State v. Ballard

In State v. Ballard, 331 N.J. Super. 529, 752 A.2d 735 (App.Div.2000), the Court examined a claim relating to a request for discovery in a Bergen County case based on the April 1999 Interim Report of the State Police Review Team Regarding Racial Profiling Allegations (hereinafter "the Interim Report"). The State argued that the trial judge employed the wrong standard for finding that the threshold for discovery had been satisfied and that, in any event, "the lower court erred in concluding that the Interim Report established a colorable basis for granting discovery of the patrol records and radio logs pertaining to individual troopers in the absence of any proffer whatsoever that their behavior was racially motivated." Ballard, supra, 331 N.J. Super. at 536, 752 A.2d 735. The State also contended "that the defendants in Bergen . . . County have not satisfied a 'threshold' requirement entitling them to discovery in support of their selective enforcement claims." Id. at 539, 752 A.2d 735. In remanding for consideration of the scope of discovery by the designated judge, we held that the Bergen defendants, as well as the others before us: Have satisfied the "threshold" necessary for purposes of obtaining discovery in these cases. . . . The decision of the Law Division in State v. Soto, 324 N.J. Super. 66, 734 A.2d 350 (Law Div.1996), the Interim Report, and the lack of any presentation of facts that indicated a change in the policy or practice of the State Police between the Soto decision of March 1996 and the Interim Report of April 1999, leads us to conclude that the threshold has been satisfied. Id. at 542-43, 752 A.2d 735.