Court Opinion

ID: 9551796
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:59:16.265334+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:24:39.876108
License: Public Domain

EUBANK, Judge
(dissenting).
Reluctantly I must dissent from the majority opinion. Although I agree with their statements of law, I do not agree with that law’s application to the facts of this case.
In State ex rel. Berger v. Superior Court, 106 Ariz. 470, 474, 478 P.2d 94, 98 (1970), our Supreme Court held that the burden of proving that the informant might be a material witness on the merits of the case was upon the defendant requesting disclosure of the informant because of the basic public policy of protecting an informant’s identity. This means to me that the defendant must put forward evidence which is both believable and reasonable to the trial judge in the first instance. What is the trial court’s duty if he does not believe the defendant’s evidence? Or to state it in another way, does the trial court really have any choice but to grant disclosure of an informant if a defendant fabricates a story that touches all bases for disclosure? It is my opinion that the court does. The trial judge has the obligation to balance the public interests as set out in Roviaro, supra, majority opinion. One of these interests is certainly that the defendant’s evidence supporting his request *434'of a disclosure of the identity of the informer be reasonable and believable to the trial judge.
In the case at bar, the defendant testified in detail to the events that occurred on November 19, 1969, the date of arrest. The record also shows that on cross-examination he became a different man when questioned about the days and weeks preceding November 19th. His testimony was vague, his memory was bad and his testimony relating to his whereabouts prior to coming to Phoenix was, in my opinion, improbable. Under these circumstances the trial court could do little else but deny disclosure because the defendant had failed to carry his “burden of proof”.
I do not believe that Roviaro, supra, requires the trial court to grant disclosure without weighing the defendant’s evidence supporting disclosure. If the trial court exercises this discretion, as a fact-finder, it should be supported on appeal if there is evidence in the record to support his determination. In my opinion the record supports the denial of disclosure.