Donovan v. State

572 So. 2d 522, 1990 WL 179049
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedNovember 21, 1990
Docket89-1810
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 572 So. 2d 522 (Donovan v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Donovan v. State, 572 So. 2d 522, 1990 WL 179049 (Fla. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

572 So.2d 522 (1990)

Jack R. DONOVAN, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 89-1810.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

November 21, 1990.
Rehearing Denied January 10, 1991.

*523 James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and Larry B. Henderson, Asst. Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and David S. Morgan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for appellee.

*524 W. SHARP, Judge.

Jack Donovan appeals from adjudications of guilt and sentences for numerous offenses. A jury found him guilty of all thirty-one (31) counts with which he had been charged as a result of his responsibility for the fraudulent creation and deposit of over a thousand credit card vouchers. He disputes his convictions and sentences on several grounds. We agree that double jeopardy violations occurred when he was convicted of both organized fraud and grand theft, and of more than one racketeering (RICO) offense. Additionally, we find that costs were improperly imposed.

FACTS

The appellant was the founder and head of a bass fishing organization, World Bass Association (WBA), which sold memberships nationwide. Lifetime memberships ($200) and video-club memberships ($150) were available, but most of the members had apparently purchased relatively inexpensive, shorter term memberships.

The organization was almost out of funds when the appellant gave instructions to Bruce Goodwin (who apparently had done some work for WBA before) which radically departed from WBA's customary fund-raising practices. Instead of informing the WBA employees who had previously carried out membership solicitations, the appellant gave Goodwin WBA membership lists (which included credit card numbers of members who had paid by credit card), along with a credit card imprinter. Goodwin took the lists and imprinter home with him and spent Mother's Day weekend (May 7-8, 1988), helped by members of his family, filling out credit card vouchers in great numbers. No contact was made with WBA members; charges for higher priced memberships were simply placed, without members' authorization, on credit card vouchers filled out with their credit card numbers.

The appellant testified that he had told Goodwin to call members before charging their cards; there was also testimony that he gave Goodwin an access number allowing long distance calls made at Goodwin's home to be charged to the WBA telephone account. Goodwin claimed that he had been distracted and had misunderstood the instructions which told him to make telephone calls to members before charging new memberships to their cards, but he also testified that he would not have written up the credit card slips without calling the card holders if the appellant had told him to call them. The appellant and Goodwin spoke with one another by telephone at least ten times while Goodwin was processing the credit card vouchers at his home.

WBA had an account at Southeast Bank in Deltona. Evidence indicated that on May 11, 1988, about $28,000 in credit card vouchers created by Goodwin were deposited in that account. Then some $33,600 in vouchers was deposited on May 16, around $36,000 on May 17, and about $36,000 on May 18. The bank processed about 1,300 credit card vouchers. The monies were immediately credited to WBA's account. The deposits were made in spite of the fact that by May 16 (a Monday), members had begun calling WBA headquarters contesting the credit card charges. The appellant took some of those calls.

On May 18, 1988, the appellant, who was at Southeast Bank trying to borrow money, was told by a bank official, "this credit card thing is starting to blow up." On the same day the bank's vice-president for risk management froze the WBA account, and the appellant called him and tried to convince him that the credit card vouchers were legitimate.

WBA's former attorney testified that he had heard the appellant make two telephone calls to Goodwin's home while Goodwin was being interrogated by police. The appellant, in effect, urged Goodwin not to meet with or talk to the police, and said, "Don't tell them I told you to make those charges to the cards. Tell them that I told you to call the people or that you got mixed up."

Completed but unprocessed credit card slips were recovered from the appellant's residence by officers.

The appellant was convicted and sentenced as follows:

*525 Organized fraud, section 817.034(3), (4) Florida Statutes (1987): No sentence imposed.

First degree grand theft, section 812.014(1), (2)(a), Florida Statutes (1987): 30 years imprisonment, $10,000 fine.

Three counts of second degree grand theft, section 812.014(1), (2)(b), Florida Statutes (1987): 15 years concurrent probation on each count, consecutive to the 30 years imprisonment for first degree grand theft.

Eleven counts of forgery, section 831.01, Florida Statutes (1987): 5 years probation on each count, concurrent with each other.

Eleven counts of uttering a false instrument, section 831.02, Florida Statutes (1987): 5 years probation concurrent with each other and consecutive to the probation on the forgery counts.

Four counts of racketeering (RICO), sections 895.02(3), 895.03(1), Florida Statutes (1987): 30 years imprisonment on each count to be served concurrent with each other and the 30 years for first degree grand theft, plus four fines of $5,000, one for each RICO conviction.

As a condition of probation, the appellant was ordered to pay restitution.

The trial court also ordered the appellant to pay costs.

CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE OF INTENT

Contrary to the appellant's argument we find that the circumstances offered ample proof of his criminal intent to support his convictions, and that the trial court was correct in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal. The evidence does not support any reasonable hypothesis of innocence. State v. Fort, 380 So.2d 534 (Fla. 5th DCA 1980).

DOUBLE JEOPARDY: ORGANIZED FRAUD AND GRAND THEFT

The appellant is correct that his conviction for both organized fraud and grand theft, violate his constitutional right not to be placed twice in jeopardy for the same offense. The reason is that all the elements of theft are included within the elements of organized fraud, making them, for double jeopardy purposes, the "same" offense.

The appellant contends that the statute which defines and prescribes punishments for the offense of organized fraud, section 817.034, Florida Statutes (1987), was intended by the legislature to consolidate and "contain" the offenses of theft, forgery, and uttering a false instrument. The real question is whether organized fraud is the same offense as any or all of those other offenses.

The legislature is free to create multiple different offenses arising from the same act or transaction, and if statutes unambiguously create separate offenses no double jeopardy question arises when a person is convicted of more than one of those offenses based on the same act. See, e.g., Carawan v. State, 515 So.2d 161 (Fla. 1987). If statutes do not make clear the legislative intent to create separate offenses, then section 775.021, Florida Statutes (1989), "Rules of construction," comes into play.[1] Subsection 775.021(4) provides:

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Bluebook (online)
572 So. 2d 522, 1990 WL 179049, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/donovan-v-state-fladistctapp-1990.