Nguyen

Defendant Tuan Phuong Nguyen contends the court applied the wrong standard to his posttrial Pitchess motion. Defendant had filed the motion after his bribery conviction to gather evidence for a new trial motion, in which he would assert ineffective assistance of counsel. The court denied the motion. It found the requested police personnel records were immaterial to the new trial motion because they did not support an ineffective assistance claim. Defendant contends the court should have disclosed the requested records because they were material to his defense at trial.

The court did not err. By statute, a Pitchess motion compels disclosure of police personnel records only if they are material to the pending litigation. Because defendant had already been convicted, the pending litigation was his new trial motion. Thus, the court correctly considered whether the requested records were material to his ineffective assistance claim. The court did not abuse its discretion by concluding the requested records were immaterial to this claim.

In a supplemental brief, defendant contends the court violated his right to a jury trial by imposing consecutive sentences based on facts…