SHERIDAN — The trial of David Briscoe, 19, who is accused of aggravated assault and threatening another person with a drawn deadly weapon, was continued before 4th Judicial District Court John Fenn Monday morning after legal issues made it impossible for the trial to proceed as scheduled. No information has yet become available as to when the trial will begin.
Court documents allege Briscoe threatened a then-17-year-old in the Sheridan Taco Bell parking lot in November 2020. Briscoe allegedly pulled up his shirt, revealing and putting his hand on a firearm in his waistband, while making menacing statements.
The reason for the continuance of Briscoe’s case was, presumably, legal debates regarding the flurry of motions filed with the court late last week. These motions were relatively standard — including subpoenas and motions to transport incarcerated parties to the courthouse on the day of trial, among others — until an amended trial brief announced the prosecution’s intentions to call another witness, called K.R., to testify to what he witnessed on the day of the alleged assault.
Initially, court documents indicate, the state planned to make its case by calling four witnesses — including Briscoe’s alleged victim, a witness to the alleged assault, and two Sheridan Police Department officers involved in Briscoe’s arrest. The state also planned to present footage captured on the two officers’ body-worn cameras as evidence. The inclusion of minor K.R. as a witness for the prosecution and an additional piece of evidence — a Snapchat communiqué — were new as of Oct. 15 and Oct. 18, respectively.
According to court documents, K.R. was served a subpoena at 8:20 p.m. Oct. 14, about three days before he was due to appear in court to testify.
In a motion filed the next morning, Briscoe’s defense vigorously objected to the state’s surprise witness. Briscoe’s attorney, assistant public defender Stacy Kirven, alleged K.R.’s intended testimony was not clear per documents received by the defense. In fact, the defense’s motion claimed no person with the initials K.R. was involved in the case.
“None of the police reports provided by the State included the initials K.R.,” Kirven wrote in the motion, “or listed any individual with a first and last name beginning with ‘K’ and ‘R.’"
Because the Briscoe investigation is ongoing, the Sheridan Police Department was unable to confirm or deny whether police reports filed in the case referenced a K.R. or any individual with those initials.
Moreover, Kirven argued any statements from K.R. should have been provided to the defense before one business day prior to trial and the prosecution had not provided the defense with all documentation related to the new witness’ role in the case. This documentation, Kirven alleged, had not yet been provided by the state.
The legal basis for Kirven’s argument lies in the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland, in which the court held, under the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause, prosecutors are required to turn over exculpatory evidence to the defense.
Defendants are entitled to review “Brady material” through discovery, the formal process by which both parties in a case exchange information about the case each plans to present, including intended witnesses and other evidence. Because of the Brady decision, the prosecution must disclose to the defense all evidence favorable to the accused — including evidence indicating innocence or undermining the credibility of a prosecution witness — during discovery.
“At this point,” the defense’s motion said, “discovery by the State is still incomplete as it relates to witness K.R.”
As of Monday afternoon, the prosecution had not filed any motions in response to the defense’s objection. This issue, however, was likely the subject of a closed hearing earlier Monday morning, just before Briscoe’s trial was set to begin.
After prospective jurors had waited for the start of trial in their socially-distant seats for about half an hour, the defendant and his counsel, prosecutors, court clerks and Fenn appeared in the courtroom.
Fenn announced the trial would be held on a later date. The prospective jurors would be compensated for their time, the judge said, but they were dismissed.
A morning-of-trial continuance, Fenn said, had never happened in his nearly 15 years on the bench.
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Assault trial continued after prosecution adds surprise witness to roster - The Sheridan Press
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