Link to District Court Bank

State v. Cast
Judge Zimmerman granted a motion to suppress and dismiss a DUI and civil suspension where the officer stopped the defendant because she observed him driving in circles in a parking lot at 4:30 a.m.  The community caretaking exception does not apply because there was no objective information that anything was wrong.

State v. Beckwith
Judge Wesley granted a motion to dismiss a civil suspension where the officer arranged for the defendant to speak with an attorney at the point in the processing calling for Miranda warnings, but completely omitted the implied consent right to an attorney. Judge Wesley found that defense counsel had “carefully and persuasively explicate[d] the jurisprudence” and “convincingly” rebutted the state’s argument.

State v. Pelkey-Grant
Judge Zonay granted a motion to suppress all of client’s statements made in response to custodial interrogation in a murder case. Detectives interrogated defendant at her home - the scene of the homicide - without giving Miranda. After taking her to the police barracks, they finally gave her Miranda. She indicated she would only draw a map, but the police continued to question her as she drew it. Police again interrogated her several days later at the barracks. The judge found that she was in custody while in her home and at the barracks, and the continued questioning without a Miranda waiver was a Miranda violation. The subsequent questioning was also suppressible as the fruit of the poisonous tree under Badger. The map was also suppressed.

State v. Ackland
Docket No. 198-5-09 Ancr (C. Corsones)(June 15, 2009)
Officer pulls woman over because he thought her car sounded loud and he thought he heard her “rev” her engine at a stop sign. No speeding, no erratic driving. Judge Cortland Corsones finds no reasonable suspicion to stop.

State v. Wright
Docket No. 923-8-08 Frcr (Kupersmith)(May 27, 2009)
Judgment of acquittal post-trial from Judge Kupersmith in a reckless endangerment case where the claim was that the defendant pointed an air rifle at five juveniles. The judge finds that an air rifle is not a firearm, and therefore, the state has to prove that pointing it at people placed them in danger of death or serious bodily injury, which it couldn’t do because it never proved that the air rifle was loaded.

State v. McDonald
Docket No. 921-8-08 Frcr (Kupersmith) (April 8, 2009)
Judge Kupersmith held that statements made by defendant’s children, elicited by their grandmother, were inadmissible as they lacked “substantial indicia of trustworthiness” pursuant to V.R.E. Rule 804a(a)(4). In a case involving two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct against his two minor children, the state sought admission of explicit statements detailing how the defendant allegedly engaged in sexual acts with them. Applying the American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI) guidelines used by defense expert witness Dr. Mantell, the court found the grandmother’s interview of the children “seriously flawed” as it lacked objectivity and was not recorded. Neither did the grandmother separate the two children before questioning them. The court, noting that use of open-ended questions by interviewers is “perhaps the most critical principal,” found the grandmother’s questions and technique of using dolls improperly suggestive. Although some parts of the interview were arguably admissible, the court held that it would not be “reliable, fair, or appropriate to lift these statements out of context” and denied the entire sequence of statements by the children. Motion to exclude granted.

State v. Letkowski
No. 550-6-06Frcr.
Judge Kupersmith denied admission of a child’s hearsay statements to her mother, the detective and DCF worker as not containing substantial indicia of trustworthiness. Dr. Mantell testified at the hearing, and Kupersmith concluded that he is “an exceptionally qualified expert in the area of evaluating allegations of sexual abuse of children” and in the critique of child interviews. Dr. Mantell pointed out the numerous interviewing deficiencies of the NUSI team and the judge warned that unless appropriate standards and training are implemented, the court will be compelled to continue to reject statements that don’t demonstrate trustworthiness.

State v. Subair,
No. 334-7-08Ancr.
Judge Corsones suppressed all drugs seized following a lawful traffic stop which then morphed unlawfully into a drug investigation based entirely upon the officer’s discovery of a white powdery substance inside a small container used to carry pills (or narcotics). Without knowing whether the substance was legal or not, the stop was unlawfully expanded in scope and duration.