Opinion ID: 889300
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Discovery/Suppression Issue, Act I; Omnibus Hearing; and First Trial Setting (June 16 to Oct. 27, 2005; 133 days)

Text: ¶ 19 In the interim between the June 16 conference and the August 11 hearing, Dupuis reviewed the case file transferred to her by Nistler and saw that Nistler had sent a letter to the Lake County Attorney on May 20, 2004, requesting discovery. The Lake County Attorney's Office, which has an open-file policy, provided the defense with a copy of its file on Couture. But in reading through the reports of the detectives who had investigated the case, Dupuis realized that certain discoverable items were not contained in the County Attorney's file and had not otherwise been provided. Most of these items, it turns out, had been in the possession of the Lake County Sheriff's Office since May and June of 2004. Thus, Dupuis filed a motion for discovery in which she requested the immediate production of, among other things: the May 17, 2004 application for search warrant, as well as the search warrant issued based on that application, pursuant to which Couture's residence had been searched; copies of tape-recorded police interviews with witnesses; the autopsy report prepared by the State Crime Lab; and duplicates from the negatives of various photographs taken in the course of the investigation and autopsy. The District Court issued an order directing the prosecutor to make the requested materials available. However, when not all of the items were forthcoming, Dupuis filed a motion to compel discovery and for sanctions under § 46-15-329, MCA. She asked the court to suppress any and all evidence that flowed from the May 17, 2004 search warrant. ¶ 20 At the scheduled omnibus hearing on August 11, the prosecution and the defense stated that they were not prepared to proceed due to the foregoing discovery issue. The court therefore reset the hearing for September 1. In the meantime, the prosecutor filed an objection to the motion for sanctions. He explained that after Dupuis filed her initial motion for discovery, most of the requested items were located at the Lake County Sheriff's Office or at the State Crime Lab but that, through oversight, he had failed to ensure that those items were provided to the defense. Consequently, on receiving the motion to compel discovery and for sanctions, the prosecutor arranged for delivery of all the requested discovery, with one exception: the application for search warrant and the search warrant, neither of which could be located. The prosecutor explained that the lead detective on the case had become ill and unable to work at the Sheriff's Office and, thus, had taken some files home to work on them there. Later, in February 2005, the detective succumbed to his illness and died without returning to the Sheriff's Office. As a result, the Couture file was not compiled and stored in the manner that he normally prepared such cases. Following the defense's discovery request, officers searched the detective's home but were unable to locate the search warrant or the application. ¶ 21 At the outset of the September 1 hearing, the District Court granted the motion to compel discovery and then turned to the issue of sanctions. By this date, the defense had received all the requested discovery except the search warrant application and the search warrant. Thus, while noting significant concerns over the discovery issue, the court chose not to impose sanctions on the State with regard to the items which had been provided, although they were tardy. As for the search warrant application and the search warrant, however, the court decided to treat Dupuis' motion for sanctions as a motion to suppress all evidence obtained or generated as a result of the May 17, 2004 search. Furthermore, reasoning that we can't get to omnibus until we can get a resolution of the motion to suppress on this matter, the court continued the omnibus hearing and ordered the prosecution to file an initial brief on the suppression issue, followed by a response brief from the defense. The court also noted that it was concerned about the fact that the defendant is incarcerated and that a potential trial date of October 24 was available. The court thus set a suppression/omnibus hearing for September 8. But Dupuis thereafter filed a motion, in which the prosecutor concurred, stating that they needed more time to submit briefs and prepare for the hearing. She also filed a speedy trial waiver, signed by Couture, covering the period of September 8 to the hearing. The court then reset the hearing for September 22. ¶ 22 The State filed its brief on September 21, which obviously left the defense without adequate time to file its response. Thus, the court again continued the hearing, and this time imposed deadlines: October 5 for the defense's response, October 24 for the State's reply, and October 27 for the omnibus hearing. Once the parties' briefing was complete, the court quickly issued its decision on October 26, thus eliminating the suppression issue as a ground for further delaying omnibus. In summary, the court observed that it could not review the sufficiency of the search warrant application because no record exists of the application, the search warrant, or the information given to the magistrate who made the initial probable cause determinationall of which the State had admittedly lost. The court concluded that [t]he record, evidence, argument and State's legal authority are woefully insufficient, and the court therefore suppressed [t]he evidence obtained from the May 17, 2004 search warrant and application. ¶ 23 The next day (October 27), the court and the parties proceeded, at long last, with the omnibus hearingnearly 14 months after Couture's arraignment. Notably, Dupuis gave notice that Couture would not be relying on a defense of mental disease or defect. The court set trial for January 9, 2006 (the first trial setting). At this point (October 27, 2005), Couture's case was 528 days old.