The prosecutor sought to admit written statements from three absent tenants during a trial for Fire Code violations regarding an alleged illegal rooming house.
The court applied the principled exception to the hearsay rule, assessing necessity and reliability.
The court found all statements met the reliability threshold, but only one met the necessity threshold because the prosecutor failed to make adequate efforts to locate and subpoena the other two witnesses.
Consequently, one statement was admitted and two were excluded.
