State v. Washington

381 N.E.2d 1142, 56 Ohio App. 2d 129, 10 Ohio Op. 3d 150, 1978 Ohio App. LEXIS 7517
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 10, 1978
DocketNo. 5603
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 381 N.E.2d 1142 (State v. Washington) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Washington, 381 N.E.2d 1142, 56 Ohio App. 2d 129, 10 Ohio Op. 3d 150, 1978 Ohio App. LEXIS 7517 (Ohio Ct. App. 1978).

Opinions

Sherer, P.J.

The appellant was indicted on January 27, 1977, for aggravated robbery which occurred on January 2,1977, in violation of R. C. 2911.01. This charge was reduced by the court, upon the motion of the prosecutor, to one of robbery, a violation of R. C. 2911.02, and the appellant was convicted by a jury and sentenced therefor.

In this appeal there are six assignments of error. The [130]*130first assignment is- that the trial court erred in overruling his pre-trial motion to suppress “all testimony relating to eyewitness identification of the defendant” because the procedures used were “impermissibly suggestive” in violation of due process.

' There was a hearing and, at that hearing, the evidence adduced by the appellant indicated, that the desk clerk and bellman at the hotel which was robbed early Sunday morning, January 2, 1977, went to police headquarters- on Tuesday to look at photographs but did not find one of the robbers at that time. On January 7, the appellant was arrested and photographs of him were taken. At a lineup on the day of his arrest, the bellman unhesitatingly selected the appellant as the robber from a group of at least four men who did not differ markedly. (The appellant,.in his testimony, contradicted the description of the lineup, but there is nothing in the record to indicate that it would have been.an abuse of discretion for the trial judge to disbelieve him.) Subsequent thereto, a detective took approximately 15 photos to the desk clerk at the hotel and handed them to her for her perusal.. She, unhesitatingly, and without suggestion or coaching, selected the appellant’s photo from the group as being that of the robber. Later, at a. preliminary hearing, she identified the appellant personally as the robber, again without prompting. Additionally, at an indeterminate time, but before the trial, both the clerk and the bellman were shown photos by a state, parole officer from which they independently and self-motivatingly selected the appellant’s photo.

No lawyer was present either at the lineup or during the photo selection process. However, the appellant was not formally charged until January 11, 1977, when an affidavit charging him with aggravated robbery, was signed by the detective and filed. The evidence at the- suppression hearing did not indicate or establish that the photos were selected subsequent to January 11 nor did it 'indicate that the appellant was represented by counsel prior1 to his being charged: The appellant-was represented by counsel at the preliminary hearing.

[131]*131The evidence at the suppression hearing did not 'indicate that the procedures used at the photo selection processes and at the lineup (if the trial court, as was its prerogative, disbelieved the appellant) were in any way sugi .gestive, conducive to irreparable possibilities of misdden--tification, or were instituted or used in any way to establish- or to bolster the identification of' the appellant :as the-robber. Quite to the contrary, the evidence was clear that' the appellant and likenesses of him were at all times selected unhesitatingly by the two witnesses involved beeáuse of their independent recollections of him as the robber from the impressions they received at the time- of the robbery under excellent observational circumstances. ■

Therefore, because it was not established that any. of the pre-trial identification procedures were illegal due to procedures which were violative of due process requirements, the trial court was correct in overruling the motion to suppress. Stovall v. Denno (1967), 388 U. S. 293; State v. Hancock (1976), 48 Ohio St. 2d 147; State v. Perryman (1976), 49 Ohio St. 2d 14. The appellant, in his brief,.goes beyond the overruling of the pretrial motion to characterize the admission of the identification testimony at the trial as error. The appellant did not object when this testimony was offered and thus waived any possible error in this regard. State v. Lancaster (1971), 25 Ohio St. 2d 83. The first assignment of error is overruled.

The second assignment again claims error in overruling the motion to suppress identification testimony,- this time on the ground that the lineup described hereinabove, was illegal inasmuch as it was conducted in the absence of counsel for the appellant, thus depriving the appellant.of his rights under- the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and under Section 10, Article I, of the Ohio Constitution. This contention is incorrect for several reasons.

In the first place, the motion contained no reference to the Sixth Amendment, but was predicated solely -on the ground of a violation of due process. In the second place, the lineup was held before the appellant was charged and [132]*132no attorney was necessary. State v. Sheardon (1972), 31 Ohio St. 2d 20. In the third place, Section- 10, Article I of the Ohio Constitution, with respect to counsel, confines its application to the trial. Fourthly, the in-court identification was not based upon the lineup, but upon the independent recollection of the witness. Finally, the appellant did not object at the trial to this witness’ identification of him as the robber.

The second assignment of error is overruled.

The third assignment claims that the Court erred in refusing to grant the appellant’s request for an in camera inspection of alleged prior statements made by the hotel clerk to the police and that this ruling was a denial of due process of law in that appellant’s cross-examination rights were abridged. During the cross-examination of the desk clerk, it was developed that one of the police officers questioning the witness on the night of the robbery took some notes as to her description of the robber, but that she made no written or signed statement for the police. Thereupon, the appellant moved for an in camera inspection of the police officer’s notes and this motion was overruled.

Criminal Rule 16(B) (1) (g) provides, in part:

“Upon completion of a witness’ direct examination at trial, the court on motion of the defendant shall conduct an in camera inspection of the witness ’ written or recorded statement with the defense attorney and prosecuting attorney present and participating, to determine the existence of inconsistencies, if any, between the testimony of such witness and the prior statement.”

As will be noted, the only statement subject to such a procedure is one which is written or recorded. The word “written” in this context does not refer to notes made by a detective talking to a witness during an investigation. The word “written” refers to a writing made by a witness or by someone else at that witness’ direction. The word “recorded” also cannot refer to such notes as it refers only to a mechanical reproduction of a statement by tapes or the like; otherwise, it would be a writing, and a. distinction ^between “written” and “recorded” would not be [133]*133necessary if the word “recorded” was merely another way of referring to a writing.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
381 N.E.2d 1142, 56 Ohio App. 2d 129, 10 Ohio Op. 3d 150, 1978 Ohio App. LEXIS 7517, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-washington-ohioctapp-1978.