State Rests Its Case — Jury Dismissed for Evening
33 linesJUDGE WHEELER: Does the State have another witness?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: May I have one moment to confer with the clerk now?
JUDGE WHEELER: Thank you. Have a good evening.
JUDGE WHEELER: Is there an exhibit remaining up here? There's an exhibit up here. Ms. Dugan, could you get that?
JUDGE WHEELER: I think that's 135.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Judge, at this time the State rests.
JUDGE WHEELER: All right. The State has rested its case. That means they presented all their testimony. At this time, we're going to break for the day. All right. I apologize — I know that we've gone over, but I wanted to finish this one witness and not break it up. I will be more mindful of that tomorrow. We won't go over tomorrow, and we won't have any issues with that, okay? In the morning, we'll start with the defense case, and we'll move as quickly as we can. We'll have a better estimate of how we'll be proceeding once we have some discussions here in the courtroom. Okay, so please, again, no discussions amongst yourselves or with anyone else, no searches on the internet or any press reports. We'll see everybody back here tomorrow at 8:30. Okay, thank you very much. Oh, yes.
JUDGE WHEELER: All right. Jury's out of the courtroom, the door is closed. Please be seated. The State has rested its case. Any motions on behalf of the defense?
MS. KAWASS: Your Honor, I didn't know if you wanted me to do that now or if you want me to do that first thing in the morning.
JUDGE WHEELER: Is it going to be a lengthy motion?
MS. KAWASS: No, it's just — I just want to be able to cite cases, but I will be very concise in my argument.
JUDGE WHEELER: All right, you can go ahead and do it now then.
MS. KAWASS: No, I was asking if we could do it first thing in the morning, Judge.
JUDGE WHEELER: Oh, because you want to get cases?
MS. KAWASS: I want to add just the citations. It will be no more, Judge — then I would say it tops, less than 10 minutes, if that much. Five minutes maybe.
JUDGE WHEELER: Are you on, Mr. DeCoste, same timeline?
MS. KAWASS: No, no, no, sir.
MR. DECOSTE: That clock is broken.
JUDGE WHEELER: All right, all right. Sorry for calling you out on that.
MS. KAWASS: I just want to have the case....
JUDGE WHEELER: All right, I'll allow you to make any motions in the morning. And so, as I stated before, you know, we have a timeline that we're trying to deal with. If I could have a list of witnesses — have all your witnesses here tomorrow, please. And then based on what you give me, then we'll see when we need to do an inquiry with Ms. Magbanua in regards to her testifying. We'll get through tomorrow as efficiently as possible, and as we know, we're going to break by five o'clock tomorrow. Okay, and then we'll see where we stand. Anything before we break?
MR. DECOSTE: We do have one issue that we can handle now that would be helpful. So Stephen Downing, who is a sergeant with Florida Highway Patrol, was our witness — you know, the government has him listed, but he testified for the defense in the previous trial. He's testifying again for the defense. While I was cross-examining Agent Sanford, right before — ASA Dugan emailed that she had a conversation with our witness, that he went back in his records, and now his testimony is perhaps changed, and we've received a new document. So we've received now a document right before the State has rested their case that is a new document. And the relevance of it is this: Trooper Downing testified in the deposition and at trial consistently over the course of years that when he pulled over Luis Rivera, he was alone in the car.
MR. DECOSTE: Now all of a sudden, his testimony apparently has changed after a conversation with ASA Dugan — that there's perhaps now an indication that there was a passenger in the vehicle.
JUDGE WHEELER: What's the document that has been provided to you?
MR. DECOSTE: It's a screenshot from a database.
JUDGE WHEELER: Okay, and so, Ms. Dugan, was this just provided to you by the trooper today?
MS. DUGAN: Yes, sir.
JUDGE WHEELER: Okay. So as far as a Richardson hearing, I mean, I don't think that there was any intentional hiding of this. It was just presented to the State today. And so I think that in regards to the prejudice, I know that it changes the testimony that you were expecting, but the trooper will be here. He'll be here in the morning and he'll give you an opportunity to speak with him in the morning, or whenever you choose to call him.
MR. DECOSTE: The issue that I want to make for the record is this — and I don't, Your Honor, I don't say this lightly. This trooper, with other prosecutors — Ms. Dugan is new to this case — with previous prosecutors, and there were many that were involved, we sat down for deposition. We did not, you know, beat around the bush of these questions. We were very detailed in the questions. Same thing in the trial, same thing in the prep. How — during trial — there was a conversation with a new prosecutor, and all of a sudden it's, oh, the testimony changes. I cannot help but think that this is an attempt to change his testimony.
JUDGE WHEELER: All right, because I'm not even going to hear that. You're going to have to talk to the witness about that. Only the witness will know that. If you're making any type of accusation, I'm going to say that it was inadvertent. In the scope of things, it's — it's important to you, I understand that. And so it certainly can be substantial, because I know that this is an issue in regards to whether he was traveling — two people or one person in the car. But you can talk to the trooper about it tomorrow.
JUDGE WHEELER: And I think with the quantity of his testimony and what he is testifying to, you can get whatever information you need to get from him tomorrow morning. And so I'm going to find that you're not prejudiced by that, because the State didn't even know about it until today also, and I don't have any indication that the State is feeding this witness. They're entitled to talk to the witness just as you are. So the witness will know that. Certainly, if there's any indication from the witness of that, then it's a different issue. Okay.
JUDGE WHEELER: All right, so we'll be in recess then until tomorrow, 8:45. We'll meet back and start with the defense case. We'll hear motions first and then proceed accordingly. Okay.
MR. DECOSTE: Understood.