Court Opinion

ID: 9678297
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:16:10.371228+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:03.325830
License: Public Domain

GARTZKE, P.J.
(dissenting). Although I agree with the result on the information before the trial court, I would retain jurisdiction and remand to the court for an in camera inspection of the police reports and for reconsideration, if appropriate. Whether material in the reports is relevant to the sec. 48.18(5) waiver criteria is a matter of discretion and judgment. The prosecutor, the juvenile, and the court may have different views on whether material in the reports is relevant to the criteria. If the juvenile cannot have access to the report before the waiver hearing, the court should review the state’s compliance with the court’s order.
I would not condition the court’s review on a showing or positive assertion that the discovery order is in fact being violated. Counsel for the juvenile can seldom know that such is the case. That inability is the very reason for the requested review.
To leave the juvenile to unspecified remedies should it ultimately appear that the prosecutor violated the discovery order is unsatisfactory. Once the trial court waives a juvenile into adult court, the juvenile’s remedies are to petition for leave to appeal the waiver order or obtain review of the waiver order on an appeal from the conviction. State ex rel. A.E. v. Green Lake County *264Cir Ct., 94 Wis. 2d 98, 105a, 292 N.W.2d 114, 114 (1980) (on reconsideration) ; State v. Lewandowski, 122 Wis. 2d 759, 762, 364 N.W.2d 550, 552 (Ct. App. 1985).
The first alternative provides no remedy. A failure to comply with the order is unlikely to surface by the time the petition for leave is filed. Only if the juvenile is not waived into adult court can the juvenile obtain copies of the police reports as a matter of right. Sec. 48.293(1), Stats. The second alternative, appeal from the conviction, is also an unsatisfactory remedy. A defendant in adult court has no automatic right to police reports. Secs. 971.23 to 971.25, Stats. A failure to disclose may not come to light during the trial. Even if it does, the juvenile will have been put through criminal proceedings which might have been prevented had the trial court made an in camera inspection.
The inadequacy of these remedies weighs in favor of requiring an in camera inspection. If other remedies exist, we should weigh their value now.