Case ID: so2d_403/html/0496-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM. HURLEY, Judge,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

STATE of Florida ex rel., Roger C. SLORA, Petitioner, v. John D. WESSEL, as Circuit Judge of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, in and for Palm Beach County, Florida, Respondent.
    No. 81-1386.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
    Aug. 19, 1981.
    Rehearing Denied Aug. 21, 1981.
    Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Robert L. Bogen, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for petitioner.
    Edna L. Caruso, West Palm Beach, for respondent.
   PER CURIAM.

The petition for writ of prohibition is denied. Motion for rehearing, if any, must be filed by noon, Friday, August 21, 1981.

LETTS, C. J., and HERSEY, J., concur.

HURLEY, Judge,

concurring specially.

I concur with the court’s determination because, in my view, the petitioner has failed to demonstrate that the trial judge is a “material witness,” i. e., that he possesses relevant information “going to some fact affecting the merits of the cause . . . about which no other witness might testify.” Wingate v. Mach, 117 Fla. 104, 157 So. 421, 422 (1934) (emphasis supplied). Rule 8.220(b)(1)(viii), Fla.R.Crim.P., provides a mechanism by which the state may obtain a handwriting exemplar from the defendant. Thus, through the use of expert testimony, there exists an alternate but well-recognized method for establishing the authorship and integrity of the document in question without requiring testimony from the trial judge.