Being paraphrased by officer

[holliscary]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

To what extent is an officer allowed to paraphrase (change the words) in his/her reports and when testifying in court?

Would this apply differently to statements a person made when under arrest or before they were arrested?

Does it apply differently to an accused person and a witness?

Thanks in advance

 

[FlyingRon]

They aren't required to be stenographers. They testify as to the gist of the conversation. Of course you can challenge the testimony.

I've seen court cases go like this:

After I had requested his license and registration, I asked if he had been drinking and he said he had a lot to drink.

on crossexamination the lawyer for the defense asked specifically for the words used ("a lot") and if he had inquired as to how much the defendant meant by "a lot" precisely.

This case by the way, is one of the few where an obviously guilty guy managed to dodge a major bullet. The FST's and other objective signs of intoxication were successfully challenged and there was some irregularity in the certification of the intoxillizer which invalidated the 0.11 blown on that test.