Legal Updates

Goy v. State ex rel Hon. Michael D. Jones, Judge of the Superior Court Arizona Court of Appeals, Div. 1 6/17/03

Geraldine Goy was arrested for DUI in 1996. The trial was not conducted until 2002. During the trial the Phoenix City Prosecutor tried to have the arresting officers read their reports into the record, as the officers could not remember the incident due to the amount of time that had elapsed between the arrest and trial. The city court judge ruled the officers could not read their reports. The city prosecutor appealed to the Superior Court and Judge Jones overruled the city court and ordered that the officers be allowed to read their reports into the record at trial. Goy appealed this decision to the Court of Appeals.

The Court of Appeals recognized that the officers’ reports were hearsay under Rule 801 of the Arizona Rules of Evidence. Although hearsay is generally not admissible, there are exceptions to that rule. One of those exceptions, the “recorded recollection” exception, is pursuant to Rule 803(5), which states:

A memorandum or record concerning a matter about which a witness once had knowledge but now has insufficient recollection to enable the witness to testify fully and accurately, shown to have been made or adopted by the witness when the matter was fresh in the witness’ memory and to reflect that knowledge correctly. If admitted, the memorandum or record may be read into evidence but may not itself be received as an exhibit unless offered by an adverse party.

The Court of Appeals ruled that the passage of six years between the arrest and trial made it unreasonable to expect the police officers in this case would remember the details of the arrest. Therefore Rule 803(5) applies and the officers should be allowed to read their reports into the record.

COMMENT: This case, once again, emphasizes the importance of writing a complete and thorough report.

Source: Chandler PD Legal Unit