NY4: Not granting a continuance of suppression hearing for unavailable witnesses was an abuse of discretion

The trial court erred in granting the motion to suppress for the nonattendance of its police witnesses after they were subpoenaed but didn’t show. The state sought an adjournment which the trial court denied. It was the first request for the state for a continuance. Considering the state’s “unqualified duty of scrupulous candor,” the reasons for nonappearance should have been credited, and it was an abuse of discretion to not continue the hearing. People v. Schafer, 2017 NY Slip Op 05551, 2017 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5369 (4th Dept. July 7, 2017).

The state provided a wealth of evidence that a violent crime was going on in the house they entered, so the entry was justified by the emergency doctrine. People v. Samuel, 2017 NY Slip Op 05542, 2017 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5395 (4th Dept. July 7, 2017).*

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