State v. Coelho

• Decision Date: 24 December 1982
• Docket Number: No. 80-248-C,80-248-C
• Parties: STATE v. Peter J. COELHO. A.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 241

454 A.2d 241

STATE v. Peter J. COELHO.

No. 80-248-C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Dec. 24, 1982.

Reargument Denied Jan. 20, 1983.

Dennis J. Roberts II, Atty. Gen., John E. Migliaccio, Asst. Atty. Gen., for plaintiff.

John F. Sheehan, Providence, for defendant.

OPINION

SHEA, Justice.

On December 9, 1977, a Providence County Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Peter J. Coelho with eight counts of embezzlement from the Rhode Island Housing Investment Fund and two counts of conspiring with Claire O'Coin to embezzle from the fund. Because of the illness of O'Coin's attorney, the trial justice severed the cases, and Coelho proceeded to trial alone. The jury found Coelho guilty of five counts of embezzlement and two counts of conspiracy. On appeal Coelho claims that the trial justice abused his discretion by his refusal to grant his motion for a continuance, and Coelho also claims that his equal-protection guarantees were violated by the state's failure to prosecute Claire O'Coin or her husband, William. ¹

Because we conclude that the refusal to grant a continuance on the facts before us constituted an abuse of discretion, we reverse.

The Rhode Island Housing Investment Fund is a non-profit corporation created to provide housing assistance to minorities and to persons of nominal means. The State of Rhode Island, through the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), provides financial assistance to RIHIF. It also imposes guidelines for disbursement of these funds which include eligibility requirements for recipients and a $5,000 limit on the amount of any loan.

Coelho served as the executive director of RIHIF from July of 1972 until his resignation in April of 1977. In his capacity as executive director, he had the sole authority to sign corporate checks. O'Coin was employed by RIHIF as Coelho's assistant.

An audit of RIHIF conducted in 1977 revealed several irregular transactions. Funds of RIHIF were apparently used to repay a personal loan of Coelho's. A check for $1,000 was issued payable to Petco Realty, a company of which Coelho was the principal. A $2,000 check was recorded in the checkbook and drawn on the bank, but not recorded in the books. A bank statement showed a deposit of $2,638.11 made on July 17, 1974; however, the corresponding checkbook entry showed a deposit of $4,638.11. Four checks totaling $2,000 were recorded in the checkbook as disbursements without corresponding canceled checks. Finally, there was a $250 payment to the Danbury Mint with no documentation of what RIHIF had received for the payment. Evidence presented at trial established that the payment to Danbury Mint was actually for plates produced by the mint, shipped to and received by William O'Coin, Claire O'Coin's husband. Evidence also established that the $2,000 in missing RIHIF funds referred to above were actually used to repay a personal loan of Mr. O'Coin's.

On January 30, 1978, after the grand jury had returned its indictment against Coelho and O'Coin, Coelho filed a motion for discovery and inspection pursuant to Rule 16 of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure. His discovery motion requested in part:

"1. All relevant written or recorded statements or confessions, signed or unsigned, or written summaries of oral statements or confessions made by the defendant, or copies thereof.

" * * *

"4. All books, papers, documents, photographs, sound recordings, or copies thereof, or tangible objects, buildings, or places which are intended for use by the State as evidence at the trial or were obtained from or belong to the defendant.

" * * * "6. A written list of the names and addresses of all persons whom the attorney for the State expects to call as witnesses at the trial in support of the State's direct case."

On February 20, 1978, the state answered Coelho's discovery request, indicating that it did not intend to include in its case any statements made by defendant. The state also produced various records and provided a list of potential witnesses.

The state supplemented its discovery over the next two years. On February 27, 1978, it provided Coelho with additional records. Almost two years later, the state provided two additional discovery documents. It mailed defense counsel a three-page document dated November 8, 1979, containing a list of eleven additional witnesses the state expected to call. Defense counsel, however, did not receive the document until the morning of November 13, 1979. On the same date, the prosecutor also hand-delivered a document entitled "State's Supplemental Answers to Defendant's Request for Discovery." Attached to the supplemental answers were more than fifty pages of additional discovery documents that included, among other things, a copy of a statement of Coelho's dated April 19, 1977; a progress report dated July 1 to September 30, 1972, from Coelho to an official at DCA; and various other documents relating to RIHIF, all dated prior to 1975.

On November 5, 1979, a Superior Court justice had passed the case off the calendar, apparently for several reasons. One of the reasons was an agreement between the prosecutor and defense counsel that the prosecutor would not be free to prosecute Coelho because he was already engaged in another trial that would not be completed for some time. Another reason was the illness of codefendant O'Coin's attorney. That attorney had been excused from court. Also, the then prosecutor and defense counsel had agreed that they would meet and confer before the Coelho trial at which time defendant could comply with all outstanding requirements for discovery. The fact that a trial justice of the Superior Court did in fact pass the case off the calendar appears to confirm without question that there had been an understanding and an agreement that this case would not proceed to trial at that time. Unfortunately, the agreement itself was never stipulated to in writing by the parties, nor was it stated explicitly in the record. It does appear that the conversations and agreement occurred in chambers.

Based on representations of counsel, it appears that shortly after the November 5 hearing, the Attorney General's office assigned the case to a new prosecutor. On Tuesday, November 7, 1979, defense counsel learned that this case would proceed to trial on Tuesday, November 13,--Monday, the twelfth, being a legal holiday. During the November 13 hearing, the new prosecutor took the position that he was neither aware of nor bound by any agreement between defense counsel and the prior prosecutor. He insisted that the state was ready to proceed.

On November 13, because of the state's late delivery of discovery material by the new prosecutor, the illness of codefendant O'Coin's counsel, and because of the agreement with the prior prosecutor, Coelho requested a continuance until the following Monday, November 19, a matter of four trial days. The defendant's attorney, no doubt, expected that his request would be granted, not only because the original prosecutor was on trial before the eleventh-hour switch of the state's attorneys, and because of the codefendant's counsel's illness which had caused the case to be passed from the calendar, but principally because Coelho's earlier motion to sever his case from O'Coin's had been denied. The trial justice ruled that the case was ready, denied the continuance, and then severed the cases, forcing Coelho to proceed to trial, that day, alone.

"There are no mechanical tests for deciding when the denial of a continuance is so arbitrary as to violate due process. The answer must be found in the facts and circumstances of each case, 'particularly in the reason[s] presented to the trial justice at the time the request is denied.' " State v. Franco, R.I., 437 A.2d 1362, 1365 (1981) (quoting State v. Leonardo, 119 R.I. 7, 11, 375 A.2d 1388, 1390 (1977)).

Coelho claims that the facts and circumstances of this case, coupled with the state's late delivery of discovery material, necessitated a continuance. We agree. At the outset we note that "[t]here is no general constitutional right to discovery in a criminal case, * * *." Weatherford v. Bursey, 429 U.S. 545, 559, 97 S.Ct. 837, 846, 51 L.Ed.2d 30, 42 (1977). This principle does not, however, preclude states from implementing discovery procedures. In fact the Supreme Court has stated that "[t]he growth of such discovery devices is a salutory development which, by increasing the evidence available to both parties, enhances the fairness of the adversary system." Wardius v. Oregon, 412 U.S. 470, 474, 93 S.Ct. 2208, 2211, 37 L.Ed.2d 82, 87 (1973). When a state does implement discovery procedures, the failure to comply with its rules, especially since the defense must presumably rely on such compliance in preparing a defense, may violate the defendant's due-process rights to establish the best available defense. State v. Darcy, R.I., 442 A.2d 900, 902 (1982); see also State v. Patriarca, 112 R.I. 14, 37-38, 308 A.2d 300, 315 (1973).

In an effort to make the maximum amount of pretrial information available to the parties, Rhode Island has continuously amended its rule so that it now has one of the most liberal discovery mechanisms in the United States. See State v. Darcy, supra; State v. McParlin, R.I., 422 A.2d 742, 745 (1980).

The Superior Court promulgated Rule 16 in 1972. The rule is based largely upon its federal counterpart and substantially altered previous criminal discovery procedures. The advisory committee note to the federal discovery provision states the purpose of modern liberalized discovery procedures: "[B]roader discovery by both the defense and the prosecution will contribute to the fair and efficient administration of criminal justice by aiding in informed plea negotiations, by minimizing the undesirable effect of surprise at trial, and by otherwise contributing to an accurate determination of the issue of guilt or innocence." Fed.R.Crim.P. 16 advisory...