleming, (Ohio 2003)

Expert testimony; hearsay; hostile witness.

• Ohio Supreme Court

• Commentary: Cross-Examination Is Good Theater ... But Direct Wins Trials

(This article was originally published in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, another Dolan Media publication). In the lore of trial work, particularly Hollywood's version, the most dramatic moment is the cross-examination of a hostile witness. The jury, the gallery and, of course, the TV audience is mesmerized and entertained.

• Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press
• March 29, 2006

• Informant Testifies in Terror Fund Trial; Man Who Set Himself On Fire in Front of the White House Is Called As a Hostile Witness

NEW YORK (AP) - An FBI informant took the stand for the defense Thursday, saying he had sought $5 million for leading prosecutors to a Yemeni sheik he says gave Osama bin Laden money, arms and fighters. I deserve that," Mohamed Alanssi said through an Arabic-English interpreter. "After I chase the terrorist and I bring him here to America, I deserve even $10 million.

• Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque)
• February 18, 2005

• State v. Brown, (Ohio 2006)

Defense of marriage amendment to Ohio Constitution does not apply to domestic violence statute/manifest weight - hostile witness.

• Ohio Supreme Court

• U.S. Helicopter Crashes in Iraq, Killing Two ; Witness Reports Indicate Hostile Fire, but Military Says Cause Is Not Known

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. military helicopter crashed in the Euphrates River on Wednesday, killing its two pilots. The craft was burning as it went down after an explosion, witnesses said, but the military said the cause of the crash was not known. The U.S. military has lost 15 helicopters since the occupation began in May - mostly to hostile fire. Sixty-two Americans have died in the crashes.

• The Record, Bergen County, NJ
• February 26, 2004