Opinion ID: 1172254
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The district court properly denied Batson's request for a continuance.

Text: On Monday, May 1, 1995, the day of Batson's trial, after the venire had been assembled but before the jury had been empaneled, Batson moved for a continuance for an unspecified period of time. Batson's counsel claimed to have received information on the previous Friday that Tygard had been found liable in a federal civil suit against the City of Reno for invading someone's privacy by wrongfully breaking into a house to conduct a search. The district judge asked Batson's counsel whether Batson had known about the charges pending against Tygard on July 31, 1993, the date he allegedly battered Tygard. Batson's counsel acknowledged that Batson had not been aware of the civil claims against Tygard. The State argued and the district judge concluded that the information Batson sought a continuance to produce was irrelevant, and thus inadmissible. See NRS 48.025(2). The judge based his ruling, in part, on Burgeon v. State, 102 Nev. 43, 46, 714 P.2d 576, 578 (1986), which held that where the defendant alleged self-defense, specific, violent acts of the victim which were unknown to the defendant were inadmissible to establish the reasonableness of defendant's fear or state of mind. On appeal, Batson asserts that Burgeon is inapplicable because he was not acting in self-defense but in defense of his wife, Donna. [2] He argues Tygard's civil liability for invasion of privacy may have been relevant not to show prior violence on the part of [Tygard]. . . . Rather it may have been relevant to impeach Officer Tygard's contention that he had merely applied a `light touch' to [Donna]. We conclude that Batson's argument is without merit. It is well settled that the granting of a motion to continue is within the sound discretion of the trial court. Doleman v. State, 107 Nev. 409, 416, 812 P.2d 1287, 1291 (1991). The district judge did not abuse his discretion in concluding that the information Batson sought to pursue was irrelevant, inadmissible, and thus did not warrant the granting of a continuance. That Tygard may have invaded someone's privacy at some previous time did nothing to support Batson's theory of defense; it did not tend to make it more likely than not that Tygard was in fact exerting something more than a light touch on Donna, or that Batson thought or had reason to believe that Tygard was abusing his wife. Accordingly, we hold that the district judge did not err in denying Batson's motion for a continuance.