📄 Sidebar: evidence handling — Wednesday, August 23, 1995
📅 Aug 23 — Day 141
⚖️ Lance A. Ito🛡️ Barry Scheck
chain_of_custodydnapolice_procedure
Address:
C:\DEPT103\CRIMINAL\1995\AUG\23\SIDEBAR-EVIDENCE-HANDLING.DOC
TRIAL
▲ Day 141 of 167

Sidebar: evidence handling

Date: Wednesday, August 23, 1995 • Utterances: 14
At sidebar, Judge Ito explains he cannot take judicial notice of a disputed fact regarding how a piece of evidence was handled, because both sides contest what actually occurred. Barry Scheck is frustrated that the only witnesses to the disputed handling are the attorneys themselves — captured in photographs on a courtroom board — and he wants to avoid the awkward necessity of defense counsel taking the witness stand. Judge Ito resolves the impasse by pointing out that Dr. Lee, who was present, can testify about what happened.
1 (The following proceedings were held at the bench:)
2 THE COURT:

We are over at the sidebar to continue our discussion since the jury is coming in. Counsel, the problem is, we're talking about a disputed fact, and that's not something that's appropriate for judicial notice. I can't do that.

3 MR. SCHECK:

What I would request of the court and of my adversary here is that we have some resolution of this. I have no desire testifying in front of this jury nor does Mr. Blasier, but our representations were made on the record at the time they introduced the board. Mr. Harmon made representations on the record as to what he didn't see or saw and Mr. Clarke I believe in an off the record discussion present in the court indicated his position was the same as Mr. Harmon. And when we had this discussion, it was very clear when the court overruled the 352 objection that I made on this issue that this would involve lawyers testifying.

4 THE COURT:

But the problem is, the manipulations of this particular piece of evidence, any handling of this particular piece of evidence is crucial to both sides. So that's why I overruled the 352 objection, because the manner that things happened is relevant.

5 MR. SCHECK:

I understand that.

6 THE COURT:

So I can not force a stipulation nor can I take judicial notice of something that's a disputed fact.

KEY QUOTE
7 MR. SCHECK:

I'm trying to avoid climbing on the witness stand. I don't know what the Prosecution's position is, how they want to bring this out.

8 MR. GOLDBERG:

We're not going to stipulate. It's a disputed fact. Our view is different from the Defense view.

9 MR. SCHECK:

That's not the point.

10 THE COURT:

Are you going to present this or rock?

11 MR. GOLDBERG:

It's been presented, your Honor. They have a witness up on the stand right now that can present their version.

12 THE COURT:

That's true.

13 MR. SCHECK:

My point is this. The photographs they had on the board show Mr. Blasier and Mr. Scheck standing there and Mr. Harmon and Mr. Clarke standing there, and we are the only witnesses from the Defense that can comment on anything under oath. And I saw it. I was paying attention to it because I was very cognizant of this issue. So it's very upsetting to me and I want to get on the witness stand and say so, but I think that's totally inappropriate.

KEY QUOTE
14 THE COURT:

But you have a witness that can--Dr. Lee is in the perfect position to explain what happened as well. So there's not an absolute necessity that an attorney be called on this issue. So let's proceed.

Temperature

tense

Key Quotes (4)

Lance A. Ito
I can not force a stipulation nor can I take judicial notice of something that's a disputed fact.
Cuts off Scheck's attempt to resolve the issue without testimony — the court's hands are tied because the facts are genuinely contested.
Barry Scheck
The photographs they had on the board show Mr. Blasier and Mr. Scheck standing there and Mr. Harmon and Mr. Clarke standing there, and we are the only witnesses from the Defense that can comment on anything under oath.
Reveals the procedural trap: the lawyers are the eyewitnesses, and putting attorneys on the stand would be highly irregular.
Barry Scheck
I saw it. I was paying attention to it because I was very cognizant of this issue. So it's very upsetting to me and I want to get on the witness stand and say so, but I think that's totally inappropriate.
Rare moment of a defense attorney openly wrestling with his dual role as advocate and percipient witness.
Lance A. Ito
Dr. Lee is in the perfect position to explain what happened as well. So there's not an absolute necessity that an attorney be called on this issue.
Practical resolution that sidesteps the attorney-as-witness problem entirely.

Evidence (1)

Informal
A courtroom display board with photographs showing defense attorneys (Scheck, Blasier) and prosecution attorneys (Harmon, Clarke) present during the handling of a piece of evidence
discussed — central to the dispute over what was observed during the evidence examination

Notable Exchanges (2)

Barry ScheckHank Goldberg
Scheck tries to find a way to resolve the disputed evidence-handling fact without testimony; Goldberg flatly refuses to stipulate, saying the prosecution's view differs from the defense's.
strategic
Barry ScheckLance A. Ito
Scheck expresses genuine distress at being trapped as a witness to disputed facts, and Ito defuses it by pointing to Dr. Lee as an available non-attorney eyewitness.
tense, then resolved

Objections

None recorded
Proceeding 7420 • 14 utterances
Criminal Trial
Department 103
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📂 AUG 23, 1995 📄 Sidebar: evidence handling
AUG 23, 1995 KRT DvH TD