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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsProsecutor: No time for evidence against arrested reporter
https://apnews.com/61bdb545074a5604ca5b102bd3c5df30DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A prosecutor who is pursuing charges against an Iowa newspaper reporter who was arrested while covering a protest in May told a judge Thursday that his office shouldnt have to give body-camera footage and other evidence to the journalists lawyer because his office was too busy.
Brad Kinkade, an assistant Polk County attorney, told Judge Christopher Kemp that because Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri had only been charged with misdemeanors, the case was considered a low-priority and wasnt worth the time needed to provide evidence the defense has requested.
Its a turn-and-burn docket, Kinkade said. Theyre supposed to be handled with no delay and little cost.
According to the Des Moines Register, Sahouri was covering a protest near a shopping mall on May 31, less than a week after George Floyd died in Minneapolis, sparking hundreds of demonstrations nationwide. Floyd, who was black, died after a white Minneapolis police officer used his knee to pin down Floyds neck while he gasped for air.
Police began shooting pepper spray and ordering protesters to disperse after some people were destroying property and stealing items from stores.
*snip*
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)Its a turn-and-burn docket, and we can handle it with no delay and little cost!Let's just throw a rope over the limb of that tree in the courthouse yard!"
2naSalit
(86,843 posts)Thanks for the laugh.
RockRaven
(15,035 posts)how they rule on that.
"Your court is supposed to be a rigged-game unthinking authoritarian rubber-stamp job" is a fucking insulting argument to make to a judge. But maybe they have no integrity or dignity. We will see.
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)... The defendant may engage in discovery, including requesting evidence from the state and taking depositions of witnesses ... The state will present its evidence first. The defendant is not required to present any evidence because the state
bears the burden of proving the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt ... Closing arguments must be based upon the evidence produced in trial ...
https://www.iowacourts.gov/static/media/cms/E0402_4AB079FBEE8C6.pdf
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)2.14(2) Disclosure of evidence by the state upon defense motion or request.
a. Disclosure required upon request.
(1) Upon a filed pretrial request by the defendant the attorney for the state shall permit the
defendant to inspect and copy or photograph: Any relevant written or recorded statements made by
the defendant or copies thereof, within the possession, custody or control of the state, unless same
shall have been included with the minutes of evidence accompanying the indictment or information;
the substance of any oral statement made by the defendant which the state intends to offer in evidence
at the trial, including any voice recording of same; and the transcript or record of testimony of the
defendant before a grand jury, whether or not the state intends to offer same in evidence upon trial ...
2.14(5) Continuing duty to disclose. If, subsequent to compliance with an order issued pursuant
to this rule, either party discovers additional evidence, or decides to use evidence which is additional
to that originally intended for use, and such additional evidence is subject to discovery under this
rule, the party shall promptly file written notice of the existence of the additional evidence to allow
the other party to make an appropriate motion for additional discovery ...
2.14(6) Regulation of discovery ...
c. Failure to comply. If at any time during the course of the proceedings it is brought to the attention
of the court that a party has failed to comply with this rule or with an order issued pursuant to this
rule, the court may upon timely application order such party to permit the discovery or inspection,
grant a continuance, or prohibit the party from introducing any evidence not disclosed, or it may enter
such other order as it deems just under the circumstances ...
Rule 2.19 Trial.
2.19(1) Order of trial and arguments
2.19(1) Order of trial and arguments.
a. Order of trial. The jury having been impaneled and sworn, the trial must proceed in the
following order:
(1) Reading indictment and plea. The clerk or prosecuting attorney must read the accusation from
the indictment or the supplemental indictment, as appropriate, and state the defendants plea to the
jury.
(2) Statement ofstates evidence. The prosecuting attorney may briefly state the evidence by which
the prosecuting attorney expects to sustain the indictment.
(3) Statement of defendants evidence. The attorney for the defendant may then briefly state the
defense, or the attorney for the defendant may waive the making of such statement; the attorney for
the defendant may reserve the right to make such statement to a time immediately prior to presentation
of defendants evidence.
(4) Offer of states evidence. The state may then offer the evidence in support of the indictment.
(5) Offer of defendants evidence. The defendant or the defendants counsel may then offer
evidence in support of the defense.
(6) Rebutting or additional evidence. The parties may then, respectively, offer rebutting evidence
only, unless the court, for good reasons, in furtherance of justice, permits them to offer evidence upon
their original case.
b. Order of argument. After the closing of evidence the prosecution shall open the argument.
The defense shall be permitted to reply. The prosecution shall then be permitted to reply in rebuttal.
Length of argument and the number of counsel arguing shall be as limited by the court. When two or
more defendants are on trial for the same offense, they may be heard by one counsel each.
2.19(2) Advance notice of evidence supporting indictments or informations. The prosecuting
attorney, in offering trial evidence in support of an indictment, shall not be permitted to introduce
any witness the minutes of whose testimony was not presented with the indictment to the court;
in the case of informations, a witness may testify in support thereof if the witnesss identity and a
minute of the witnesss evidence has been given pursuant to these rules. However, these provisions
are subject to the following exception: Additional witnesses in support of the indictment or trial
information may be presented by the prosecuting attorney if the prosecuting attorney has given
the defendants attorney of record, or the defendant if the defendant has no attorney, a minute of
such witnesss evidence, as defined in rule 2.4(6)(a) or rule 2.5(3), at least ten days before the
commencement of the trial.
2.19(3) Failure to give notice. If the prosecuting attorney does not give notice to the defendant of
all prosecution witnesses (except rebuttal witnesses) at least ten days before trial, the court may order
the state to permit the discovery of such witnesses, grant a continuance, or enter such other order as it
deems just under the circumstances. It may, if it finds that no less severe remedy is adequate to protect
the defendant from undue prejudice, order the exclusion of the testimony of any such witnesses ...
2.19(8) Motion for judgment of acquittal.
a. Motion before submission to jury. The court on motion of a defendant or on its own motion shall
order the entry of judgment of acquittal of one or more offenses charged in the indictment after the
evidence on either side is closed if the evidence is insufficient to sustain a conviction of such offense
or offenses. If a defendants motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of the evidence offered by
the prosecuting attorney is not granted, the defendant may offer evidence without having waived the
right to rely on such motion ...
https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/ACO/CourtRulesChapter/2.pdf
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)Tyler J. Davis, Des Moines Register
Published 5:38 p.m. CT July 21, 2020 | Updated 6:18 p.m. CT July 21, 2020
... Christopher Kemp, an associate judge in Iowa's Fifth Judicial District, on Monday responded to three requests from attorneys for Andrea Sahouri, a 24-year-old Des Moines Register reporter. He declined to dismiss the simple misdemeanor charges, as her attorneys asked him to do last month, and declined to order Polk County Attorney's Office to produce a bill of particulars, a document providing more details surrounding the state's allegations.
Kemp wrote that he expects prosecutors to have recordings and reports from those who arrested Sahouri ready to share by the next court date, which has not been scheduled.
"The state shall provide mandatory discovery
including but not limited to video, reports, audio recordings, and statements of the defendant," Kemp wrote.
Sahouri was pepper-sprayed and detained by Des Moines police on May 31 while following protests at Merle Hay Mall that turned to looting. She and her boyfriend, who accompanied her for safety reasons, were fleeing the scene when officers began using nonlethal dispersement techniques and arresting several people ...
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2020/07/21/andrea-sahouri-reporter-arrested-covering-black-lives-matter-protest-judge-orders-bodycam-footage/5481493002/
mjvpi
(1,389 posts)This should make for a great civil case once this part is over.
crickets
(25,987 posts)Just because the arrogant attorney doesn't take details like evidence of wrongdoing or impartial justice seriously doesn't mean the judge will agree.