Court Opinion

ID: 9503465
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 19:46:18.033016+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:03:29.688684
License: Public Domain

DURHAM, J.,
concurring.
I write separately to state the basis for my concurrence with the court’s disposition.
I agree that ORS 135.815(1) (1997) does not impose on police officers an obligation to incorporate into their police reports all pertinent information of which they are aware regarding a person who has witnessed or has information about a crime.1 For that reason, the trial court erred in concluding that the officers violated ORS 135.815(1) (1997) in failing to include in their police reports a summary of Dean’s statements to Trooper Moore.
The trial court’s reliance on that reasoning obviated the need for it to address separately another question that defendant’s motion raised. That question is whether ORS 135.815(1) (1997) obligated the state to disclose Moore’s notes that he wrote during or after his conversation with Dean. Defendant’s discovery request sought any notes that Moore might have prepared. The trial court found that Moore had made notes of his exchange with Dean and that the information that Dean had related to Moore was critically important to this case.
My preliminary view is that Moore’s notes fall within the scope of ORS 135.815(1) (1997) because they constitute a “memorand[um] of [an] oral statement” by the state’s witness, Dean. Moore’s notes are “relevant” to defendant’s criminal proceeding, within the meaning of ORS 135.815(1) (1997), because the notes tend to make the existence of a fact that is of consequence to the determination of *330the proceeding — namely, whether defendant had driven while intoxicated — more probable or less probable than would be the case without the notes. See OEC 401 (defining “relevant evidence” in that manner). The legislature did not confine the scope of the requirement of relevance in ORS 135.815(1) (1997) to statements or memoranda that concern the anticipated trial testimony of a witness.
Moore’s notes might have referred almost entirely to inculpatory information, but, under the discovery statute, that is beside the point. The notes were in Moore’s possession when defendant sought discovery of them and, thus, were within the prosecutor’s control even if not in the prosecutor’s physical possession. See State v. Warren, 304 Or 428, 433, 746 P2d 711 (1987) (applying that analysis). Under ORS 135.815(1) (1997), the significant fact is not that the prosecutor had no personal knowledge of Dean until the eve of trial, but that, in response to defendant’s request for discovery, the prosecutor failed to disclose a police officer’s notes that were under the prosecutor’s control and that pertained to defendant’s guilt or innocence.
However, and assuming that my tentative view of the issue is correct, we cannot determine from the record whether the trial court would have ordered the same sanction solely for the state’s nondisclosure of Moore’s notes, because the trial court relied on another rationale. That fact precludes this court from affirming the trial court on an alternative decisional basis. Our decision reserves the questions of the discoverability of Moore’s notes and any potential sanction for nondisclosure for consideration by the trial court on remand. 330 Or at 328 n 7. I agree with that disposition of those issues.
For the foregoing reasons, I concur.

 ORS 135.815(1) (1997) provides:
“Except as otherwise provided in ORS 135.855 and 135.873, the district attorney shall disclose to the defendant the following material and information within the possession or control of the district attorney:
“(1) The names and addresses of persons whom the district attorney intends to call as witnesses at any stage of the trial, together with their relevant written or recorded statements or memoranda of any oral statements of such persons.”