Zarate v. Jennings
| Decision Date | 15 June 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. 1,CA-CIV,1 |
| Parties | Eva Mae ZARATE, Petitioner, v. The Honorable Renz D. JENNINGS, Justice of the Peace, East Phoenix Precinct Number One, and The Honorable Kenneth C. Chatwin, Judge of the Superior Court, Maricopa County, Respondents, The STATE of Arizona ex rel. Moise BERGER, Maricopa County Attorney, Real Party in Interest. 1972. |
| Court | Arizona Court of Appeals |
Moise Berger, Maricopa County Atty., by Joseph E. Abodeely, Deputy County Atty., for real party in interest.
Eva Mae Zarate, herein referred to as the petitioner, by this special action seeks to review a ruling by The Honorable Renz D. Jennings, the Justice of the Peace of the East Phoenix Precinct Number One, and a ruling of The Honorable Kenneth C. Chatwin, a Judge of the Superior Court for Maricopa County. Herein these judicial officers will be referred to as the Respondent Jennings and the Respondent Chatwin, respectively.
The petition for special action relief and the response of County Attorney Moise Berger, the real party in interest, together with a reporter's transcript of the proceedings before the Respondent Jennings, were presented to this Court at an informal hearing and the matter was taken under advisement. The Respondent Jennings and the Respondent Chatwin were served and did not appear before this Court.
Department B of this Court has under its consideration a similar problem in the case of Brooks v. Jennings, 1 CA-CIV 1988 (17 Ariz.App. 407, 498 P.2d 481).
Sam Gonzales, a police officer of the City of Phoenix, based upon information secured from two confidential informants, secured a search warrant for a home in the City of Phoenix. Officer Gonzales and a number of other officers including Officer Jonovich executed the warrant. In one of the bedrooms of the home Officer Gonzales interviewed the petitioner while Officer Jonovich searched the same room in their presence and found two separate papers alleged to contain heroin. The petitioner was removed to the city jail of the City of Phoenix while other officers continued the search of the home. There were a number of persons other than the petitioner present in the home at the time of Thereafter in East Phoenix Precinct Justice Court Number One, in cause number 4018, a complaint was filed wherein the petitioner and the two Torres were charged in one count with the alleged possession of amphetamine and the petitioner, in a separate count, was charged with the illegal possession of heroin.
the execution of the search warrant including Jose Victor Torres and Florence Molina Finegan Torres. The other searching officers, out of the presence of Officer Gonzales, found other materials in the home.
The Respondent Jennings was presiding at the preliminary hearing which was based upon the above referred to complaint when the ruling which gives rise to the present special action was made. The three defendants named in the complaint were each represented by separate counsel. Officer Gonzales was sworn and testified. In his testimony reference was made to the fact of reliance upon the information received from the confidential informants, the issuance of the search warrant, the execution of the warrant, the discovery by Officer Jonovich, the fact that Officer Jonovich retained the items he found, he having been designated 'as the finder and retainer', and that Officer Gonzales aided Officer Jonovich in making the required inventory of the items seized.
The reporter's transcript reflects the following during the cross-examination of Officer Gonzales, conducted on behalf of the petitioner.
'Q Did you prior to testifying today review any written report or D.R. to refresh your memory?
'A Yes, sir.
'Q Do you have a copy of that with you?
'Q May I see that.
'A You have to discuss that with him.
The attorneys for the two defendants Torres joined in the request.
There was no further reference to the departmental report (D.R.) made by Officer Gonzales.
The petitioner filed a special action complaint in the Superior Court naming the Respondent Jennings and the County Attorney as the defendants. The complaint was assigned Superior Court Cause No. C--257469. The relief sought in the Superior Court was that the State be ordered to provide a copy of the departmental report which Officer Gonzales used to refresh his memory. The Superior Court, through offices of the Respondent Chatwin, entered a formal written judgment dismissing the special action. In the judgment the Respondent Chatwin expressly relied upon the case of State ex rel. Corbin v. Superior Court of Maricopa County, 99
Ariz. 382, 409 P.2d 547 (1966). Thereafter the special action now under consideration was filed.
Article 6 of the Arizona Constitution and particularly § 14(11) and § 18, A.R.S. vests broad powers in the Superior Court in the matter of entertaining requests for relief by the vehicle of extraordinary writs. These constitutional provisions are supplemented by statutes which we do not find it necessary to recite. The Special Action Rules, 17 A.R.S., provide that the form of the Superior Court proceedings shall be by special action. The jurisdiction of the Superior Court is not here questioned.
The special action in the Superior Court was an original proceeding from which an appeal could be taken upon the entry of a final judgment appealing to the Court of Appeals. Special Action Rule 8(a) provides in part:
'Where there is no equally plain, speedy, and adequate remedy by appeal, a judgment in a special action in a Superior Court may be reviewed by a special action Directed against the original defendants.' (Emphasis added.)
Rule 8(b) recognizes that the Court of Appeals may decline to accept the special action. The petitioner herein having been unsuccessful in the Superior Court, she comes within the above-quoted Rule 8(a) in her efforts to secure relief in the Court of Appeals. The route of special action relief in the Court of Appeals calls for the exercise of the discretion of the Judges of the Court of Appeals as to whether they will assume jurisdiction whereas there is a right of appeal to the Court of Appeals which, if procedurally correct, the Court of Appeals could not decline to hear. The jurisdictional aspect of the Court of Appeals in the instant case is in many respects similar to that which this Court had under consideration in the case of Crouch v. Justice of the Peace Court of Sixth Precinct, 7 Ariz.App. 460, 440 P.2d 1000 (1968).
In the Brooks case Department B speaks of this Court's special action jurisdiction with reference to Justices of the Peace. If it be that by their statement they mean direct special action jurisdiction without following the steps followed in the Brooks case and in this case we are in disagreement. If they mean the power to direct, we are in disagreement. We have the power to direct only when the ruling is one we could consider on appeal and there is no appeal from a ruling of a magistrate conducting a preliminary hearing.
In the Superior Court certain discovery is afforded to defen- dants by Criminal Rule 195, 17 A.R.S. Discovery is not limited to the four corners of the Rule. In the exercise of their sound discretion, and with some limitations not herein set forth, the judges of the Superior Court have the inherent power to grant discovery not covered by Rule 195 when the discovery so granted is necessary to the due administration of justice. State ex rel. Mahoney v. Superior Court of Maricopa County, 78 Ariz. 74, 275 P.2d 887 (1954); State ex rel. Polley v. Superior Court of Santa Cruz County, 81 Ariz. 127, 302 P.2d 263 (1956); State ex rel Helm v. Superior Court of Cochise County, 90 Ariz. 133, 367 P.2d 6 (1961); State v. McGee, 91 Ariz. 101, 370 P.2d 261 (1962); State ex rel. Corbin v. Superior Court of Maricopa County, 103 Ariz. 465, 445 P.2d 441 (1968).
The case law in Arizona relative to the right or the privilege of a defendant to see the departmental report of an officer who is on the stand as a witness relates only to situations wherein the defendant is on trial in the Superior Court. We cite the following cases. State v. Saenz, 88 Ariz. 154, 353 P.2d 1026 (1960); State v. Ashton, 95 Ariz. 37, 386 P.2d 83 (1963); State v. Wallace, 97 Ariz. 296, 399 P.2d 909 (1965); State ex rel. Corbin v. Superior In Saenz the trial judge, in granting a motion for new trial, stated that he felt it was possible error to deny the defendant the privilege of examining the departmental report which had been made by the officer who was then on the witness stand even though the officer had not used the report to refresh his recollection. The Supreme Court affirmed. The Supreme Court observed that the report could possibly be...
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Dunlap v. Superior Court, In and For County of Maricopa
...an unlawful search and seizure. State v. Jacobson, 106 Ariz. 129, 130, 471 P.2d 1021, 1022 (1970). See also Zarate v. Jennings, 17 Ariz.App. 401, 406, 498 P.2d 475, 480 (App.1972). Such power was vested exclusively in the superior court. Jacobson, 106 Ariz. at 130, 471 P.2d at 1022. While u......
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State v. Roberts
...a criminal defendant is entitled to discover certain evidence is a matter within the trial court's discretion. See Zarate v. Jennings, 17 Ariz.App. 401, 498 P.2d 475 (1972). As a matter of fundamental fairness, "justice dictates that the defendant be entitled to the benefit of any reasonabl......
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State ex rel. Thomas v. Newell
...(9th Cir.2008) (trial court is "charged with effectuating the speedy and orderly administration of justice"); Zarate v. Jennings, 17 Ariz.App. 401, 404, 498 P.2d 475, 478 (1972) (judges have inherent power to manage disclosure not covered by rules when "necessary to the due administration o......