New Hampshire v. MacDonald
Annotate this CaseIn July 2009, a grand jury indicted Defendant Richard MacDonald on one count of aggravated felonious sexual assault for having sex with a person whom he knew to be “mentally defective.” At trial, Defendant filed a motion seeking in camera review of the victim’s medical and mental health records. The State did not object. The court received over two thousand pages of the victim’s medical records. The court assumed without review, that the records were probably relevant, and allowed the documents to be produced “for Counsel’s eyes only.” The State objected to the court’s lack-of-review, arguing that the point of in camera review was for the court to decide which documents were appropriate. Defendant objected, and the State applied for a writ of certiorari to compel the trial court to determine the disclosure of the appropriate records. The Supreme Court granted the writ, and held that the lower court’s failure to review the records was an error. The Court remanded the case to the trial court for an in camera review of the medical records.
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