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Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Mike Nichols Blocks Prosecutor From Introducing Evidence

By Michael Nichols

A prosecutor attempted to introduce evidence in the middle of trial that had not been previously disclosed and was stopped by a northern Michigan judge from introducing it. "The judge previously made a ruling that I did not think was appropriate in District Court," Mike Nichols said. He added, "Michigan law is clear that discovery is not permitted in District Court. The judge may allow it but the courts of appeals say that it is error to hold that a party cannot introduce evidence for a violation of a discovery order. However, since the judge previously ruled that we could not introduce some medical records because we did not provide them to the prosecutor in time, rather than get into a fight with the judge over what I felt was the wrong ruling, I simply asked her to enforce it both ways." The evidence at issue was a document found in the middle of trial that a witness was unable to produce. "The witness really looked bad in front of the jury and the lack of this document really stymied them and gave us a great argument," Nichols added.