Failure to provide written transcript results in loss for Appellant
The State appealed a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress evidence. The prosecutor filed an electronic version of the suppression hearing (an audio or video recording) but failed to have a paper transcript created. The Court of Appeals for Montgomery County stated that it had discretion, based on former Appellate Rule 9, to review the electronic version of the motion to suppress hearing, but it chose not to. Instead, the Court of Appeals presumed the regularity of the proceedings below and affirmed the ruling of the trial court.
In the newly amended version of Appellate Rule 9, at B(1), it states, "It is the obligation of the appellant to ensure that the proceedings the appellant considers necessary for inclusion in the record, however those proceedings were recorded, are transcribed in a form that meets the specifications of App. R. 9(B)(6)."
Read the decision in State v. Watson, 2011-Ohio-5213, here.
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