Cooley

The County of Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office (DA) petitions for extraordinary relief from an order of respondent Los Angeles County Superior Court. The order granted the motion of real party in interest Melissa Greenstein to enforce a deposition subpoena duces tecum (SDT) served on nonparty DA, seeking the production of business records that were generated by entities other than the DA. Because the DA and its personnel are not in a position to make the attestations that must accompany subpoenaed business records under Evidence Code section 1561, subdivision (a), Green-stein’s motion should have been denied. Accordingly, we grant the DA’s petition.

BACKGROUND

In July 2003, George Weller drove his car on a street closed to traffic for the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market, resulting in 10 deaths and many injuries. Based on this conduct, the DA is prosecuting Weller for vehicular manslaughter. Weller, along with the City of Santa Monica and others, are also defendants in numerous related civil actions, including one brought by Greenstein.

The fanner’s market incident was investigated by the Santa Monica Police Department and the California Highway Patrol. Results of…