📄 Discovery: Popovich report — Friday, September 1, 1995
Address:
C:\DEPT103\CRIMINAL\1995\SEP\1\DISCOVERY-POPOVICH-REPORT.DOC
TRIAL
▲ Day 146 of 167

Discovery: Popovich report

Date: Friday, September 1, 1995 • Utterances: 12
A brief discovery dispute over whether Brad Popovich's personal notes (DNA discovery pages 9679-9688) constitute a formal 'report' for discovery purposes. Scheck argued the document is explicitly titled 'Personal notes' and is not a report; Clark countered that the content functions as a report and that the prosecution has turned over everything it has. Judge Ito sided with Clark's practical view.
1 MR. SCHECK:

Your Honor, just for the record, yesterday I was provided DNA discovery pages 9679 through 9688, which are entitled "Personal notes of Brad Popovich regarding People of California versus Orenthal James Simpson," which are really nothing more than recitations of his visits to three different laboratories. There is no report.

2 MS. CLARK:

If there is no report, then how can we turn it over?

3 MR. SCHECK:

Well, I don't know why--if she's seen a report as she just said and Mr. Hodgman said, where is it? I'm not ill-informed.

4 THE COURT:

Miss Clark.

5 MS. CLARK:

Your Honor, you know, I guess reasonable minds can differ about what is a report. This, you know, looked like a report to me. Details what he saw and what he did at the laboratories and we've turned it over. We have given them everything we have. You know, what else can we do, your Honor? We give discovery when we get it. If we have notes, we have reports, we turn them over. We have nothing more than what we've given them. I don't know what else we can be required to do.

6 MR. SCHECK:

I don't know how anybody can look at a document that says "Personal notes" and turn around and say--

7 THE COURT:

Well, counsel, if that's all they have and that's what Dr. Popovich calls a report, that's a report.

KEY QUOTE
8 MR. SCHECK:

No. No. No. These are called--this is what Dr. Popovich in his own writing calls personal notes. It is not a report. If there is a report or there's going to be a report or there should be a report and she's indicating she saw a report--

9 THE COURT:

She's saying this is the report.

10 MS. CLARK:

This is what I saw.

11 MR. SCHECK:

This is--these are notes. They're entitled "Notes." There is no report.

12 MS. CLARK:

Fine. Let's talk all day about what's a note, what's a report. We've turned over what we have. That's the bottom line.

KEY QUOTE

Temperature

tense

Key Quotes (3)

Marcia Clark
I guess reasonable minds can differ about what is a report. This, you know, looked like a report to me.
Clark reframes the dispute as a definitional disagreement rather than a discovery violation, deflecting Scheck's accusation.
Lance A. Ito
If that's all they have and that's what Dr. Popovich calls a report, that's a report.
The judge cuts through the semantic argument and rules against Scheck's position on the spot.
Marcia Clark
Fine. Let's talk all day about what's a note, what's a report. We've turned over what we have. That's the bottom line.
Clark closes the argument with visible exasperation, reducing Scheck's objection to mere semantics.

Evidence (1)

Informal
DNA discovery pages 9679-9688 — 'Personal notes of Brad Popovich regarding People of California versus Orenthal James Simpson,' describing his visits to three laboratories
discussed, disputed as to whether it constitutes a report

Notable Exchanges (1)

Barry ScheckMarcia ClarkLance A. Ito
Scheck insisted the document is titled 'Personal notes' and therefore is not a report; Clark argued the content is report-like and everything has been turned over; Ito ruled the document is the report if that's all Popovich produced.
argumentative, resolved summarily by the judge

Objections

None recorded
Proceeding 7480 • 12 utterances
Criminal Trial
Department 103
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📂 SEP 1, 1995 📄 Discovery: Popovich report
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