State v. Hall

Citations

• 2021 Ohio 3121

Syllabus

CRIM.R. 16 – DISCOVERY: The prosecutor's certification of nondisclosure under Crim.R. 16(D)(1) was inadequate where the prosecutor lacked reasonable, articulable grounds to believe that disclosure of a witness's address would compromise the witness's safety or subject the witness to intimidation or coercion—a witness's generalized fears of testifying or apprehension about being contacted by defense investigators or defense counsel did not constitute reasonable, articulable grounds to justify nondisclosure. Defendant was not materially prejudiced by the trial court's error in accepting the prosecutor's inadequate certification of nondisclosure of a witness's address where the court offered defendant remedies set forth in Crim.R. 16(F)(1), including a continuance and an opportunity to contact the witness, but defendant failed to take advantage of either remedy and did not object to the witness's being allowed to testify.