People ex rel. E.G.

2015 COA 18, 371 P.3d 693, 2015 Colo. App. LEXIS 292
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 26, 2015
DocketCourt of Appeals No 13CA1900
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 2015 COA 18 (People ex rel. E.G.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel. E.G., 2015 COA 18, 371 P.3d 693, 2015 Colo. App. LEXIS 292 (Colo. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Opinion by

JUDGE FOX

{ 1 The defendant, E.G., appeals his judgment of conviction, entered on jury verdicts, for two counts of sexual assault on a child and two counts of sexual assault-pattern of abuse. We affirm and remand for sentencing.

I. Relevant Background

12 E.G. was charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child and two pattern of abuse sentence enhancers for sexually assaulting his younger cousins over a two-year period in the home of their mutual grandmother. E.G. was later charged as an aggravated juvenile offender under section 19-2, 601, C.R.8.2014.

T8 Before trial, E.G. filed a motion requesting court-ordered access to the crime scene in the basement of his grandmother's home. E.G. did not serve the motion on his grandmother, but he informally asked her permission and she denied him access. At the motions hearing, the prosecution argued that the court did not have authority to order a private person to open her residence to the defense, The court agreed and denied E.G.'s motion for access to the crime scene.

[4 A jury convicted E.G. as charged, and. the court sentenced him, at the age of twenty-two, directly to Department of Corree-tiong' (DOC) custody for five years.

[5 On appeal, E.G. contends that the trial court erred when it (1) denied him access to the crime scene inside his grandmother's home; (2) impermissibly curtailed his cross-examination of the forensic interviewer; and (3) improperly sentenced him directly to DOC custody. We address each contention below, ’

II. Access to the Crime Scene

16 E.G. asserts that the trial court erred when it denied, based on lack of authority, his motion requesting court-ordered access to the crime scene in the basement of his grandmother's home. We conclude that a trial court has the authority to allow discovery of a crime seene to the defense, even if the discovery implicates constitutionally-protected privacy rights of a non-party, provided that the defendant's justification for the information, which derives from his constitutional rights to due process and to present a defense, outweighs the privacy interests. However, because we also conclude that [696]*696E.G.-who previously lived at the home and was provided photographs of the crime scene before trial-failed to meet this standard, we affirm the trial court's denial of E.G.'s motion.

A. Standards of Review

17 Whether a trial court has the legal authority to grant a discovery motion is a question of law we review de novo. People v. Jones, 222 P.3d 377, 379-80 (Colo.App.2009). A trial court's denial of a defendant's discovery motion, however, is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. People ex rel. S.G., 91 P.3d 443, 450 (Colo.App.2004) An abuse of discretion occurs when the trial court's deci-gion is manifestly arbitrary, unreasonable, or unfair. Id.

B. Legal Standards

18 Although there is no general constitutional right to discovery in a criminal case, People v. Dist. Court, 790 P.2d 332, 338 (Colo.1990), a defendant has a constitutional right to present evidence on his behalf and to confront adverse witnesses, United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 771, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974); Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 294, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973); People v. Chard, 808 P.2d 351, 353 (Colo.1991), The United States Supreme Court has construed these rights as granting a defendant the right to compel material evidence from private third parties, subject to certain limitations. Washington v. Texas, 388 U.S. 14, 19, 87 S.Ct. 1920, 18 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1967).

19 Colorado courts also authorize the discovery of information that implicates non-party privacy rights, For: example, in Chard, 808 P.2d at 353-56, our supreme court held that a trial court, in its discretion, may order a victim in a sexual assault case to undergo an involuntary psychological or physical examination, provided that the defendant's need to discover the information outweighs the victim's privacy interests. See also People v. Estorga, 200 Colo. 78, 81-82, 612 P.2d 520, 528-24 (1980); People v. King, 41 Colo.App. 177, 179 581 P.2d 739, 741 (1978).

10 Similarly, in People v. Wittrein, 221 P.3d 1076, 1085 (Colo.2009), the supreme court held that a child's and parent's privacy rights to the non-disclosure of the child's educational records can be outweighed by an adequate showing of the defendant's need for the evidence. See also People v. Bachofer, 192 P.3d 454, 460 (Colo.App.2008) (holding that a court may order the release of confidential school records to a defendant in a criminal case upon a proper showing of need).

{11 Also, in People v. Spykstra, 234 P.3d 662, 670 (Colo.2010), the court acknowledged that pretrial discovery subpoenas may be issued for materials implicating privilege, confidentiality, or privacy rights of a third party, provided that there is a balancing of interests and the defendant makes a sufficient showing of need for the disclosure of material information.

€12 Our supreme court has similarly weighed the defendant's right to discover evidence agamst non-party privacy rights in other contexts,. See, e.g., Williams v. Dist. Court, 866 P.2d 908, 912-13 (Colo.1993) (balancing a defendant's interest in obtaining sufficient evidence to present his case against a non-party's privacy right to keep information regarding past intimate relationships confidential); Belle Bonfils Mem'l Blood Ctr. v. Dist. Court, 763 P.2d 1003, 1011-13 (Colo.1988) (recognizing that disclosure of third-party blood donors' records implicates rights to privacy, but allowing disclosure pursuant to a limited discovery procedure that protects donors' privacy).

113 While informative, these Colorado cases do not address the right of a defendant to access real estate that cannot be brought into court, such as a erime scene inside a non-party's private residence. Courts in other jurisdictions, however, have specifically held that a defendant's constitutional rights to due process and to present evidence in his defense may include the right to access a crime scene in a private residence, In Commonwealth v. Matis, 446 Mass. 632, 915 N.E.2d 212, 213 (2006), the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts concluded that a court may order access to a crime scene in a private residence if the defendant demon[697]*697strates that the information obtainable at the scene is material and relevant,. Likewise, a New York court has held that "[the constitutional right to compulsory process gives a defendant a right to compel discovery from a private third party [including the right to access a private residence] if justification exists which would outweigh the rights and legitimate interests of the third party." People v.

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2015 COA 18, 371 P.3d 693, 2015 Colo. App. LEXIS 292, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-eg-coloctapp-2015.