Opinion
SC: 161796 COA: 346529
04-21-2021
PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Benjamin Michael BENTZ, Defendant-Appellant.
Order
By order of October 27, 2020, the Attorney General was directed to answer the application for leave to appeal the May 7, 2020 judgment of the Court of Appeals. On order of the Court, the answer having been received, the application for leave to appeal is again considered. Pursuant to MCR 7.305(H)(1), in lieu of granting leave to appeal, we REMAND this case to the Court of Appeals for consideration of the defendant's argument that the testimony of Dr. N. Debra Simms that the complainant suffered "probable pediatric sexual abuse" requires reversal of the defendant's convictions under the plain-error analysis of People v. Carines, 460 Mich. 750, 763-764, 597 N.W.2d 130 (1999), and this Court's decision in People v. Harbison, 504 Mich. 230, 934 N.W.2d 693 (2019). While the Court of Appeals was correct that this issue was not before it, given that our remand to the trial court was limited to the defendant's ineffective assistance claims, we believe it prudent for the Court of Appeals to consider this issue in the first instance.