Court Opinion

ID: 9577650
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:36:46.797604+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:20:59.410759
License: Public Domain

HENRIOD, Justice
(concurring).
I concur, but desire to make some observations as to Mr. Justice Ellett’s concurring opinion, — which opinion I think not pertinent in this case.
He says that he “cannot agree that a committing magistrate cannot lawfully examine witnesses under oath before a written complaint is filed.” The main opinion does not say otherwise.
No complaint was filed, docketed, or given a number here. Brady was “requested” to appear before a magistrate, was put under oath, under a so-called “John Doe” complaint, without knowing or being advised as to who “John Doe” was. He was not the complainant, — and here is where Mr. Justice Ellett’s argument that witnesses may be examined orally under oath before a written complaint is issued falls.
In this case Brady was not a complaining witness at all. It was not a legitimate witness against anyone except an undisclosed “John Doe,” whose identity was locked in the bosom of a magistrate. Mr. Justice Ellett seems to assume that Brady was a complaining witness when the former was asked to give testimony which really was against himself. The whole tenor of my learned colleague’s concurrence, including the inapropos cases he cites and quotes, seems to make this obvious. Brady, I am sure, had no intention to complain against “John Doe,” whoever he was, and certainly not against himself. Why we should concern ourselves with hypothetics that don’t fit the facts of this case, I don’t know. There is a certain virtue in fair play, irrespective of statute, as to who may be examined before or after a complaint is filed, that should not be violated by a prostituting statute or cases not factually pertinent in this case.
I respectfully suggest that the main opinion does not espouse anything other than the suggestions made by Mr. Justice Ellett, but simply does not canvass them because they are not pertinent here.