Court Opinion

ID: 9693537
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:48:43.824945+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:48.285948
License: Public Domain

T. Gillespie, J.
(dissenting). I respectfully dissent. The charge in this case involved a series of indignities which the defendant and Mr. Grondin inflicted upon the complainant. The defendant and Mr. Grondin forced the complainant to perform *348fellatio, shaved his head, used a hemostat to pull hairs from complainant’s nose and eyebrows, and flushed his head in the toilet. There were also indications that the defendant threatened at least one witness in this case. Defendant was convicted by a Lapeer County jury and I would affirm their verdict.
It is certainly true that due diligence requires devoted and painstaking application to accomplish an undertaking, that a prosecutor should seek out reasonable leads, and that a prosecutor must pursue the leads he has. But whether the prosecution has complied with these requirements is a matter for trial court determination, and a trial judge’s finding of due diligence will not be overturned on appeal unless a clear abuse of discretion is shown. People v Casteneda, 81 Mich App 453, 460; 265 NW2d 367 (1978), People v Baldwin, 74 Mich App 700, 704; 254 NW2d 619 (1977).
"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.” Spalding v Spalding, 355 Mich 382, 384-385; 94 NW2d 810 (1959), People v Erb, 48 Mich App 622, 625-626; 211 NW2d 51 (1973).
In the present case, the prosecution dutifully sought leads and conscientiously pursued the leads it had. Additionally, the facts here parallel those in People v Stanford, 68 Mich App 168, 172-173; 242 NW2d 56 (1976), where this Court found no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s determination of due diligence. See also People v Blacksmith, *34966 Mich App 216, 219-221; 238 NW2d 810 (1975), lv den 396 Mich 838 (1976). Consequently, I can find no clear abuse of discretion in our case. And, since the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in finding due diligence on the part of the prosecutor, he did not err in admitting Mr. Grondin’s preliminary examination testimony into the trial as evidence.
The majority also encourage trial courts to make complete records in these matters. I concur in that suggestion. And I specifically encourage prosecutors to recite efforts made to see, call, or write friends, neighbors, relatives, employers and associates of the witness, contacts made with police, and information sought through credit bureaus, morgues and records of probation and correction departments. If 10 additional minutes at trial will prevent appeals, remands, reversals and new; trials in cases such as the present, we must make the investment.