Don Martin O'Neal v. State

426 S.W.3d 242, 2013 WL 1010559, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 2769
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided March 15, 2013·No. 06-12-00120-CR·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by Justice MOSELEY.

Don Martin O’Neal entered his plea of guilty to the first degree felony offense of misapplication of fiduciary property in excess of $200,000.00 1 and was placed on ten years’ deferred adjudication community supervision. One of the conditions of his community supervision was a requirement that O’Neal make restitution, and a hearing was conducted to determine the amount of that restitution. Upon hearing the evidence, the trial court ordered O’Neal to pay restitution in the amount of $817,674.84 to the victim, Sulphur Springs Medical-Surgical Clinic. O’Neal appeals the restitution order, claiming that the amount of restitution ordered to be paid by him is not factually supported by the record. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

I. Background

O’Neal, a physician, first became associated in 1979 with what eventually came to be a partnership named the Sulphur Springs Medical-Surgical Clinic (the Clinic), 2 becoming its managing partner during the 1990s. As managing partner, he made the day-to-day financial decisions involved in the business operations of the Clinic and those associated with the Clinic came to rely on O’Neal, as its managing partner, to make decisions concerning the operations of the enterprise and the management of the partnership assets. 3

In 2003, O’Neal started a separate business entity with Gary Stokes which they named North Campus Development, Ltd. (North Campus). Among its activities, North Campus purchased medical equipment which it leased to the Clinic and acted as a recruiter of specialty physicians for the Clinic. Stokes’ responsibility in- *245 eluded the task of working with North Campus and Hopkins County Memorial Hospital (the Hospital) in the task of recruiting physicians.

In 2004, North Campus recruited Scott Powell, M.D., to practice both at the Clinic and at the Hospital. Powell’s employment involved the execution of a convoluted series of contracts, 4 requiring the Hospital to pay Powell a guarantee of $26,500.00 per month for the first twelve months of his practice, plus his Clinic expenses as submitted by the Clinic to the Hospital. Powell’s agreement with North Campus evidently required him to pay North Campus his entire Hospital income guarantee of $26,500.00 per month, plus expenses, less Powell’s Clinic billing for that month. 5 The Clinic paid Powell a salary of $16,500.00 per month. For the first five months of his employment, Powell paid North Campus accordingly. North Campus took the sums collected from Powell over those five months, divided the total by twelve, and then paid the Clinic all of these sums received in the five-month period, spreading it out over twelve months. 6 In months six through twelve, Powell ceased making payments to North Campus; instead, he paid by checks made payable to the Clinic. 7 These payments were made in a series of thirteen checks in varying amounts, totaling $370,516.70. Despite the fact that each of these checks from Powell were made payable to the Clinic, O’Neal deposited each of them into his personal account and not to the account of the Clinic.

In 2005, the Clinic purchased an echo-cardiogram machine from North Campus. 8 Deborah Stokes, M.D., had a contract with the Hospital to operate the machine and was paid by the Hospital for those services. Dr. Stokes would then reimburse the Clinic for the amount the Hospital paid for the use of the machine. From 2004 9 through 2007, Dr. Stokes wrote a total of twenty-six checks (each payable to the Clinic), totaling $416,966.62. Even though these checks were made payable to the Clinic, O’Neal admits that he deposited each of them into his personal account.

Michael Hines, M.D., was a Sulphur Springs surgeon who became employed by the Clinic in the very early part of 2005, but left the Clinic in October 2005 to begin work at East Texas Medical Center in the *246 same city. After leaving the Clinic, Hines wrote a series of four checks to the Clinic, totaling $20,558.76, to reimburse the Clinic for expenses incurred on Hines’ behalf. O’Neal admits that despite the fact that the checks were made payable to the Clinic, he endorsed them and deposited each of them into his personal bank account.

In 2004 and 2005, Thomas A. Mitchell, M.D., came to the Clinic one day a week to conduct neurologic testing, electromyogra-phy tests (EMG) and nerve conduction studies for Clinic patients. Mitchell paid a total of $9,632.76 in lease payments to the Clinic for use of its premises. These payments were made in a series of six checks, all payable to the Clinic. O’Neal admits that he deposited each of these six checks into his personal bank account rather than into the Clinic’s account.

The trial court ordered O’Neal to pay the Clinic restitution in the total amount of the checks he admitted that he had deposited into his personal bank account: $817,674.84.

II. Analysis

On appeal, O’Neal claims the trial court abused its discretion in ordering restitution in the amount of $817,674.84 because this amount is not factually supported in the record. We review challenges to restitution orders under an abuse of discretion standard. Cantrell v. State, 75 S.W.3d 503, 512 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 2002, pet. ref'd) (citing Cartwright v. State, 605 S.W.2d 287, 288-89 (Tex.Crim.App. [Panel Op.] 1980)). A trial court abuses its discretion when it acts without reference to any guiding rules or principles or acts arbitrarily or unreasonably, or when its decision is so clearly wrong that it lies outside the zone of reasonable disagreement. Gonzalez v. State, 117 S.W.3d 831, 839 (Tex.Crim.App.2003).

A sentencing court may order a defendant to pay restitution to the victim of an offense. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 42.037(a) (West Supp.2012); Idowu v. State, 73 S.W.3d 918, 920 n. 5 (Tex.Crim.App.2002). 10 The State must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, the amount of loss sustained by the victim as a result of the offense. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 42.037(k) (West Supp.2012). The trial court must resolve any dispute relating to the proper amount or type of restitution. Id. However, the amount of restitution ordered (1) must be just and supported by a factual basis within the loss of the victim, (2) must be for the offense for which the defendant is criminally responsible, and (3) must be for the victim of the offense for which the defendant is charged.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Don Martin O'Neal v. State, 426 S.W.3d 242, 2013 WL 1010559, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 2769 (Tex. Ct. App. 2013).

426 S.W.3d 242 (Don Martin O'Neal v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Zimbabwe Raymond Johnson v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2022
State v. Oki
Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, 2020
Randy Alan Hilliard v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019
Frank Ortegon v. State
510 S.W.3d 181 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2016)
Alexis Marie Ireland v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015