Court Opinion

ID: 9633128
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:34:52.873554+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:18:07.291358
License: Public Domain

Mowbray, J.,
dissenting:
Respectfully, I dissent.
An indictment returned by the Clark County Grand Jury charged appellant, McNair, with robbing a 7-11 food store in Henderson, Nevada, in violation of NRS 200.380. He has challenged the indictment by pretrial habeas, contending that the State is precluded from proceeding under the indictment because a criminal complaint charging the defendant-appellant with the same offense had been previously dismissed by Justice of the Peace Robert Reid. District Judge William Compton denied habeas and ordered the appellant to stand trial. Hence, this appeal. The thrust of McNair’s argument, which has been accepted by the majority of the court, is that the record in the magistrate’s court affirmatively shows that the State willfully failed to comply with the mandates of Hill v. Sheriff, 85 Nev. 234, 452 P.2d 918 (1969), and Maes v. Sheriff, 86 Nev. 317, 468 P.2d 332 (1970), in that the prosecutor offered no explanation of his inability to proceed with a scheduled preliminary hearing. McNair also argues that the prosecutor exhibited the “conscious indifference to rules of procedure affecting appellant’s rights” which we condemned in State v. Austin, 87 Nev. 81, 482 P.2d 284 (1971).
The appellant was charged with three separate felonies, and the preliminary hearing on each felony was scheduled for the same day. After the first hearing was concluded, the prosecutor announced that the State was not prepared at the time to go forward with the second scheduled hearing, whereupon defense counsel immediately objected. The entire transcript of the proceedings before the justice of the peace, which was reconstructed by the reporter after the “hearing,” consists of the following:
Defense Counsel: “I would object to the continuance.”
The Court: “The objection is sustained.”
One of our basic constitutional and procedural premises is that each party shall have an opportunity to be heard, and this *442opportunity to be heard has been traditionally protected by the courts. In this instance, however, the court refused the prosecutor any opportunity to express the State’s position and precluded him from any attempt to comply, if he could, with the mandates of Hill and Maes by sustaining the objection. It is not the presiding magistrate’s prerogative to assume, once the motion for a continuance is made, that there is no supporting evidence for such motion. In such instances, the presiding magistrate has at least an obligation to permit the State an opportunity to explain its position.
Under the factual posture of this case, I cannot find that the mandates of Hill and Maes have been offended or that the State has exhibited a “conscious indifference to rules of procedure affecting a defendant’s rights, [footnote omitted]” State v. Austin, supra.
I would, therefore, affirm Judge Compton’s order denying McNair’s petition for habeas and order him to stand trial on the robbery charge.