State v. Rojas

This is an appeal by the state from an order of the trial court dismissing with prejudice the charges against Roberto Rojas and Jose M. Ortega for cocaine trafficking and possession. We reverse. The trial court erred in dismissing the charges because of the state’s failure to produce a witness for deposition.

The state cannot be deemed responsible for its inability to produce a witness where the state learned belatedly of her incarceration in another state and her refusal to testify against the defendants. “There is no showing that the state, either through calculated official ignorance or…