Opinion ID: 1960938
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: trial court review of the examining magistrate

Text: As already indicated, following the preliminary examination the defendant filed a pretrial motion to suppress the evidence and quash the information. On the sole basis of its disbelief of Officer Henry's testimony at the preliminary examination, the trial court did quash, saying: A fair reading of the testimony that went into that case makes it inherently incredible that that is the method by which this observation of the bag could have been done. In other words, the trial judge substituted his judgment for that of the examining magistrate. In reviewing the decision of a magistrate to bind over an accused person, the trial court may not properly substitute its judgment for that of the magistrate, but may reverse a magistrate's decision only if it appears on the record that there has been an abuse of discretion. Genesee Prosecutor v Genesee Circuit Judge, 391 Mich 115, 121; 215 NW2d 145 (1974); People v Dellabonda, 265 Mich 486, 491; 251 NW 594 (1933). In Dellabonda, this Court stated: Primarily the question of probable cause is for the consideration of and determination by the examining magistrate. This Court may not agree with the findings of such magistrate but it has no right to substitute its judgment for his except in case of a clear abuse of discretion. Part and parcel of the magistrate's function of determining whether an offense has been committed and whether probable cause exists for charging the defendant therewith is the duty of passing judgment on the credibility of witnesses. People v Paille #2, 383 Mich 621, 627; 178 NW2d 465 (1970); People v Karcher, 322 Mich 158, 164; 33 NW2d 744 (1948). This was emphasized in Paille #2, where this Court said: [T]he magistrate had not only the right but, also, the duty to pass judgment not only on the weight and competency of the evidence, but also the credibility of the witnesses. We have often commented upon the fact that the judge who hears the testimony has the distinct advantage over the appellate judge, who must form judgment solely from the printed words. Our task in assessing the trial court's decision to quash the information is to determine whether or not there has been an abuse of discretion on the part of the examining magistrate because, as observed above, a reviewing trial court may only substitute its judgment for that of the examining magistrate where there has been such an abuse. Our standard for review, furthermore, in testing for an abuse of discretion is a narrow one. The classic description of this standard, first articulated in Spalding v Spalding, 355 Mich 382, 384-385; 94 NW2d 810 (1959) (a modification of a divorce decree case) and later given a somewhat stricter interpretation in the criminal context by this Court in People v Charles O Williams, 386 Mich 565, 573; 194 NW2d 337 (1972), reads as follows: Where, as here, the exercise of discretion turns upon a factual determination made by the trier of the facts, an abuse of discretion involves far more than a difference in judicial opinion between the trial and appellate courts. The term discretion itself involves the idea of choice, of an exercise of the will, of a determination made between competing considerations. In order to have an `abuse' in reaching such determination, the result must be so palpably and grossly violative of fact and logic that it evidences not the exercise of will but perversity of will, not the exercise of judgment but defiance thereof, not the exercise of reason but rather of passion or bias. See also People v Wilson, 397 Mich 76, 80-81; 243 NW2d 257 (1976); People v Merritt, 396 Mich 67, 80; 238 NW2d 31 (1976). In passing, a careful reading of the transcript of the pretrial motion to suppress the evidence and quash the information reveals that the trial judge may indeed have misapprehended the preliminary examination testimony. The trial court speaks twice of the defendant being chased several blocks (emphasis supplied), whereas the witness's testimony at the preliminary examination was that the police  paced  the car and were three-quarters of a block behind it. The police, in fact, did not use blinkers or siren until they reached the pursued car at a stop street, after which the pursued vehicle went about a block farther before it could pull over. In other words, until the police were almost upon the defendant and his companion and shortly before the ultimate stop, it is entirely possible that neither person knew they were being pursued. Under this set of facts, the time in which the defendant had an opportunity to decide what to do with the brown paper bag containing the green coin envelopes is appreciably shorter than if he had been involved in a car chase for several blocks, as it seemed the trial court envisioned. In any event, we cannot say a magistrate who had the opportunity to hear Officer Henry's testimony and observe his demeanor abused his discretion, as a matter of law, in giving credence to the officer's testimony and in ordering the defendant bound over for trial. [1]