In People v. Brown the Court held that, when a prosecutor files a motion seeking a continuance of a hearing on a motion to suppress evidence, the trial court is generally required to grant the motion if the challenged evidence is so important that its suppression would require dismissal of the charges. The prosecution bears the burden of proving an inability to proceed without the evidence in question.
The decision reverses a decision by the Sixth Appellate District.
All seven justices concurred in the rule adopted by the court, but Justice Groban wrote a dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Liu and Evans, disagreeing with the majority’s conclusion that the trial court’s ruling complied with the standard articulated by the court. The dissenters would have sent the case back to the trial court to determine whether the prosecution had satisfied its burden of showing that the disputed evidence was so important that suppression of the evidence would require dismissal of the case.