Court Opinion

ID: 9726872
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:11:03.476839+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:31.656502
License: Public Domain

REYNOSO, J.
I concur in the result but dissent from that portion of the opinion which concludes that the original interview notes taken by investigating officers need not be preserved. Such notes are discoverable, says the majority, only if they exist. However, the officers are free to discard the interview notes when the “formal report” is made. In so many cases, as in the case at bar, the minor’s recollection of important portions of the conversation differs from the formal report, generally prepared some time after the conversation. The officer, often and quite naturally, has no recollection independent of the report. Innocent mistakes can be made in transferring the conversation from the original notes to the formal report. This is particularly so since the final report includes more than summaries of conversations. Under the majority rule, there is no way to double-check for errors or inconsistencies. Manifestly, the more reliable reflector of the conversation are the notes contemporaneously made. We deal with an issue of truth-finding not bad faith.
What to do? The majority’s response is that nothing need be done. I am persuaded that the approach taken by the federal cases, cited but rejected by the majority, is the reasonable judicial response under existing state law. Since the minor had the right to discover the notes, had they not been destroyed (Funk v. Superior Court (1959) 52 Cal.2d 423, 424 [340 P.2d 593]), the teaching of People v. Hitch (1974) 12 Cal.3d 641, 650 [117 Cal.Rptr. 9, 527 P.2d 361], applies. Hitch, in essence, mandates the preservation of evidence. Notes of the conversation come within California’s definition of evidence (Evid. Code, § 140).
While the above legal analysis seems straightforward and controlling, the rationale, as explained in the federal cases, persuades further. “It seems too plain for argument that rough [interview] notes from any witness ... could prove ... material.” (United States v. Harrison (D.C. Cir. 1975) 524 F.2d 421, 427.) “Although the agents are trained to include all pertinent information in the [formal] report, there is clearly room for misunderstanding or outright error whenever there is a transfer of information in this manner.” (Id., at pp. 427-428.) And the judicial role is explained. “Notes taken by FBI agents in interviews either with prospective government witnesses or, as in this case, with the *644accused, constitute potentially discoverable materials. [Citations.] Since the routine disposal of potentially producible materials by the FBI amounts to a usurpation of the judicial function of determining what evidence must be produced in a criminal case, we hold that such original or rough interview notes must be preserved.” (United States v. Harris (9th Cir. 1976) 543 F.2d 1247, 1248.)
Despite the strength of my sense that the majority misanalyzes California law in the interview notes issue, I concur in the result. I agree with the majority that, under the facts of this case, even if the court had struck the officer’s testimony, the minor would not have benefitted.
I add this final note. Local and state police departments, like the FBI on the federal level, want to follow the rules in protecting society; if the law is made clear by the courts, the investigative practices of our police will be strengthened and the rights of the accused protected. These aims, of course, are not mutually exclusive but, in a democracy, mutually beneficial. Those institutions which protect all of us, law enforcement and the judiciary, are strengthened by rules which are clear and fair.1

Lest there be a misunderstanding, 1 stress that we deal with interview notes and not all investigative notes as the concurring opinion suggests. Police interview notes, as the cases outline, are materially different than rough bench or architectural notes. Such police interview notes form a vital part of a criminal case; it is the role of the courts, not the investigators, to determine admissibility. We may analogize the problem with which we deal, in a broader sense, to the issues arising out of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. That amendment, in general, protects all citizens from government searches unless the police have obtained a search warrant. The search of a home may have been absolutely reasonable as an investigative effort, but the Constitution gives to a magistrate (and not an investigator) the role of determining reasonableness.
Fourth Amendment protection, like interview-note protection, is for all accused, those later found guilty as well as those later found innocent.