State v. Haibeck

2006 ND 100, 714 N.W.2d 52, 2006 N.D. LEXIS 104, 2006 WL 1280934
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedMay 11, 2006
Docket20050367
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 2006 ND 100 (State v. Haibeck) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Haibeck, 2006 ND 100, 714 N.W.2d 52, 2006 N.D. LEXIS 104, 2006 WL 1280934 (N.D. 2006).

Opinion

MARING, Justice.

[¶ 1] The State appeals from a trial court’s judgment dismissing an information charging Krystal Haibeck with four counts of possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia. The State argues the trial court erred in dismissing the charges after the State inadvertently destroyed physical evidence. We reverse and remand.

I

[¶ 2] Haibeck was charged with four counts of possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia following a July 5, 2003, traffic stop. In State v. Haibeck, 2004 ND 163, 685 N.W.2d 512, this Court reversed a trial court order granting Haibeck’s motion to suppress evidence and remanded. A more detailed description of the facts surrounding Haibeck’s arrest can be found in our previous opinion, but are largely irrelevant to the issue in this case. See id.

[¶ 3] On remand, during the final pretrial conference in chambers on the morning of the jury trial, the State informed the *54 trial court and Haibeck’s counsel that the physical evidence the State had intended to present had been destroyed. That evidence consisted of a quantity of marijuana and methamphetamine and a razor blade and pipe, both alleged to contain drug residue. According to the State, the evidence had been destroyed inadvertently due to the age of the case. After announcing the evidence had been destroyed, the State said it was prepared to go forward with the case and would present a lab report and testimony from the arresting officer and the author of the lab report in support of its case. Haibeck’s counsel immediately orally moved for a judgment of acquittal. In support of the motion for judgment of acquittal, Haibeck’s counsel cited the right to confront, right of due process, fair trial, and generally constitutional grounds.

[¶ 4] After argument by counsel for both sides, but without briefing on the issue, the trial court said it was granting the motion and dismissing all four counts:

[B]ecause there’s not — as a matter of law, there simply is not going to be enough evidence to get the case to the jury, and it’s not going to be fair to Ms. Haibeck’s due process rights not to be able to fully confront the case against her ... she does have a right in court to have those items present.

The trial court then went into open court, called in the jury, and ordered dismissal of all four counts. The trial court stated that, under the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause, a person has a right to be confronted with all the evidence against them and that Haibeck would be deprived of her Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause rights if the trial went forward.

[¶ 5] On appeal, the State argues the trial court erred by ordering the dismissal of the charges without any showing that the evidence had been destroyed in bad faith. Haibeck argues the trial court’s decision should be upheld in the interest of judicial economy and because the absence of the evidence would make a trial on the charges of possessing the destroyed evidence fundamentally unfair.

II

[¶ 6] Questions of law decided at a preliminary hearing are fully reviewable on appeal. State v. Perreault, 2002 ND 14, ¶ 6, 638 N.W.2d 541. The trial court dismissed the charges on the grounds that Haibeck’s confrontation rights would be violated by going forward. In doing so, the trial court erred as a matter of law. We have never applied a Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause analysis to the State’s destruction of evidence. The United States Supreme Court has recently addressed the meaning, history, and purpose of the Confrontation Clause. See Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004). The Supreme Court stated that: “the principal evil at which the Confrontation Clause was directed was the civil-law mode of criminal procedure, and particularly its use of ex parte examinations as evidence against the accused.” Id. at 50, 124 S.Ct. 1354. The second purpose of the amendment was the framers’ intent not to allow: “statements of a witness who did not appear at trial unless he was unavailable to testify, and the defendant had had a prior opportunity for cross-examination.” Id. at 54, 124 S.Ct. 1354.

[¶ 7] Our Court set forth what evidence is required to implicate a due process violation in State v. Steffes, 500 N.W.2d 608 (N.D.1993) (quoting Arizona v. Youngblood, 488 U.S. 51, 109 S.Ct. 333, 102 L.Ed.2d 281 (1988)).

“[Ujnless a criminal defendant can show bad faith on the part of the police, failure to preserve potentially useful evi *55 dence does not constitute a denial of due process of law.”

Id. at 613. This, as we recognized in Stejfes, is the federal constitutional test for evidence that is potentially useful as compared to evidence that is plainly exculpatory. Id. Haibeck admits that in her case there is no evidence of bad faith by the police and that therefore, under the United States Constitution, there was no violation of her due process rights. The trial court erred in concluding otherwise.

B

[¶ 8] Haibeck encourages us to affirm, however, based on dicta in Stejfes that leaves open the possibility that the North Dakota Constitution affords greater protection than the federal in this area. See Stejfes, 500 N.W.2d at 611 n. 3. In Stejfes, we said:

Relying upon state constitutional law, some states hold that even in situations where defendants cannot show bad faith on the part of the state in failing to preserve material evidence, defendants may nonetheless be entitled to an adverse-inference instruction, dismissal, or new trial if they can make a sufficient showing of substantial prejudice. These states take authority from Justice Stevens’s concurring opinion in Arizona v. Youngblood wherein he wrote: “there may well be cases in which the defendant is unable to prove that the State acted in bad, faith but in which the loss or destruction of evidence is nonetheless so critical to the defense as to make a criminal trial fundamentally unfair.”

Id. (quoting Youngblood, 488 U.S. at 61, 109 S.Ct. 333 (Stevens, J. concurring)). Haibeck admits that the evidence destroyed here was only potentially useful. Further, Haibeck did not raise the issue of the North Dakota Constitution at trial, nor were the protections afforded by the North Dakota Constitution the basis of the trial court’s decision. “[Ijssues not raised below, even constitutional issues, generally will not be addressed on appeal unless the alleged error rises to the level of obvious error under N.D.R.Crim.P. 52(b).” State v. Parisien, 2005 ND 152, ¶ 17, 703 N.W.2d 306.

[¶ 9] In addition, Haibeck only directs us to Stejfes

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2006 ND 100, 714 N.W.2d 52, 2006 N.D. LEXIS 104, 2006 WL 1280934, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-haibeck-nd-2006.