Can a separate objection be waived to the use of hearsay contained within a police report?

To the extent that appellant separately objects to the use of hearsay contained within the police reports, we find that objection was waived. We can not excuse the failure to object to hearsay contained in police reports because there was no case law at the time of trial establishing that such evidence was admissible. (See People v. Welch (1993) 5 Cal.4th 228, 237-238 [failure to object excused where objection would have been wholly unsupported by substantive law].) Rather, the cases in existence at the time of trial dealt with hearsay contained in documents which were specifically mentioned by the statute. Therefore, an objection to the use of police reports could have been supported.

Additionally, any claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in this case also fails because appellant can not show that the failure to object was not the result of a reasoned tactical decision. (People v. Fosselman (1983) 33 Cal.3d 572, 581-582.) Here, appellant's counsel may well have chosen to allow the admission of the police reports to prove the details of the underlying offenses rather than subject his client to a parade of witnesses who would chronicle the many offenses appellant committed against them.