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Getchell v. Lodge2/28/2003
e weight by a jury. In any particular case this may be a real danger. The officer may be focusing on whether the evidence will support a quasi-criminal traffic citation that must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, rather than whether there is civil negligence that need only be proven by a preponderance of the evidence. Nonetheless, this possibility may be ignored by a jury, and because of the neutrality and prestige of an investigating officer, the officer's testimony may be given decisive weight. There is case law in other jurisdictions holding that a police officer's decision whether to issue a traffic citation is inadmissible on the question of negligence. These authorities are based in part on the rationale that such testimony amounts to an opinion on an ultimate issue that is for the trier of fact to decide, an exclusionary rationale that our rules reject, and in part on the undue weight concerns. The answer we have accepted in response to these legitimate concerns is not a rule of blanket exclusion. Instead, vigorous advocacy including cross-examination is expected to serve as a safeguard against undue weight being given to police testimony. A second safeguard is the discretionary power of the trial court under Rule 403 to exclude testimony when, on balance, its probative force is outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. In the present case the record does not suffice to persuade us that the trial court abused its discretion in striking the balance mandated by Evidence Rule 403 in favor of the admission of Trooper Leichliter's implied opinion testimony.
V. CONCLUSION
Because we find that there was evidence from which reasonable jurors could have differed in their judgment of the facts as to whether Lodge acted negligently, we AFFIRM the trial court's denial of Getchell's motions for JNOV and new trial. Because the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting Trooper Leichliter's testimony, we AFFIRM the decision to admit the testimony.
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