State v. Matatall

The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court convicting Defendant of operating under the influence (OUI) with one prior OUI offense, holding that the court did not abuse its discretion during the proceedings below.On appeal, Defendant argued that the court abused its discretion when it ordered that the State would be permitted to use a challenged video recording to impeach Defendant if he testified and contradicted what the video showed, despite the court’s order sanctioning the State by excluding the recording from the State’s case-in-chief. The Supreme Court disagreed, holding (1) the State’s failure to provide Defendant with the recording it intended to offer in evidence within seven days after his plea of not guilty constituted a violation of M.R.U. Crim. P. 16(a)(2)(C); but (2) the court acted within its discretion in declining to exclude the video altogether, and the sanction did not deprive Defendant of a fair trial. View "State v. Matatall" on Justia Law