Deurloo v. State

690 N.E.2d 1210, 1998 Ind. App. LEXIS 23, 1998 WL 25753
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided January 27, 1998·No. 34A05-9704-CR-125·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinions

OPINION

BARTEAU, Judge.

Debra Deurloo was convicted of public indecency, a Class A misdemeanor, following a bench trial. Deurloo challenges her conviction and raises the sole issue of whether she was deprived of her Fourteenth Amendment right to procedural due process when she was summarily terminated from the prosecutor’s pretrial diversion program without adequate notice or an opportunity for a hearing before the court. We affirm.

FACTS

The relevant facts are as follows: on November 6,1995, the State of Indiana charged Deurloo with public indecency, a Class A misdemeanor, pursuant to a report that Deurloo had “mooned” her neighbor and several other people from the driveway of her home. Deurloo waived her initial hearing, and on February 7, 1996, she entered into a Pretrial Diversion Agreement with the State, which provided that “pursuant to I.C. 33-14-1-7, ... [t]he State agrees to withhold prosecution of the charges herein so long as the Defendant complies with the terms of this Agreement,” followed by several provisions to which Deurloo agreed, including that she would commit no criminal offenses for the twelve month duration of the agreement, that she would pay certain fees and costs, and that she would refrain from harassing, intimidating or threatening Christina Tranbarger, the complaining witness. R. 15-16.

On September 13, 1996, the State of Indiana filed a “Notice of Termination from Pretrial Diversion and Request for Pretrial Conference Setting,” notifying the court “of its intention to terminate [Deurloo] from the Prosecutor’s Pretrial Diversion Program, effective immediately, for the reason that [Deurloo] has violated term(s) of the written Pretrial Diversion Agreement.” R. 21. [1211] Deurloo received a copy of this notice and a summons ordering her to appear in court on October 16, 1996, on which date an initial hearing was conducted on the public indecency charge.

Deurloo then moved for an evidentiary hearing on the termination, based upon the fact that she was not given notice of which term(s) of the Pretrial Diversion Agreement she had allegedly violated, nor had a hearing been held to determine if she had, in fact, violated any such term(s) justifying her termination from the program. The trial court denied her motion, finding that “the [court] has no responsibility or authority over the Prosecutor’s pre-trial- .diversion program. For the [court] to exercise control over the acceptance, rejection or termination would be an improper entry into prosecutorial discretion.” R. 34. Deurloo was subsequently tried and convicted of the charge and sentenced to one year incarceration, which was suspended. She was placed on unsupervised probation for one year.

Deurloo now challenges her conviction on the basis that she was denied due process when she was not given adequate notice or afforded a hearing prior to her termination from the pretrial diversion program.

DISCUSSION

Indiana Code section 33-14-l-7(a) provides that:

A prosecuting attorney may withhold prosecution against an accused person if:
(1) the person is charged with a misdemeanor;
(2) the person agrees to conditions of a pretrial diversion program offered by the prosecuting attorney; and
(3) the terms of the .agreement are recorded in an instrument signed by the person and. the prosecuting attorney and filed in the court in which the charge is pending.

The remainder of section 33-14-1-7 includes several conditions which may be imposed as part of the agreement to withhold prosecution and certain administrative requirements, such as the deposit of user’s fees and victim notification. Aside from the few details outlined in the statute, the organization and administration of a pretrial diversion program is left entirely to the prosecutor.1

A prosecutor is vested with broad discretion in the performance of his duties. Burst v. State, 499 N.E.2d 1140, 1147 (Ind. Ct.App.1986). The determination of whom to prosecute is within the sole discretion of the prosecutor, and the court may not substitute its discretion for that of the prosecutor. Johnson v. State, 675 N.E.2d 678, 683 (Ind. 1996). Similarly, this statute grants the prosecutor discretion to withhold formal prosecution in appropriate cases to afford the defendant an opportunity to successfully complete an alternative course of action.2

Deurloo argues that the prosecutor’s discretion in administering a pretrial diversion program is restrained by principles of due process which require, at a minimum, notice of the alleged violation and a hearing at which the court is to determine whether there was in fact a violation before a defendant is terminated from the program and criminal proceedings are resumed. This is an issue of first impression in Indiana.

Whether an individual is entitled to procedural due process is dependent upon whether [1212] she is being deprived of a property or liberty interest. Bd. of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 569, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2705, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972); Hopper v. State, 546 N.E.2d 106, 108 (Ind.Ct.App.1989). When one of these protected interests is implicated, the right to a hearing is paramount. Roth, 408 U.S. at 569-70, 92 S.Ct. at 2705. Accordingly, the Supreme Court has held that before the conditional liberty of an individual released on parole or probation can be terminated for violating a condition of release, he is entitled to written notice of the claimed violation, disclosure of evidence, a hearing before a neutral and detached hearing body, an opportunity to present witnesses and other evidence, the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses against him, and a written statement describing the evidence relied upon for the action taken. Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778, 782, 93 S.Ct. 1756, 1759-60, 36 L.Ed.2d 656 (1973) (applying due process requirements to probation revocation proceedings); Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 482, 489, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 2600-01, 2604, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972) (applying due process requirements to parole revocation proceedings).

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Deurloo v. State, 690 N.E.2d 1210, 1998 Ind. App. LEXIS 23, 1998 WL 25753 (Ind. Ct. App. 1998).

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690 N.E.2d 1210 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1998)