State v. Aleh, 357 P.3d 12

Defendant Athimbayo Aleh was charged with two second-degree felonies (robbery, theft) and three class B misdemeanors (assault, unlawful detention, sexual solicitation) arising from an altercation with an escort at a motel in July 2010.
At an early roll-call, Aleh (through original counsel) waived a preliminary hearing; statements at the hearing created confusion about whether felonies would be dismissed as part of a plea offer tied to guilty pleas on misdemeanors.
Aleh, later with new counsel, moved to withdraw his waiver; the trial court denied the motion, finding the waiver knowing and voluntary and that any dismissal of felonies depended on accepting a plea the defendant had declined.
At trial the escort testified she was working as an escort (nonsexual services), described the struggle in which Aleh seized her phone and a gun discharged in the bathroom; Aleh testified he grabbed what he thought might be a Taser and the gun discharged accidentally.
A jury convicted Aleh on all counts. On appeal he argued (1) the trial court erred in denying his motion to withdraw the preliminary-hearing waiver and (2) the court improperly limited cross-examination of the escort about past police encounters/escort work.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (State)	Defendant's Argument (Aleh)	Held
Whether the trial court erred in denying Aleh's motion to withdraw his waiver of a preliminary hearing	Waiver was knowing and voluntary; any alleged preliminary-hearing error is cured by a subsequent guilty verdict	Waiver was not knowing, intelligent, or voluntary; deprivation of preliminary hearing violated rights and requires reversal	Affirmed — conviction beyond a reasonable doubt cures any preliminary-hearing defect or error in waiver
Whether excluding questions about the escort's prior police encounters/escort work violated Aleh's right to impeach the witness	Exclusion under Rules 412/608 was within trial court discretion; any error harmless	Cross-examination about prior encounters and continued escorting would materially impeach the escort and likely affect verdict	Affirmed — even assuming error, excluded evidence had little impeachment value and was harmless

State v. Hernandez, 268 P.3d 822 (Utah 2011) (conviction or guilty plea cures certain preliminary-hearing defects; limited prospective application)
State v. Anderson, 612 P.2d 778 (Utah 1980) (purpose of preliminary examination is to screen groundless prosecutions and avoid trial expense and degradation)
United States v. Mechanik, 475 U.S. 66 (U.S. 1986) (a subsequent conviction cures any error in preliminary proceedings)
State v. Virgin, 137 P.3d 787 (Utah 2006) (prosecution must produce believable evidence of elements at preliminary hearing; different standard than trial)
State v. Rhinehart, 167 P.3d 1046 (Utah 2007) (post-conviction verdict cures bindover defects)