State v. Bastos

985 So. 2d 37, 2008 WL 2356368
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJune 11, 2008
Docket3D06-1647
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 985 So. 2d 37 (State v. Bastos) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Bastos, 985 So. 2d 37, 2008 WL 2356368 (Fla. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

985 So.2d 37 (2008)

The STATE of Florida, Appellant,
v.
Mary BASTOS and Ralph Vlad, Appellees.

No. 3D06-1647.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

June 11, 2008.

*38 Bill McCollum, Attorney General, and Paulette R. Taylor, Timothy R.M. Thomas, and Patrick F. Trese, Assistant Attorneys General, for appellant.

Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender, and John Eddy Morrison, Assistant Public Defender, for Appellee Ralph Vlad and Hersch & Talisman, and Richard Hersch, for Appellee Mary Bastos.

Greenberg, Traurig, and Edward G. Guedes, for amicus curiae, CMI, Inc.

Before COPE and GREEN, JJ., and SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.

COPE, J.

This is a State appeal of a non-final order certified by the county court as being of great public importance. See Fla. R.App. P. 9.030(b)(4)(B), 9.140(c)(2); State v. Ratner, 948 So.2d 700, 704 (Fla.2007).

The underlying proceedings are the prosecution of Mary Bastos and Ralph Vlad ("the defendants") for driving under the influence of alcohol ("DUI"). The county court ruled that the defendants are entitled to have testimony about, and production of, the source code for the Intoxilyzer 5000, which is the breathalyzer used in both cases.

The proposed witnesses are two employees of CMI, Inc., in Owensboro, Kentucky. CMI is the manufacturer of the Intoxilyzer 5000, and is in possession of the source code.

The county court issued a certificate for testimony and production of documents under chapter 942, Florida Statutes (2005), which is the Uniform Law to Secure the Attendance of Witnesses from Within or Without a State in Criminal Proceedings ("Uniform Law"). Id. § 942.06.

The county court certified two questions to be of great public importance. The first certified question is:

Can chapter 942, the Uniform Law to Secure the Attendance of Witnesses from Within or Without a State in Criminal Proceedings, be used to compel production of documents/source codes in light of General Motors, Corp. v. State, 357 So.2d 1045 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978)?

We rephrase the first question to conform to the facts of the case:

Can chapter 942, the Uniform Law to Secure the Attendance of Witnesses from Within or Without a State in Criminal Proceedings, be used to compel production of documents/source codes in light of General Motors, Corp. v. State, 357 So.2d 1045 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978), where the request is for testimony and production of documents?

The second certified question is:

If so, is the source code for the Intoxilyzer 5000 "material" within the meaning of § 942.03?

The State has appealed. We accepted jurisdiction. Fla. R.App. P. 9.030(b)(4)(b).

I.

The first certified question asks whether the Uniform Law can be used to compel the production of documents/source codes, where the request is for testimony and production of documents.

The Uniform Law contains a procedure by which a court of this state may obtain the attendance of a material witness from another state in a pending prosecution or *39 grand jury investigation. § 942.03, Fla. Stat. (2005). The requesting court must certify that the witness is a material witness and specify the number of days the witness will be required. Id. This triggers a procedure in the recipient state for compelling the attendance of the witness. Id. § 942.02.

In this case, the county court issued its certificate stating that:

Mr. William Schofield or Mr. Glenn Gilbreath, employees of CMI, Inc., . . . Owensboro, Kentucky, are material witnesses in these case[s] and [the court] respectfully requests that honorable court [the Kentucky Sixth Circuit Court] to issue a summons . . . for purposes of presenting testimony at deposition and for purposes of providing the source code and other information described above.

The order also requests the presence of Mr. Schofield or Mr. Gilbreath at trial.

Both sides agree that the Uniform Law may be utilized to compel the attendance of out-of-state witnesses. The State argues, however, that a prior decision of this Court prohibits the use of the Uniform Law to obtain production of documents. See Gen. Motors Corp. v. State, 357 So.2d 1045 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978). The State has misinterpreted that case.

In General Motors, the state attorney served an investigatory subpoena duces tecum on General Motor's Florida resident agent. Id. at 1046. The subpoena was for documents only. Id. at 1047. The trial court denied General Motors' motion to quash the subpoena, and this Court denied General Motors' petition for a writ of certiorari.

This Court's opinion in General Motors must be read carefully. It made three points: (1) "There is presently a conflict of opinion regarding the applicability of the Uniform Law to a request for production of documents ancillary to a request for testimony." Id. at 1047. (2) "The Uniform Law does not, as it presently reads, apply to requests solely for the production of documents." Id. (3) "[T]he Uniform Law applies only to witnesses located outside of Florida." Id.

Our Court then denied certiorari for reasons (2) and (3), but not (1). This Court said: "Since the instant subpoena duces tecum requests only the production of documents and since it is directed to a foreign corporation authorized to do, registered to do and doing business in Florida, the Uniform Law is inapplicable." Id. (emphasis added).[1]

As to proposition (1) — whether the Uniform Law applies to a request for production of documents ancillary to testimony — our Court expressed no opinion. See Jay M. Zitter, Annotation, Availability under Uniform Act to Secure the Attendance of Witnesses from without a State in Criminal Proceedings of Subpoena Duces Tecum, 7 A.L.R.4th 836, § 1 ("Recognizing the existence of a conflict of authority regarding the applicability of the Uniform Act to a request for the production of documents ancillary to a request for testimony, the court [General Motors] ruled that the Uniform Act does not apply where there is a mere request for documents without an accompanying subpoena of a witness.").

The General Motors case left open the question now before us: The application of the Uniform Law to request for testimony *40 and production of documents. We now consider that question.

Florida has adopted the Uniform law, including that portion of the Uniform Law which calls for uniformity of interpretation by the adopting states. § 942.05, Fla. Stat. (2005). Therefore we are to follow the prevailing rule of the adopting states.

Writing in 1978, this Court in General Motors said that there was a conflict of opinion regarding a request for documents ancillary to testimony. For the negative side of the conflict, this Court cited In the matter of Grothe, 59 Ill.App.2d 1, 208 N.E.2d 581 (1965). General Motors, 357 So.2d at 1047. However, "after the decision in the Grothe case the Legislature of Illinois amended the definition of `summons' in its enactment of the Uniform Act so as to include subpoenas duces tecum, thus bringing Illinois law in line with New Jersey and New York in this respect." In re Grand Jury, 8 Mass.App.Ct. 760, 397 N.E.2d 686

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Bluebook (online)
985 So. 2d 37, 2008 WL 2356368, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bastos-fladistctapp-2008.