Allen v. 3rd Judicial Dist. Court

• Court: Montana Supreme Court
• Decided: January 15, 2025
• Docket: OP 25-0018
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

D ORIGINAL 01/15/2025

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA Case Number: OP 25-0018

OP 25-0018

REX ALLEN,

Petitioner,

v. ORDER

THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT, FILED POWELL COUNTY, JAN 1 5 2025 HONORABLE JEFFREY DAHOOD, Presiding.' Bowen Greenwood Clerk of Supreme Court State of Montana

Rex Allen has filed a Petition for Writ of Supervisory Control over the Third Judicial District Court, Powell County, and the Honorable Jeffrey Dahood. Allen requests a ruling on his pending petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the District Court that he filed in May 2024. Allen adds that he has sentences from the Thirteenth Judicial District Court, Yellowstone County, and the Fourth Judicial District Court, Missoula County. We observe that Allen served the Clerk of Court for Powell County, but not the District Court Judge, pursuant to M. R. App. P. 14(6). While this Court has supervisory control over all other courts, pursuant to the Montana,Constitution, this Court recognizes- that supervisory control is appropriate on a case-by-case basis. Stokes v. Mont. Thirteenth Judicial Dist. Court, 2011 MT 182, ¶ 5, 361 Mont. 279, 259 P.3d 754. A petitioner must demonstrate a case with purely legal questions and urgent or emergency factors making the normal appeal process inadequate, along with one of the three listed criteria under our rules. M. R. App. P. 14(3).

When Allen drafted his Petition in December 2024, the Honorable Ray Dayton was the presiding Judge. Pursuant to M. R. App. P. 2(4), this Court has revised the caption to reflect the Honorable Jeffrey Dahood who is now the District Court Judge for the Third Judicial District Court. Upon review, we conclude that supervisory control is not appropriate here. Through counsel, Allen has four appeals pending with this Court of felony convictions and sentences from the Yellowstone County District Court. On April 23, 2024, this Court stayed his appeals while the District Court entertained the pending motions. Since that time, the District Court has re-set the briefing schedule to conclude on December 23, 2024, whereupon the court will set a hearing. Thus, currently, the Yellowstone County District Court has jurisdiction of his cases. Turning to his misdemeanor sentence from the Missoula County District Court, Allen's remedy is not with this Court or the Powell County District Court. According to his attachments, on August 20, 2021, the Missoula County District Court issued its Judgment resentencing Allen after granting Allen's postconviction petition for relief, reducing his felony conyiction from 2017 to a misdemeanor partner or family member assault conviction. On October 12, 2021, the Missoula County District Court imposed a sentence of 231 days to the Missoula County Detention Facility, to run concurrently with a sentence from Dawson County. Allen cannot challenge his misdemeanor sentence by seeking to withdraw his plea through a writ of habeas 'corpus in the Powell County District Court. He should have moved to withdraw his plea in the sentencing coua and within a year that the judgment becomes final. Section 46-16-105(2), MCA. Under Montana law, Allen cannot use a petition for habeas corpus to challenge his conviction. Section 46-22-101(1), MCA; Lawrence v. Guyer, 2019 MT 74, ¶ 11, 395 Mont. 222, 440 P.3d 1. Accordingly, the Powell County District Court cannot entertain Allen's claims for relief Allen has the remedy of appeal for his cases from Yellowstone County. He also has counsel to represent him. Upon receipt of the court's order and the lifting of the stay, his appeals will proceed. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that Allen's Petition for Writ of Supervisory Control is DENIED and DISMISSED. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that this matter is CLOSED as of this Order's date.

2 The Clerk is directed to provide a copy of this Order to: the Honorable Jeffrey Dahood, District Court Judge; Jill Paull, Clerk of District Court, under Cause No. DV-24-25; counsel of record; and Rex Allen personally. DATED this I day of January, 2025.

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