High court is set to hear 'shroom case

SANDPOINT — The Idaho Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in the case of Washington state woman who argues her right to confront her accusers in a felony drug case was violated.

Counsel for Laura Lee Smith is scheduled to go before high court justices in Boise on Jan. 11, 2017.

Smith was accused of providing hallucinogenic mushrooms to an undercover sheriff’s detective outside Club Rio in Oldtown in 2011. A jury subsequently convicted Smith of aiding and abetting the delivery of a controlled substance and was given probation and a suspended prison term, according to court documents.

Smith, a 40-year-old from Newport, appealed the conviction on grounds that a 1st District Court judge erred by admitting into evidence an audio track of a video recording of an alleged accomplice. The accomplice was not called to testify at Smith’s trial, which denied her the ability to cross-examine the person.

The right to confront one’s accusers at trial is guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Smith’s counsel, State Appellate Public Defender Eric D. Fredericksen, argues that Judge Barbara Buchanan erred by allowing the recording to entered as evidence, in addition to allowing a deputy to recount statements made that were made during the recording.

Smith further argues that there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction, which she seeks to either nullify or be granted a new trial.

Deputy attorneys general, meanwhile, contend the statements admitted into evidence were not testimonial and therefore do not violate the constitutional confrontation clause. The state also argues that the statements were not inadmissible hearsay and if there was indeed an error it was harmless.