North Dakota v. Brown
Annotate this CaseThe State appealed a district court order dismissing without prejudice charges of criminal trespass, burglary, and theft of property against Joseph Brown. With the exception of criminal mischief, all charges were class C felonies. At the preliminary hearing, Officer Gannon Miller was the only witness. He was not the investigating officer and had no contact with Brown prior to the preliminary hearing. Officer Miller testified he did not respond to the scene of the possible break-in. The court dismissed the felony charges against Brown, informing the State “unless [the witness] has some actual, hands-on, direct contact with this crime,” the court would not find probable cause. The court determined that “[p]roducing a witness with no point of contact with the case, and whose only role in the hearing would be to read reports and affidavits prepared by others is insufficient to establish probable cause at a preliminary hearing.” On appeal, the State argued the court erred in refusing to admit hearsay testimony offered by the State’s witness. The North Dakota Supreme Court reversed. "While a court is given discretion in admitting hearsay evidence under N.D.R.Crim.P. 5.1(a), the court here permitted only a limited examination of Officer Miller before determining he had no basis to provide any testimony. In light of the burden of proof placed upon the State, and noting the court should draw all inferences in favor of the prosecution, we conclude the court abused its discretion by misapplying the law when it unreasonably prevented the State’s inquiry into matters that were relevant to a determination of probable cause. The court abused its discretion in refusing to allow the State to fully examine Officer Miller and in not considering whether Officer Miller’s testimony was implausible or incredible. We hold a court must allow the State to present its evidence at the preliminary hearing before determining what weight to give that evidence, including otherwise inadmissible hearsay." The matter was remanded for a preliminary hearing.
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