State v. Rolfe

444 P.2d 428, 92 Idaho 467, 1968 Ida. LEXIS 319
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 8, 1968
Docket10118
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 444 P.2d 428 (State v. Rolfe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho 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. Rolfe, 444 P.2d 428, 92 Idaho 467, 1968 Ida. LEXIS 319 (Idaho 1968).

Opinions

SPEAR, Justice.

On April 4, 1967, defendant and appellant herein, Edward Rolfe, was charged by Information with the crime of statutory rape, alleging that he did “knowingly, wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously have and accomplish an act of sexual intercourse with and upon one * * *, then and there a female under the age of eighteen (18) years, and of the age of fifteen (15) years, who was not then and there the wife of said defendant Edward Rolfe.”

Trial was commenced on July 5, 1967, and resulted in a jury verdict finding appellant guilty July 10, 1967. On July 24, 1967, appellant was sentenced to be confined in the State penitentiary for life.

Appellant raises several assignments of error concerning procedural and evidentiary matters which, he contends, whether viewed separately or cumulatively, deprived him of his right to a fair trial. These assignments will be discussed in the order charged by appellant.

(1) Motion for Change of Venue

Initially, appellant contends that the court erred not only in denying his motion for a change of venue, but also in allowing him just 24 hours to prepare and present proof in support of the motion.

On May 2, 1967, appellant appeared before the district court for arraignment.

Counsel for appellant requested additional time within which to enter his plea'and [469]*469advised the court that a motion for change of venue would be forthcoming, which motion he would like to have considered prior to the entering of his plea on the arraignment. The trial court allowed counsel 24 hours in which to answer the Information pursuant to I.C. § 19-1516. On May 3, the following day, counsel filed his motion for a change of venue together with several newspaper articles and the supporting affidavits of Edward Rolfe and 18 other persons representative of the community at large to the effect that appellant could not receive a fair and impartial trial in the southeastern Idaho area.

Mr. P. A. McDermott, the deputy prosecuting attorney for Bannock County, Idaho, thereafter filed a motion in opposition to a change of venue alleging that there remained 18,668 qualified electors eligible for jury duty in this case in Bannock County and that none of the affiants listed by appellant had been selected to serve on the present jury panel in this case.

The trial court’s memorandum decision and order filed on May 8, 1967, denying appellant’s motion, states in part that:

“Upon the face of it it doesn’t appear that the defendant cannot have a fair and impartial trial here in Bannock County. If at the time of trial it is revealed by examination on voir dire that there is a prejudice existing which would prevent the defendant from having a fair and impartial trial, the Court will then consider the question of change of venue.”

In the recently decided case of State v. Cypher, 92 Idaho 159, 438 P.2d 904 (1968), this court held that refusal to grant a change of venue will not result in the reversal of a conviction where it appears that the defendant had a fair trial and that no difficulty was experienced in securing a jury.

There is no evidence in the record to suggest that appellant experienced any difficulty in selecting an impartial jury. Thus, “Under the well settled rule, it is not sufficient merely to show that prejudice exists against the accused; it must appear that the prejudice against him is of such magnitude as to prevent him from receiving a fair and impartial trial; and where the evidence before the court is conflicting, its decision will not be reversed upon appeal.” (State v. Cypher, 438 P.2d at p.911)

Nor is there any evidence to support appellant’s contention that he was prejudiced by the trial court’s allowing him only 24 hours in which to enter his plea. Counsel did not raise this issue at the time of the ruling nor did he attempt to produce additional information in support of his motion which the trial court could consider during the voir dire examination. This contention is without merit.

(2) Alleged Misconduct by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney

(a) Motion to Produce

On June 14, 1967, counsel for appellant filed with the court a motion to produce “requiring the Prosecuting Attorney to produce all evidence, records, interviews, statements and any and all other information available to the prosecution in the above entitled case,” which motion was granted.

During oral argument before the court (June 15th) on this motion, Mr. McDermott stated that the State was not possessed of any information which appellant’s counsel did not already have at his disposal. During the trial witness Hollingsworth testified that he had previously been interviewed at the prosecuting attorney’s office wherein a tape recording was made of his statement concerning appellant’s attempted bribery. However, witness Leaman, Hollingsworth’s mother, testified that she had advised counsel for appellant of the attempted bribery over the telephone in February.

Counsel for appellant therefore had substantial knowledge as to what the testimony of this witness would be. Furthermore, it [470]*470appears from the record that counsel knew of this tape recording as far back as March, 1967, but did not request to hear it at any time.

In view of these facts it was incumbent upon defense counsel to follow up the advantage afforded him under the court order to produce by specifically requesting to hear this tape available to him at the prosecuting attorney’s office. People v. Garner, 57 Cal.2d 135, 18 Cal.Rptr. 40, 367 P.2d 680 (1961); cert. denied 370 U.S. 929, 8 L.Ed.2d 508, 82 S.Ct 1571 (1962); Drozewski v. State, 84 So.2d 329 (Fla.1955). Counsel cannot now be heard to complain that his omission deprived him of the opportunity to obtain this information and resulted in prejudicial error.

(b) Interview of Witnesses

In conjunction with his motion to produce, counsel also argued before the court (June 15th) that he had the right to interview those witnesses the State intended to produce at trial. During the colloquy that followed the trial court reaffirmed defense counsel’s position to the effect that he had every right to talk to these witnesses if they so desired and that just because they were the State’s witnesses didn’t mean they would be isolated from the defense. The court added that it might be a little more orderly if Mr. McDermott would make the arrangements to set up an interview at his office between the witnesses and defense counsel because otherwise they probably would not want to speak with counsel.

But the court was also specific in not limiting counsel’s right to contact the witnesses on his own initiative as disclosed in the record as follows:

“THE .COURT: That’s right. But what I mean to say is I am not restricting your activities. You can dig up the evidence any way that you can. If they want to talk to you, say anything to you, that is their business. If they don’t want .to, they don’t have to * * * ”

Thereafter counsel received a letter from Mr. McDermott stating that he had contacted the witnesses but that they did not wish to discuss the case with him; hence there would be no arrangements made for an interview at his office. During the course of trial it was adduced that Mr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
444 P.2d 428, 92 Idaho 467, 1968 Ida. LEXIS 319, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rolfe-idaho-1968.