Holton v. State

602 P.2d 1228, 1979 Alas. LEXIS 687
CourtAlaska Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 16, 1979
Docket4038
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 602 P.2d 1228 (Holton v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alaska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holton v. State, 602 P.2d 1228, 1979 Alas. LEXIS 687 (Ala. 1979).

Opinion

OPINION

Before RABINOWITZ, C. J., and CON-NOR, BOOCHEVER, BURKE and MATTHEWS, JJ.

BOOCHEVER, Justice.

Holton appeals the validity of his felony conviction under Alaska’s contributing to the delinquency of a minor statutes, AS 11.40.130 and AS 11.40.150, arguing that the statutes are vague, overbroad and violate equal protection. Holton also challenges his probation revocation, arguing that the state did not prove that he violated a condition of probation. We affirm both the original conviction and the probation revocation.

According to police reports, on July 24, 1976, in downtown Fairbanks, Holton asked a juvenile boy, M.F., for directions to Roth Street. M.F. offered to ride with Holton to show him where the street was. Holton took M.F. to a secluded area, stopped the car, made sexual advances toward him, and offered to perform fellatio. M.F. declined and asked Holton to take him back to town, which Holton did.

M.F. reported his experience to the police, who had received a similar report from another juvenile, T.L. T.L. had also refused Holton’s advances but had made a date to meet Holton later that day, July 26,1976. The police arranged that M.F., fitted with a microphone and transmitter, meet Holton instead of T.L. During their meeting, Hol-ton discussed his homosexual background and, a number of times, asked M.F. to engage in fellatio with him. The police terminated the conversation and arrested Holton.

Holton was indicted by a Fairbanks grand jury on a felony charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, AS 11.40.130(b). The charge alleged that Hol-ton had tried to persuade M.F. to engage in lewd conduct, specifically fellatio, on July 26, 1976. Holton pled guilty to the charge and was sentenced by Judge Blair to two years imprisonment, with one year suspended.

On January 28, 1978, while on probation, Holton’s conduct with D.O. led to a misdemeanor charge for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, AS 11.40.130(a), and to a petition to revoke Holton’s probation. At the revocation hearing, D.O. and Officer Feichtinger testified. 1

D.O. stated that a man he identified as Holton came up to him as he was going into a Rexall Drug Store in downtown Anchorage. Holton asked D.O. where Ross Street was and he said he had to pick up some marijuana from someone on Ross Street. Holton then said he designed jock straps. *1231 and askéd D.O. if he would be interested in modeling jock straps. D.O. said no.

Q. [District Attorney] What other discussions did you have?
A. [D.O.] And then — then goes, well, would you like to go to my house and drink some beer and smoke some dope? And I said, no, I got to go home and eat. And then he goes, well, you want to make a date? And I said, yeah, behind Rexall Drugs.

They met later that evening 2 and went to a McDonalds. D.O. said he would have some coffee. While Holton was paying, D.O. left and flagged down a car with Officer Feichtinger and another officer in it. After hearing D.O.’s story, the officers approached Holton, and talked with him. Officer Feichtinger subsequently swore out a misdemeanor complaint against Holton for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The misdemeanor charge was eventually dropped, but based on the complaint, Hol-ton’s probation officer petitioned for a revocation of probation, alleging that Holton had violated the condition of his probation that he “[c]omply with all municipal, state and federal laws and ordinances.” After a hearing, Judge Moody found that Holton had committed the offense alleged in the complaint and revoked his probation. Hol-ton moved to dismiss the revocation or, in the alternative, to strike the underlying felony conviction because of constitutional infirmities in AS 11.40.130. Judge Blair denied the motion and sentenced Holton to serve the balance of his original two-year sentence.

I. PROCEDURAL BASIS FOR HOLTON’S ATTACK ON HIS ORIGINAL CONVICTION

The state argues that Holton may not attack his underlying conviction in a probation revocation hearing and instead must bring a separate action for post-conviction relief pursuant to Criminal Rule 35. We reject this argument in light of Holton’s substantial compliance with the requirements of Criminal Rule 35, which provide in part:

(d) Commencement of Proceedings— Filing — Service. A proceeding is commenced by filing an application with the clerk of the court in which the conviction occurred. Application forms will be furnished by the clerk of court. An application may be filed at any time. The clerk shall docket the application upon its receipt and promptly bring it to the attention of the court and deliver a copy to the district attorney.

Criminal Rule 35(e) specifies the contents of the application.

Although Holton did not file his motion for post-conviction relief on the special forms provided by the court, he did file a separate “Motion to Dismiss Probation Revocation Proceeding; or in the Alternative, to Strike Felony Conviction.” When that motion was denied, Holton made a motion for reconsideration which expressly grounded objection to his underlying felony conviction in Criminal Rule 35(b)(1). Although Holton did not file the motion in the Fourth Judicial District where the original conviction occurred, he sent a copy of the motion to Judge Blair of the Fourth Judicial District, the judge in the original case; and by special arrangement, Judge Blair, who normally sits in Fairbanks, ruled on the motion when he was in Anchorage. Thus, unlike McKinnon v. State, 526 P.2d 18, 26 (Alaska 1974), Holton’s challenge to his original conviction was decided by the trial judge who pronounced the original sentence. 3

Judge Blair had sufficient information about the original conviction to permit a ruling on the merits of Holton’s challenge. *1232 The state’s position would require pointless relitigation of the issue, probably before the very same judge. We suspect that the state’s real concern is that any subsequent proceedings in this case come under the special features of Rule 35. See, e. g., State v. Hannagan, 559 P.2d 1059 (Alaska 1977) (state may appeal adverse determination of a Rule 35 proceeding). Were further proceedings in this case necessary, we would require them to be under Rule 35. 4

II. VALIDITY OF THE ORIGINAL CONVICTION

Currently, Alaska has a two-part statutory scheme for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. AS 11.40.130 makes “contributing” both a misdemeanor and a felony:

Contributing to delinquency of a child.
(a) A person who commits an act, or omits the performance of a duty, which causes or tends to cause, encourage or contribute to the delinquency of a child under the age of 18 years, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
602 P.2d 1228, 1979 Alas. LEXIS 687, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holton-v-state-alaska-1979.