State v. Lewis
State v. Lewis
Opinion of the Court
{1} Having denied Appellant's motion for rehearing, we withdraw the opinion filed on August 31, 2017, and substitute the following in its place. The State asks us to reverse the district court's sanction of dismissal with prejudice of Defendant's shoplifting charges resulting from the State's failure to timely turn over recordings of witness identification interviews. Because the district court failed to explain the manner in which it considered culpability, prejudice, and lesser sanctions, as required by State v. Harper ,
I. BACKGROUND
{2} Defendant Damon Lewis, was indicted for shoplifting and conspiracy to commit shoplifting on June 25, 2014. The district court issued a scheduling order requiring that the parties complete all witness interviews by July 17, 2015, and file all pre-trial motions, excluding motions in limine, by July 28, 2015. The district court set the docket call for October 26, 2015, and trial on a trailing docket beginning November 2, 2015.
{3} Three months after the deadline to file pre-trial motions, Defendant filed a motion to dismiss the case or suppress the photo array identifications. In his motion, Defendant asserted that the police failed to record the photo array identifications contrary to the police department's standard operating procedures, reasoning that because the State had not produced any recording during discovery as required by Rule 5-501 NMRA, it must have failed to collect and preserve that evidence.
*487{4} On the first day of trial, the district court addressed Defendant's motion to dismiss, noting it was untimely. Defense counsel advised the court that, since filing his motion, the State had provided the recordings he presumed were lost, destroyed, or nonexistent. In response, the State pointed to a speed letter issued to Defendant, explaining that the recordings had been checked into evidence for as long as the case had been pending and were therefore available to Defendant. The State conceded that it had "definitely violated" the rule requiring it to provide copies of audio, video, and audio-video recordings made by law enforcement officers, see LR2-400.1(D) NMRA, but argued that the court had discretion under Harper to impose a lesser sanction than dismissal or suppression. See
II. DISCUSSION
{5} We review the district court's imposition of sanctions for an abuse of discretion. Le Mier ,
{6} In Harper , our Supreme Court held that "exclusion of witnesses requires an intentional violation of a court order, prejudice to the opposing party, and consideration of less severe sanctions[.]"
*488Le Mier ,
{7} Using this framework to guide its assessment of the district court's discretion in imposing sanctions, the Le Mier court then assessed the Harper factors. Le Mier ,
{8} Because the rules of criminal procedure and existing case law apply to this case "only to the extent they do not conflict" with the special calendar rule, LR2-400.1(A),(B), we must determine whether a conflict exists. While the language of the rule makes sanctions mandatory for violations of discovery obligations and scheduling order deadlines, it leaves the decision of the type of sanction to impose to the discretion of the district court. The rule provides no guidance as to the considerations to be made when assessing sanctions. Our Supreme Court, however, has set out guidelines for assessing sanctions in Harper and Le Mier . Le Mier 's requirements that a court must both evaluate the considerations identified in Harper and explain its decision within the Harper framework in determining what type of sanction to impose, merely supplement the rule without conflicting with it. As no conflict exists between the rule and established precedent, we continue to rely on Harper 's use of culpability, prejudice, and lesser sanctions as appropriate tools for evaluating the type of sanction that the district court may impose. Further, though Harper and Le Mier address a district court's exclusion of a witness as a sanction, rather than the dismissal with prejudice employed in this case, both dismissal and witness exclusion constitute "extreme" sanctions. See Harper ,
{9} The State concedes that it violated its initial disclosure obligations under LR2-400.1. The rule requires that "copies of documentary evidence and audio, video, and audio-video recordings" be provided within ten days of February 2, 2015, if not already disclosed. LR2-400.1(D). The State also had a "continuing duty to disclose additional information to [the defendant] within five (5) days of receipt of such information." LR2-400.1(D)(2). Here, the recordings were not *489provided to Defendant until November 16 or 17, 2015, just a day or so before trial was to begin and well outside of any disclosure period provided for by the rule.
{10} We disagree with the State's argument that providing the speed letter satisfied the requirements of LR2-400.1(D). The rule requires the parties to provide "copies of documentary evidence and audio, video, and audio-video recordings made by law enforcement officers or others, and , where necessary, a 'speed letter' authorizing the defendant to examine physical evidence in the possession of the State." LR2-400.1(D) (emphasis added). The requirements of LR2-400.1(D) were not satisfied by the provision of a speed letter because the language of the rule requires production of physical copies of documentary and audio-visual evidence in addition to a speed letter. See
{11} The State having violated its discovery obligations set forth in LR2-400.1(D), the district court was required to impose sanctions. Those sanctions are subject to the considerations enunciated in Harper and Le Mier . Le Mier makes it clear that, even when the special calendar rule requires imposition of sanctions, the district court "must evaluate ... culpability, prejudice, and lesser sanctions[,]" as enunciated in Harper . Le Mier ,
{12} In this instance, the district court's assessment of the Harper factors is virtually nonexistent. Le Mier requires the district court to not only weigh the degree of culpability and extent of prejudice, but also explain its decision regarding applicability of lesser sanctions on the record. In this case, we do not have the benefit of looking at the sanction imposed through the lens of a thorough record that indicates a careful consideration of the Harper factors. Instead, we are left to determine whether the district court abused its discretion by arriving at the most extreme sanction available in response to an apparently unremarkable fact pattern. Though the district court was unquestionably aware of its obligation to consider the Harper factors, nothing in the record reveals the district court's reasons for imposing a sanction of dismissal with prejudice or the facts on which the district court based its decision. The limited record in this case is inadequate to determine whether the district court exercised due care in making its decision to impose a severe sanction contrary to Le Mier's specific requirement that a district court "must explain [its] decision[.]"
{13} To illustrate the inadequacy of the record made in this case, we discuss the Harper factors-as modified by Le Mier -and the district court's assessment of each, beginning with culpability. Le Mier moves courts away from the Harper requirement that bad faith or intransigence exist prior to assessing sanctions against a party. Harper ,
{14} As to prejudice, Le Mier explains that "[w]hen a court orders a party to provide discovery within a given time frame, failure to comply with that order causes prejudice both to the opposing party and to the court." Id. ¶ 25. Thus, under Le Mier , every discovery order violation gives rise to some degree of prejudice. Unlike the circumstances in Le Mier , this case involved no additional extensions and hearings regarding discovery issues requiring the district court to resolve the issue or effect compliance with the discovery order. Instead, after the deadline for discovery and pre-trial motions had expired, Defendant filed a motion to dismiss the case or suppress the photo array identification when he realized, a few weeks before trial, that the State had not produced a video of the identification. Nowhere in the record, however, did the district court address prejudice.
{15} Finally, we look at whether the district court considered lesser sanctions prior to dismissing the case with prejudice. Le Mier reminds us that "the district court was not obligated to consider every conceivable lesser sanction" before imposing dismissal with prejudice. Id. ¶ 27. It was only required to fashion the least severe sanction that it felt fit the situation and achieved the desired result. Id. The district court's consideration of lesser sanctions in this case was cursory at best. The district court began by reciting the sanctions listed in the rule, "which may include dismissal of the case with or without prejudice, prohibiting the party from calling witnesses or introducing evidence, [and] monetary sanctions[.]" LR2-400.1(D)(4). The court noted that "monetary sanctions aren't doing anything" and, after reciting language from the rule regarding both parties' duty to disclose, dismissed the case with prejudice. There was no discussion of witness or evidence exclusion, which had been requested by Defendant in the alternative, nor was there any discussion of dismissal without prejudice. The district court made no other statements on the record explaining its reasons for choosing the extreme sanction imposed-dismissal with prejudice-over any other lesser sanction.
{16} Despite the broad discretion Le Mier provides district courts when imposing sanctions, we remind our district courts that any decision to impose severe sanctions requires an adequately developed record that an appellate court can substantively review. While we may have expressed some concern with the severity of the sanction imposed in the present case-circumstances that appear much less egregious than the circumstances addressed in Le Mier -this does not preclude the possibility that the district court could have developed an adequate record finding the State culpable, perceiving sufficient prejudice to Defendant or the court, and determining that the discovery violation was sufficiently egregious to warrant a dismissal with prejudice rather than the lesser sanction requested by Defendant. We are also fully aware of our duty to view the evidence and all inferences in the light most favorable to the district court's decision, see Le Mier ,
{17} Finally, the State also argues on appeal that the district court erred in considering and ruling on Defendant's untimely motion to dismiss. Because the State admitted it "definitely violated" its discovery obligation, and it waited until the day before trial to actually produce the discovery, we conclude the district court did not abuse its discretion in considering and ruling on Defendant's untimely motion to dismiss. See *491LR2-400.1(J)(3) (stating that "for good cause shown" the scheduling order deadlines may be extended, provided the extension does not result in an extension of the trial date). In making this argument, the State seeks a ruling that the district court cannot impose a sanction of dismissal for discovery violations once the motions deadline has passed. A district court is not prevented from imposing a sanction of dismissal for discovery violations once the motions deadline has passed. Nothing in the language of LR2-400.1 supports such an outcome. To read LR2-400.1 otherwise would lead to an illogical result, allowing the State to disregard the discovery requirements of LR2-400.1, turn things over outside the discovery deadline, argue a defendant cannot move for dismissal as a sanction because the motions deadline has run, and thereby avoid any repercussions for its discovery violations. See State v. House ,
III. CONCLUSION
{18} We reverse and remand based on the lack of stated support for the dismissal.
{19} IT IS SO ORDERED.
WE CONCUR:
MICHAEL E. VIGIL, Judge
TIMOTHY L. GARCIA, Judge
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.