THE STATE OF FLORIDA
v.
KURT RICHARD DENNINGHOFF
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The State of Florida appealed a trial court's dismissal of a DUI charge against Kurt Richard Denninghoff based on the State's failure to disclose Deputy Moreno's supplemental report pretrial. The appellate court reversed, holding that dismissal was an abuse of discretion because the undisclosed report contained no substantive, exculpatory, or contradictory information not already in the arresting officer's detailed report.
The trial court abused its discretion in dismissing the charge. Although the discovery violation was inadvertent, dismissal is an extreme sanction appropriate only when no lesser sanction would achieve the desired result. The supplemental report contained less than one page of a nine-page combined report and included nothing substantive, exculpatory, or contradictory to the arresting officer's detailed report, making witness recall a viable alternative sanction.
[1] Dismissal of a criminal charge is an extreme sanction that should be imposed only when no viable alternative remedy exists to cure prejudice from a discovery violation.
[2] An undisclosed supplemental report containing less than one page of cumulative, non-exculpatory information already substantially covered in other disclosed materials doe…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“dismissal is an extreme sanction, to be used with caution, and only when a lesser sanction wouldn't achieve the desired result”
Establishes the standard that dismissal for discovery violations must be a last resort, not a default remedy
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceOn May 22, 2021, Deputy Moreno and Officer Torres conducted simultaneous traffic stops on Overseas Highway. A vehicle driven by Denninghoff almost hit…
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Opinion filed April 10, 2024. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
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No. 3D23-0464 Lower Tribunal No. 21-637-A-P
________________
The State of Florida,
Appellant,
vs.
Kurt Richard Denninghoff,
Appellee.
An Appeal from the County Court for Monroe County, Sharon I. Hamilton, Judge. Ashley Moody, Attorney General, and Kseniya Smychkouskaya, Assistant Attorney General, for appellant. Halford G. Schuhmacher, P.A., and Hal Schuhmacher, for appellee. Before LOGUE, C.J., and MILLER and BOKOR, JJ. BOKOR, J. The State of Florida appeals an order dismissing Kurt Richard Denninghoff’s misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence. During the trial, the parties realized that a State’s witness had prepared a short report, which was not turned over to Denninghoff’s counsel pretrial. The trial court conducted a Richardson1 hearing, concluding that while the violation was inadvertent, the resulting prejudice to the defense was substantial due to “how it would have affected the defense in their questioning.” The trial court then dismissed the charges. The State appeals.2 We review the trial court’s dismissal of a criminal charge as a sanction for a discovery violation for abuse of discretion.3
BACKGROUND
At approximately1:22 am on May 22, 2021, Monroe County Sherriff’s Deputy Moreno and Officer Torres were conducting simultaneous traffic stops on the northbound shoulder of Overseas Highway in Islamorada, Monroe County, with Deputy Moreno located approximately 200-300 yards south of Officer Torres. They were within eyesight of each other. During the traffic stops, a vehicle almost hit Deputy Moreno, while also failing to yield,
ANALYSIS
On the record before us, the trial court abused its discretion. As this court has explained, dismissal is an extreme sanction, to be used with caution, and only when a lesser sanction wouldn’t achieve the desired result. Carpenter, 899 So. 2d at 1182; State v. L.E., 754 So. 2d 60, 61 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000); see also State v. Del Gaudio, 445 So. 2d 605, 608 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984) (“Dismissal of an information or indictment is an action of such magnitude that resort to such a sanction should only be had when no viable alternative exists.”) (quotation omitted). The supplemental report of Deputy Moreno (constituting less than a page of the full 9 pages of the combined reports of the two officers) contains almost nothing (and certainly nothing contradictory or substantive) not already in Officer Torres’ detailed report. Certainly, the supplemental report contained no exculpatory evidence; further, no fair reading would show any contradiction between the two reports. At most, it is unclear based on this record, and after reviewing the excluded report, whether anything more than recalling the witness would have been necessary. Accordingly, we reverse the order of dismissal and remand for further proceedings.
Reversed and remanded.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Richardson v. State, 246 So. 2d 771 (Fla. 1971)
- State v. del Gaudio, 445 So. 2d 605 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984)
- State v. Carpenter, 899 So. 2d 1176 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005)
- State v. L.E., 754 So. 2d 60 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000)