Court Opinion

ID: 9728313
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:04:43.374323+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:47.571673
License: Public Domain

R. B. Burns, P.J.
(dissenting). Defendants were found guilty by a jury of conspiracy to do a legal act in an illegal manner, MCL 750.157a; MSA 28.354(1), and solicitation of a bribe, MCL 750.505; *619MSA 28.773. Their convictions were affirmed by this Court, 55 Mich App 403; 222 NW2d 261 (1974), and by the Supreme Court, 402 Mich 1; 260 NW2d 58 (1977). A delayed motion for a new trial was filed in the trial court based on a claim of newly discovered evidence. The trial court denied defendants’ motion for a new trial.
The chief prosecution witness, Bettye Harris, was held in protective custody by the City of Inkster during the defendants’ trial. After she was transferred to the custody of the Wayne County Task Force she filed charges against Anderson Young, Chief of Police for the City of Inkster. She testified at a preliminary hearing that Chief Young raped her when she was in protective custody. Harris also made statements that she was forced to have sex with Young because he threatened that he would tell the defendants where she was being held. She testified that Young had also purchased liquor for her, taken her to dinner the night he raped her and purchased a new dress to replace the dress that was torn during the rape. Lastly she testified that she was provided with methadone while she was in custody. This testimony was not known to the defendants until after their trial had ended and their appeal was in progress.
The four-part test for granting a new trial based on new evidence involves a finding that (1) the evidence itself, not merely its materiality, was newly discovered; (2) the evidence is not cumulative; (3) it is such as to render a different result probable on a retrial of the case; and (4) the party could not with reasonable diligence have discovered and produced it at trial. People v Clark, 363 Mich 643, 647; 110 NW2d 638 (1961), People v Howard, 78 Mich App 592, 596; 261 NW2d 15 *620(1977). " 'The granting of a motion for a new trial lies within the sound discretion of the trial court, and to establish error, a clear abuse of this discretion must be shown.’ ” Howard, supra, 598.
The newly discovered evidence in the present case does not relate to the defendants’ guilt or innocence but rather attacks the character and credibility of the prosecution’s main witness. It had been established at the trial that Bettye Harris was a heroin addict, a convicted felon, and a police informant. The new evidence is not sufficient to warrant a new trial and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendants’ motion.
I would affirm defendants’ convictions and cancel their bonds.