People v. Greenfield

722 N.W.2d 254
Michigan Court of Appeals·Decided October 2, 2006·No. 264879·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

722 N.W.2d 254 (2006)

PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
CHRISTOPHER GREENFIELD, Defendant-Appellee.

Docket No. 264879.

Court of Appeals of Michigan.

Submitted February 7, 2006, at Detroit.
Decided June 29, 2006, at 9:00 a.m.
Released for Publication October 2, 2006.

*255 Michael A. Cox, Attorney General, Thomas L. Casey, Solicitor General, David G. Gorcyca, Prosecuting Attorney, Joyce F. Todd, Chief, Appellate Division, and Marilyn J. Day, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.

Michael J. McCarthy, P.C. (by Michael J. McCarthy), Redford, for the defendant.

Before: MURRAY, P.J., and MARK J. CAVANAGH and SAAD, JJ.

ON RECONSIDERATION

SAAD, J.

The prosecution appeals by leave granted the circuit court's order that affirmed the district court's suppression of evidence of two DataMaster breath alcohol test results as a discovery sanction and that excluded the results from trial. We reverse.

I. Nature of the Case

The district court's discovery order required the prosecution to produce a booking videotape of defendant's DataMaster breath tests, and the court issued a discovery sanction for the prosecution's failure to comply with its order. These orders raise two legal issues under Michigan's reciprocal criminal discovery rule, MCR 6.201: Is the videotape the type of discovery expressly permitted under MCR 6.201 and, if not, may the trial court order the discovery of such material absent a showing of good cause?

We hold that the district court and circuit court erred because (1) our Supreme Court has clearly held that discovery in criminal cases is governed by MCR 6.201, (2) the subject matter of the district court's discovery order, the booking room videotape, does not come within the class of discoverable material permitted by the rule, and (3) defendant failed to establish "good cause" for the discovery under MCR 6.201(I). Therefore, because the district *256 court erred as a matter of law in ordering this discovery, it abused its discretion when it suppressed the test results as a discovery sanction. Accordingly, we reverse the circuit court's affirmance of these rulings and its order that excluded the test results from trial.

II. Facts and Procedural History

On September 29, 2004, defendant nearly collided with an Oakland County Sheriff's patrol car at an intersection in Oakland Township. Sergeant Anthony Spencer stopped defendant and issued him a citation for his failure to yield the right of way. Defendant admitted that he had recently consumed "a beer," and the officer observed that defendant appeared flushed and that his eyes were glassy. Accordingly, another Oakland County Sheriff's officer, Deputy Michael Marohn, administered a preliminary breath test, and, on the basis of the test result, the officers arrested defendant for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor (OUIL).

The deputy sheriffs drove defendant to the Rochester Police Department and took him to the booking room. Deputy Marohn then read defendant his chemical test rights, watched defendant's conduct for 20 minutes, and conducted two DataMaster breath tests. The tests showed that defendant had a breath alcohol content of 0.11 grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath. Deputy Marohn also observed that defendant's speech was impaired, that his eyes were glassy and bloodshot, and that he smelled of intoxicants. Thereafter, the prosecution charged defendant with OUIL, third offense, a felony pursuant to MCL 257.625(1) and (9).

Unbeknownst to the Oakland County deputy sheriffs, the Rochester Police Department had recently equipped its booking room with a video recording system that was designed to turn on and record when motion sensors detected someone in the room. The system operated on a continuous loop, and, when the tape was full, the system automatically recorded over previous video. Certain testimony suggested that the video system did not work properly at the time of defendant's arrest and that the system may have recorded over the tape of defendant's booking as early as two days after the booking, but other testimony indicated that the system may not have recorded over the tape of defendant's booking for approximately two weeks. In other words, the record evidence is inconclusive about when the recording of defendant's chemical breath tests may have been erased.

On October 5, 2004, defense counsel sought discovery from the prosecution of numerous items of evidence, including "[a]ny videotapes or audio recordings made of the stop, investigation, arrest and post-arrest activity including the booking procedure, advice of rights, and chemical testing." The record reflects that, within five days of defense counsel's request, the assistant prosecutor asked the police department to turn over the DataMaster logs and any in-car video that might exist, but, because she was unaware of the booking room video, she did not ask for a booking video. Indeed, it is undisputed that neither defense counsel nor the prosecution, nor even the Oakland County Sheriff's office, learned of the possible existence of a recording from the booking room until defendant's preliminary examination on November 2, 2004.[1] On November 3, 2004, the district court issued the disputed order *257 for discovery that granted defense counsel the opportunity to watch the video of defendant's DataMaster tests before November 10, 2004. However, on November 2, 2004, the Rochester Police Department, having searched its records at defense counsel's request, prepared a letter that said that the oldest video it had was recorded on October 8, 2004, which was several days after defendant's arrest.

On November 30, 2004, at defendant's request, the district court suppressed the DataMaster test results on the grounds that the prosecution had failed to abide by the court's November 3, 2004, order for discovery and had failed to comply with defense counsel's discovery request. The prosecution raised the issue again in the circuit court, where it moved to admit the DataMaster test results at trial. However, on August 11, 2005, the circuit court issued a written opinion that affirmed the district court's suppression of the DataMaster results pursuant to MCR 6.201(J).

III. Scope of Discovery in Criminal Cases

Unlike in civil litigation, in which the court rules permit far-reaching discovery[2] limited only by the relevancy of the information sought and whether it "appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence,"[3] discovery in criminal cases is constrained by the limitations expressly set forth in the reciprocal criminal discovery rule promulgated by our Supreme Court, MCR 6.201.[4] Indeed, in a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Cavanagh, our Supreme Court has plainly stated that MCR 6.201 governs and defines the scope of criminal discovery in Michigan. People v. Phillips, 468 Mich. 583, 588-589, 663 N.W.2d 463 (2003), citing Administrative Order No. 1994-10.

In Phillips, our Supreme Court unequivocally held that MCR 6.201 controls "`discovery in criminal cases heard in the courts of this state.'" Phillips, supra at 588, 663 N.W.2d 463, quoting AO 1994-10.

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People v. Greenfield, 722 N.W.2d 254 (Mich. Ct. App. 2006).

722 N.W.2d 254 (People v. Greenfield) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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