Opinion ID: 1598202
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: late-disclosed evidence

Text: Finally, Null assigns as error the Court of Appeals' order affirming the trial court's refusal to grant a continuance due to the State's failure to disclose evidence until the first day of his trial. All of the evidence objected to was in the form of tape-recorded conversations between Null, Vogel, and Mayor Goodman. The tape recordings were a subject of discussion in chambers on Monday, January 25, 1993, the date the trial began. Null's counsel stated that he had understood that tape recordings of three separate incidents would be introduced and protested the introduction of a fourth set of tape recordings. The county prosecutor stated that the existence of the tapes could have been determined from the police reports and that defense counsel had failed to ask for them during discovery. Defense counsel asked for a continuance in order to gain time to listen to the tapes and formulate a defense. The trial court denied the motion and ordered the State to furnish copies of the tapes to the defendants by 3 o'clock that afternoon. If the defendants determined that the contents of the tapes justified a continuance or suppression, then the trial court agreed to conduct a hearing the next morning before resuming trial. Counsel proceeded to select a jury and made their opening statements. The next morning, Tuesday, another meeting was had in chambers regarding the tape recordings. Null's attorney stated that he had received 14 audiotapes at 5 o'clock Monday and that he had been able to listen to most of them. Null himself had not been able to listen to the tapes due to the time constraint. Counsel argued that it was virtually impossible to assess and digest the information on the tapes adequately and requested a continuance or, alternately, a mistrial. The trial court noted Null's boilerplate discovery requests and refused to grant a mistrial or a continuance. The trial court ordered the prosecutor to specifically identify the tapes that he intended to use and further ordered the prosecutor to avoid using any tapes prior to affording the defense the opportunity to listen them. The trial court instructed defense counsel to request continuances if they deemed it necessary after listening to any tape. No such continuances were requested. Further, Null offered no objection to the introduction of any of the tapes during trial on the basis of their late disclosure. In his brief to the Court of Appeals, Null asserted that the trial court erred in refusing to grant a continuance. Null asserted that Neb.Rev.Stat. § 29-1912 (Reissue 1989) requires that the State make all evidence available to the defendant, upon request, prior to trial. A prosecutor's duty to disclose evidence in response to a very general discovery request arises if the evidence contains obvious exculpatory characteristics. State v. Tweedy, 224 Neb. 715, 400 N.W.2d 865 (1987). The Court of Appeals stated that § 29-1912 provides the procedure for discovery in criminal cases. Under § 29-1912, the test for whether nondisclosure is prejudicial is whether the information sought is material to the preparation of the defense, meaning that there is a strong indication that such information will play an important role in uncovering admissible evidence, aiding preparation of witnesses, corroborating testimony, or assisting impeachment or rebuttal. State v. Brown, 214 Neb. 665, 674-75, 335 N.W.2d 542, 547 (1983). Without condoning the State's failure to timely disclose the tapes, the Court of Appeals noted that Null had made no showing, or even argument, of how his preparation for his own testimony or cross examination of the State's witnesses was harmed by the late disclosure. Therefore, the Court of Appeals found no abuse of discretion in the trial court's denial of Null's motion to continue. In his brief in support of his petition for further review, Null argues that he was in fact harmed by the late-disclosed tapes. Null states that the jury was selected before the defense had the opportunity to hear the tapes. Null claims that the new tapes contained much more profanity and sexist language than the previously disclosed tapes and that the county attorney had an advantage during the jury selection because he knew of their potentially prejudicial effect. However, any prejudicial effect of the profanity and sexist language contained in the late-disclosed tapes was curable at trial. For example, defense counsel moved to suppress exhibit 12, one of the tapes, for the reason that it contained an offensive reference to African-Americans. One of the jurors was an African-American. The trial court ordered the offensive statement to be excised from the tape prior to its being played to the jury. At trial, Null did not offer any other objections or request that profane or sexist statements be excised from the tapes. On review from the Court of Appeals, we will not entertain such objections for the first time. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Null's motion to continue. The court ensured that defense counsel had the opportunity to hear the tape recordings prior to their use at trial. The trial court invited defense counsel to request a continuance if the need arose during the trial. The court ordered the excision of an offensive statement when requested. Therefore, Null fails to establish any prejudice due to the late disclosure.