Court Opinion

ID: 9629236
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:39:31.920615+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:17.123970
License: Public Domain

MAUGHAN, Justice
(dissenting):
For the following reasons, I dissent.
Defendant was charged in the information as follows:
Whitney D. Hammond, County Attorney of Uintah County, State of Utah, accuses Gloria Danker of the crime of tampering with a witness in violation of Section 76-8-508, Utah Code Annotated, 1953, as amended, and charges that the said Gloria Danker, on or about the 7th day of August, 1978 in Uintah County, State of Utah, believing that an official proceeding or investigation was pending or about to be instituted did attempt to induce or otherwise cause a person to withhold testimony or testify or inform falsely.
The pertinent parts of Sec. 76-8-508 are:
A person is guilty of a felony of the third degree if:
(1) Believing that an official proceeding or investigation is pending or about *521to be instituted, he attempts to induce or otherwise cause a person to:
(a) Testify or inform falsely; or
(b) Withhold any testimony, information, document, or thing; .
It can readily be seen no element of proof of the crime charged requires the introduction of testimony describing the obscene activities of another person who is charged with another and different crime. The acts described in the testimony were indeed obscene, inflammatory, irrelevant, and immaterial.
Additionally, it is a violation of Rule 63, U.R.E. I would reverse for a new trial.