Court Opinion

ID: 9536141
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 06:55:38.388513+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:27.994329
License: Public Domain

BUTTLER, J.,
dissenting.
The question presented is not whether this court agrees with the federal court’s decision in Bartholomew v. Reed, 477 F Supp 223 (D Or 1979), or whether the rule adopted by OSP designed to comply with the decision in Bartholomew is a good rule. Rather, the only question is whether OSP complied with its revised rule. Because I do not think OSP did comply with its new rule, I dissent.
Under the former OSP rule (quoted in note 1 to the majority opinion), the disciplinary committee could "rely upon conclusory representations” of the informant, and that is what was done here. However, even the former rule required that the record contain information from which the disciplinary committee can reasonably conclude that the informant’s statement is reliable. The report in this case does not contain such information; it only recites that the informant has proven reliable in the past. It is at least questionable, then, whether OSP complied with its former rule.
*678The new rule, which the majority recognizes was adopted by OSP to conform to the federal court’s decision in Bartholomew, was intended to require more disclosure than the former rule. It requires that "the statement of the informant,” or his identity, must be revealed to the hearings officer. By putting the "conclusory representation” of the informant in quotes, that is, "I saw Grisel stab Smith,” does not fulfill the requirement of the new rule that the "statement of the informant” be revealed to the hearings officer. At the very least, the statement of the informant should include a statement as to where he was on the date and at the time the incident occurred, and that the informant was in a position to see the incident. It is at least possible that if the informant were asked to say where he was on a given date at a given time (the date and time of the incident involved), it might be determined that he was someplace other than where the incident he claims he saw happen took place.
As matters stand, we only know that the officer who reported receiving information from the unnamed informant tells us that the informant says he was an eyewitness and that he saw Grisel stab Smith; the officer’s report does not state that he had determined that the informant was, in fact, in the area at the time the incident occurred.
Although I recognize the delicacy of this kind of proceeding, more information is required by the new, and I think the old, rule than was supplied here. OSP must comply with its own rules, and because I do not think it did so here, I respectfully dissent.