Would someone please tell me why Baez is taking depos of jail personnel....NOW? What do they have to do with Caylee's death and this case other than KC being in jail?
Shouldn't he be focusing on depos of family and friends?
Baez won't be ready for trial in Oct. It took him 27 months for his last case (Nilton Diaz) and even THEN he wasn't ready....imo! It's taken 8 months for him to START taking depos this time! :clap: great job!
He is doing it because he can. I find the fact that he waited so long to begin the onslaught of depositions, more of a surprise than the actual doing of these depo's.
The Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure delineate who can and cannot be deposed in preparation for trial.
We've seen that witnesses are placed into categories, when they are named as witnesses by either side.
These categories are important and govern among other things, whether or not they are "automatically deposable."
From Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, Section 3.220, the multipart section which addresses pretrial discovery:
(A) The defendant may, without leave of court, take the deposition of any witness listed by the prosecutor as a Category A witness or listed by a co-defendant as a witness to be called at a joint trial or hearing. After receipt by the defendant of the Discovery Exhibit, the defendant may, without leave of court, take the deposition of any unlisted witness who may have information relevant to the offense charged. The prosecutor may, without leave of court, take the deposition of any witness listed by the defendant to be called at a trial or
hearing.
(B) No party may take the deposition of a witness listed by the prosecutor as a Category B witness except upon leave of court with good cause shown. In determining whether to allow a deposition, the court should consider the consequences to the defendant, the complexities of the issues involved, the complexity of the testimony of the witness (e.g., experts), and the other opportunities available to the defendant to discover the information sought by deposition.
(C) A witness listed by the prosecutor as a Category C witness shall not be subject to deposition unless the court determines that the witness should be listed in another category.
As to LE being subject to deposition by JB:
Still from section 3.220:
(5) Depositions of Law Enforcement Officers. Subject to the general provisions of subdivision (h)(1), law enforcement officers shall appear for deposition, without subpoena, upon written notice of taking deposition delivered at the address of the law enforcement agency or department, or an address designated by the law enforcement agency or department, five days prior to the date of the deposition. Law enforcement officers who fail to appear for deposition after being served notice are subject to contempt proceedings.
JB is within his rights to be deposing these correctional officers.
These witnesses most likely had direct dealings with Casey and were somehow involved with events such as her being told of the discovery of the body later identified as Caylee, or have other info which could be damaging or helpful to the defense. That is how they are connected with the death of the child. But that is not the standard to determine whether or not JB is allowed to go forward and depose.
The wisdom of who should or shouldn't be deposed is a whole other topic of stategy, but JB's actions are permissible.
If these JB expeditions were not proper in any way, shape or form, the State's Attorney's would not sit idly by.:wink:!
So that raises the question of, "What happens if the deposition is permissible but gets out of control, improper, or should not be going the route it is taking?"
Then the prosecution can do this, under the Rules:
(1) Motion to Restrict Disclosure of Matters.
On a showing of good cause, the court shall at any time order that specified disclosures be restricted, deferred, or exempted from discovery, that certain matters not be inquired into, that the scope of the deposition be limited to certain matters, that a deposition be sealed and after being sealed be opened only by order of the court, or make such other order as is appropriate to protect a witness from harassment, unnecessary inconvenience, or invasion of privacy, including prohibiting the taking of a deposition. ...
Humble-Opinion:wolf:
