State v. Benthall

This criminal appeal involves application of New Jersey Evidence Rule 607, wherein the circumstances under which a party may neutralize surprising testimony from a witness are set forth. Because we conclude that the State was not surprised by the testimony of an uncooperative witness in this matter, the State should not have been permitted to neutralize that witness’s testimony or to use the neutralized testimony for substantive purposes in securing defendant’s conviction. We therefore reverse.

I

A jury convicted defendant, Curtis Benthall, as an accomplice to first-degree robbery, contrary to…