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North Carolina v. Agee4/18/1989
Defendant appeals his conviction of felonious possession of LSD under Section 90-95(a)(3). In March 1987, a police officer stopped defendant who was operating an automobile carrying several other passengers. After searching defendant for weapons and searching the rest of the car, the officer charged defendant with: 1) driving while impaired; 2) driving with a revoked license; 3) displaying a fictitious license plate; 4) misdemeanor possession of marijuana; and 5) felonious possession of LSD. The district court judge acquitted defendant of the misdemeanor possession of marijuana charge as well as all other misdemeanor offenses except the driving-while-impaired charge.
Prior to trial of the felonious possession of LSD charge in superior court, defendant moved in limine to exclude any reference to his arrest for the offenses of which he was acquitted. Defendant based his motion on the Fourteenth Amendment, the "law of the
land" clause of our state constitution, and various state rules of evidence. Defendant contended that, since defendant had been acquitted of the marijuana offense, evidence of defendant's marijuana possession was "res judicata" and had "no further life in the criminal justice system, and irrelevant for any purpose at this particular point in time." Defense counsel furthermore stated that:
I know that at some point in time [the prosecutor] will probably argue that [the arrests] are part of the res gestae of what happened here. But since there has already been a prior judicial disposition, their effect is -- the prejudicial affect is far outweighing the probative value to this defendant.
Counsel contended that the State had ample other evidence from which it could show why defendant was stopped while operating his automobile.
The prosecutor responded:
Your honor, it's my understanding that with respect to the possession of marijuana, that this is a situation where the defendant had the item on his person. Apparently during the handling of the matter in district court, the lab results were not yet back at the time of disposition of the driving cases and all were called for trial and, therefore, there was no choice. There was just no lab report to submit. Judge Hair entered a not guilty with respect to that. We would suggest, however, to the Court that under the rules of evidence, it is a "prior conduct" that is wrongful, and we should not be barred from going into that particular aspect of the case.
Defense counsel did not dispute this characterization of the trial in district court.
After hearing these arguments, the trial court made the following ruling:
As to the marijuana, I can see where that may be relevant as to what action took place on the evening . . . it would be inappropriate as to what -- to talk about what took place in district court as to whether he was found guilty or not guilty, for the State to refer to that. But as to the transactions that went on that evening between the officer and the defendant at this point I think would be relevant to just what transpired
out there, would be relevant to the case, and I will deny the motion in limine as to that.
Defense counsel objected to that ruling and stated that, since the court was going to allow the State to introduce evidence that defendant possessed marijuana during his arrest, defendant "may feel compelled to introduce evidence he was found not guilty of having marijuana."
At trial, the State introduced the arresting officer's testimony that he had seen defendant throw a red object to the floor of the car and that a subsequent search had disclosed a red cigar
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