City of Auburn v. Hedlund

155 P.3d 149, 137 Wash. App. 494
Court of Appeals of Washington·Decided March 12, 2007·No. 51791-1-I, 55065-9-I·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

155 P.3d 149 (2007)

CITY OF AUBURN, a municipal corporation of the State of Washington, Respondent,
v.
Teresa A. HEDLUND, Petitioner.

Nos. 51791-1-I, 55065-9-I.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1.

March 12, 2007.

*150 Daniel Brian Heid, Auburn, WA, for Appellant.

Matthew Valen Honeywell, Attorney at Law, Seattle, WA, for Respondent.

BAKER, J.

¶ 1 Teresa Hedlund was charged as an accomplice to reckless driving and DUI, furnishing alcohol to a minor, and furnishing tobacco to a minor. At the close of the City's evidence, Hedlund moved to have the reckless driving and DUI charges dismissed, arguing that under RCW 9A.08.020(5) she was a victim, and thus could not be an accomplice. The court dismissed. The City sought a continuance and immediate writ of review of the dismissal by the superior court. The superior court reversed and trial continued.

¶ 2 Hedlund was acquitted of reckless driving as an accomplice, and convicted of the remaining charges. Hedlund appealed to the superior court. The superior court rejected most of Hedlund's challenges, but ruled the trial court abused its discretion in several of its evidentiary rulings, and in declining to sever the furnishing tobacco to a minor charge, and remanded for a new trial. She then sought review of the superior court's reversal of the municipal court's original dismissal of the DUI and reckless driving charges. The City also sought review of the superior court's holdings on severance of charges and certain evidentiary rulings. We granted review, and reverse Hedlund's conviction of DUI as an accomplice. Our ruling renders the issues addressed in the City's cross-petition moot.

I.

¶ 3 Teresa Hedlund was the sole survivor of a horrific one-car automobile accident which took the lives of six young people. The driver, Tom Stewart, was among those killed. Hedlund suffered severe injuries and spent months in treatment.

¶ 4 All but one of the passengers had consumed alcohol, and Stewart was speeding and driving erratically. Investigators found a video camera in the car. The video tape contained footage of the occupants of the car taken just moments before the accident. It also contained footage of a party at Hedlund's residence attended by the same people earlier that day.

¶ 5 The City charged Hedlund under RCW 9A.08.020 as an accomplice to DUI and reckless driving, and with furnishing alcohol to a minor. It later added the charge of furnishing tobacco to a minor. The City based its theory of accomplice liability in large part on Hedlund's use of the video camera, asserting that her act of video taping the occupants of the car caused Stewart to "showboat" and encouraged his reckless driving.

¶ 6 At the close of the City's evidence, Hedlund moved to dismiss the DUI and reckless driving accomplice liability charges, arguing that under the terms of RCW 9A.08.020(5), she was a victim of the crimes charged and thus could not be an accomplice. The court agreed, and orally dismissed the DUI and reckless driving charges.

¶ 7 The City immediately sought and was granted a continuance of the trial to allow it to seek a writ of review in the superior court. The superior court ruled that the writ was not barred by double jeopardy. It concluded that Hedlund was a victim of vehicular assault, but not DUI or reckless driving, and that prosecution was thus not barred under RCW 9A.08.020(5).

¶ 8 Trial resumed, and Hedlund was convicted of DUI as an accomplice, furnishing alcohol to a minor, and furnishing tobacco to a minor. She was acquitted of reckless driving as an accomplice.

¶ 9 Hedlund appealed to the superior court. The superior court rejected most of Hedlund's challenges, but ruled the trial court had abused its discretion in declining to sever the charge of furnishing tobacco to a minor, allowing the jury to hear a tape of a witness's 911 call, and admitting a portion of the video tape showing Hedlund's five-year-old daughter smoking. Concluding that the cumulative effect of the errors called for a new trial, the superior court remanded. *151 Both parties sought discretionary review, which we granted.

II.

¶ 10 Statutory interpretation is a matter of law and is reviewed de novo.[1]

¶ 11 Hedlund was charged as an accomplice under RCW 9A.08.020. The statute provides, in relevant part that:

A person is an accomplice of another person in the commission of a crime if:
(a) With knowledge that it will promote or facilitate the commission of the crime, he
(i) solicits, commands, encourages, or requests such other person to commit it; or
(ii) aids or agrees to aid such other person in planning or committing it.[[2]]

¶ 12 The City argues that, in addition to furnishing alcohol to the party-goers, Hedlund aided, promoted, and encouraged Stewart's reckless and intoxicated driving by video taping the activities at the party and in the car, and was thus complicit in Stewart's criminal acts.

¶ 13 Hedlund, in turn, points to section 5 of the statute which states that a person is not an accomplice in a crime committed by another person if he or she is a victim of that crime.[3]

¶ 14 The trial court held that, given Hedlund's extensive injuries, no jury would fail to find that she was a victim, and therefore she was not an accomplice under RCW 9A.08.020(5).

¶ 15 Hedlund argues on review that, as a victim of Tom Stewart's drunk and reckless driving, she cannot be an accomplice to his criminal acts. In support of her argument she cites to State v. Jacobs[4] for the proposition that if a statute's meaning is plain on its face, the court must give effect to that plain meaning as an expression of legislative intent.[5]

¶ 16 The City also maintains that the statute is facially clear, and cites the holding in Department of Ecology v. Campbell & Gwinn, L.L.C[6] that statutes are interpreted according to the plain and ordinary meaning of the language used.[7] The City asserts, in essence, that Hedlund is not a victim because her injuries were sustained after the acts which constituted her criminal complicity were committed. It draws a temporal distinction between the injury-causing accident and Hedlund's purported criminal acts. The City argues that RCW 9A.08.020(5) does not absolve a "victim-after-the-fact" from being an accomplice to an already committed crime, and that any actions by Hedlund that aided or promoted Stewart's illegal driving occurred before she became a victim.

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City of Auburn v. Hedlund, 155 P.3d 149, 137 Wash. App. 494 (Wash. Ct. App. 2007).

155 P.3d 149 (City of Auburn v. Hedlund) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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