John Chiv: "Defendant broadly asks the Court to exclude all or nearly all of the evidence admitted by the People in the prior trial, a request stunning in its scope."

May 9, 2022

"Defendant broadly asks the Court to exclude all or nearly all of the evidence admitted by the People in the prior trial, a request stunning in its scope."

Tomorrow is trial setting and setting of Evidence Code 402 hearing in Ray Christie's case. All that should happen is dates will be set tomorrow but with this case, nothing ever goes as planned.

From Judge Gregory Elvine-Kreis' remarks, it seemed a possible setting for EC 402 but with his flip flop rulings, one never knows if he will change his mind about the evidentiary hearing.

The People filed an opposition as required by the Court on May 6 to the latest defense motion to exclude evidence from the 2018 raid.

Will Judge Elvine-Kreis rule against Judge Christopher Wilson's prior rulings and his own previous rulings? Judges don't typically second guess and rule differently against another Judge, let alone go against their own rulings without good reason.

With Judge Elvine-Kreis, it seems the whim and mood of the moment and his ego dictates his random decisions which unfortunately have impact on people's lives.

This case should have stayed with Judge Wilson. He is familiar with the case, presided over the first trial and has years of experience. He can rule decisively on the filings and set an evidentiary hearing only if necessary. Instead, we have hearing after hearing of repeat, argue and being in the same place for months wasting time and court resources.

The People's opposition is very detailed addressing argument point by point. I am not posting all 24 pages.

From the introduction:

"Defendant broadly asks the Court to exclude all or nearly all of the evidence admitted by the People in the prior trial, a request stunning in its scope."

"Defendant asserts evidence of the misdemeanor counts should be excluded under Evidence Code 352 and Evidence Code 1 lOI, but those arguments were already presented to the court and rejected by Judge Wilson when he heard argument on the parties motions in limine."

Defendant asserts that issues with the metadata warrant exclusion and sanctions for the People, but that issue was previously addressed at a contested hearing on Defendant's ultimately unsuccessful motion to dismiss or exclude evidence under California v. Trombetta (1984) 467 U.S. 479 and Ariz. v. Youngblood (1988) 488 U.S. 51 {"Trombetta-Youngblood).

"With respect to the evidence supporting the felony counts, in general terms Defendant asserts the People have insufficient evidence of supporting the felony counts, in general terms Defendant asserts the People have insufficient evidence of ownership of the cattle at issue, and that issues with the metadata undercut the photos/video evidence. These issues go to the weight not the admissibility of the evidence. For these reasons the People respectfully oppose the motion and submit the following opposition."

From the conclusion:

Defendant asserts that, for various reasons, essentially all the evidence which was admitted and shown to the jury in the prior trial should be excluded from the jury's consideration from a second trial on the same charges and facts. If Defendant is to be believed nearly every decision regarding admission of evidence made in the prior trial was incorrect or is now inapplicable because none of the People's former exhibits should be shown to the jury. The uniformity and breadth of Defendant's claim undercuts its credibility.

Another excerpt:

"Since then, Defendant has repeatedly argued to exclude virtually all the evidence admitted in the first trial from the second trial. "

"Defendant first argued to exclude the photos which supported the misdemeanor counts to Judge Wilson on November 15, 2021, as part of their pretrial motions. (See Exhibit 1.) There Defendant asserted that all the photographs supporting the misdemeanor counts should be kept from the jury based on Evidence Code 1101 and Evidence Code 352. Judge Wilson heard Defendant's arguments regarding Evidence Code 1101, undue prejudice, and relevance. He ruled that the photos should be presented to the jury, but stated counsel's arguments regarding their veracity and relevance could also be presented to the jury. "

Defendant then tried to dismiss the case or alternatively exclude most if not all of the photos and video taken under Trombetta-Youngblood hasQd on issues with the digital discovery. Judge Elvine-Kreis conducted a contested hearing where he heard testimony regarding the metadata issue, and eventually found no Trombetta-Youngblood violation. (See Exhibit 2.)

"Defendant now tries a third time to exclude most if not all of the evidence admitted in the prior trial, this time styling their motion "Motion Regarding the People's Evidence." The People follow more or less Defendant's organization to facilitate easy review by the Court of the variety of different arguments contained in Defendant's motion.

Read the previous post and all the links (which have provided for months now) if you have not been following the coverage regularly. I am no longer including all those links with every post.

Court minutes from last hearing: