People v. Cogswell

Opinion

KENNARD, J.

A witness’s preliminary hearing testimony is admissible at trial if the witness is “unavailable” despite the exercise of “reasonable diligence” by the party seeking the witness’s attendance. (Evid. Code, § 1291.) At issue is whether, to show “reasonable diligence” in obtaining the presence at trial of a sexual assault victim living outside California, the prosecution in this case had to ask a court to order the victim taken into custody and transported to California to testify at defendant’s trial.

On a visit to California, a Colorado woman was sexually attacked. At the…