P. v. Rowell
At a probation revocation hearing the trial court found that defendant Raymond Anthony Rowell violated the terms of his probation by failing to notify his probation officer of his change of address. As a consequence, the court revoked defendants probation and imposed a two year prison sentence.
Defendant appeals the revocation of his probation contending, inter alia, that the court should not have considered several hearsay statements contained in the Probation Officers Report Violation Of Probation And/Or Informational (the violation of probation report) because these statements took the place of live testimony. Defendant contends that by replacing live testimony with these hearsay statements, the court violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process because he did not have the opportunity to confront and cross examine adverse witnesses. Because we agree that the trial court erred by allowing several statements in the violation of probation report to take the place of live testimony, Court reverse the judgment.
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