Lash v. County of Henrico

410 S.E.2d 689, 13 Va. App. 251, 8 Va. Law Rep. 1136, 1991 Va. App. LEXIS 288
CourtCourt of Appeals of Virginia
DecidedOctober 29, 1991
DocketNo. 1146-89-2
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 410 S.E.2d 689 (Lash v. County of Henrico) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lash v. County of Henrico, 410 S.E.2d 689, 13 Va. App. 251, 8 Va. Law Rep. 1136, 1991 Va. App. LEXIS 288 (Va. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinions

Opinion

KOONTZ, C.J.

In a bench trial on July 9, 1989, Christopher L. Lash, appellant, pursuant to Henrico County Ordinance 14-2, was convicted of reckless driving with intent to elude a police officer in accordance with former Code § 46.1-192.1 (now Code § 46.2-817) and reckless driving in accordance with former Code § 46.1-189 (now Code § 46.2-852).1 For the offense of eluding a police [253]*253officer, the trial court imposed a sentence of six months in jail, a fine of $500, and a suspension of Lash’s license for six months. For the offense of reckless driving, the trial court imposed a sentence of three months in jail and a fine of $250, all of which was suspended. On appeal, Lash concedes he is guilty of one of these offenses. He contends, however, that his driving constituted one “act” and, therefore, pursuant to Code § 19.2-294, he may not be convicted of both offenses. We hold that Code § 19.2-294 is applicable to multiple convictions obtained in a single trial, as well as to multiple convictions obtained in consecutive trials, and that Lash’s driving constituted one act as contemplated by this Code section. Accordingly, we reverse.

The essential facts which formed the basis of Lash’s convictions are not in dispute. On March 9, 1989, Henrico County Police Officer Counts stopped Lash and issued him a summons for driving on two defective tires and a summons for failing to have a front license plate. Officer Counts also informed Lash that the automobile was unsafe and that Lash would have to park it. In response, Lash told Officer Counts that Counts could not tell him what to do. Lash then ran back to his vehicle and drove away, accelerating at such a rate of speed that the vehicle left sixty to seventy feet of tire marks on the highway.

Officer Counts immediately entered his vehicle, turned on the siren and blue lights, and followed Lash at speeds of sixty to seventy miles per hour in a posted thirty-five miles per hour speed zone. Officer Counts was able to follow behind Lash as close as fifty yards and eventually followed Lash to a red stop signal at a major intersection, which Lash drove through and onto a supermarket parking lot. From the intersection traffic light, Officer Counts observed Lash drive through the parking lot at speeds of thirty to forty miles per hour. When Counts apprehended Lash, he cited Lash for the offense of eluding a police officer and the offense of reckless driving. Upon Lash’s conviction of both offenses, this appeal followed.

On appeal, in his initial brief, Lash asserted that, pursuant to Code § 19.2-294, the trial court could not properly convict him of both eluding a police officer and general reckless driving. More specifically, Lash asserted that since his act of driving his vehicle was consistent from the time he sped away from the officer to the time the officer apprehended him, his driving constituted one act [254]*254and, therefore, the trial court could properly convict him of only one of the two offenses. In response, the County of Henrico, in its initial brief, contended that the manner in which Lash initially sped away from the officer and his subsequent conduct in eluding the officer by his failure to stop for the officer constituted two separate acts and, consequently, Code § 19.2-294 is not a bar to both convictions.

Subsequent to the filing of the initial briefs, by order entered in this Court, we directed the parties to file additional briefs addressing the applicability of Code § 19.2-294 to multiple convictions obtained in a single trial for separate offenses arising from the same act. In response to our order, the County contends that Code § 19.2-294 is applicable only to consecutive prosecutions. Lash contends that this Code section is applicable both to multiple convictions obtained in a single trial and to multiple convictions obtained in consecutive trials.

We begin our analysis of these issues with a brief review of Code § 19.2-294, a closely related statute, Code § 19.2-294.1, and the principal prior cases which have interpreted and applied these Code sections. In pertinent part, Code § 19.2-294 provides: “If the same act be a violation of two or more statutes, . . . , conviction under one of such statutes . . . shall be a bar to a prosecution or proceeding under the other or others” (emphasis added).

In Arrington v. Commonwealth, 87 Va. 96, 12 S.E. 224 (1890), the Supreme Court upheld the defendant’s conviction for the sale of ardent spirits without a license following her prior conviction for the sale of the identical ardent spirits on Sunday. The Court upheld the conviction on the ground that one act violated two separate statutes. In response to this decision, the General Assembly enacted the original version of Code § 19.2-294, which provided, in pertinent part: “If the same act be a violation of two or more statutes, ... a prosecution or proceeding under one . . , shall be a bar to a prosecution under the other or others” (emphasis added). This Code section was subsequently amended, to its present language, by the substitution of the word “conviction” for the phrase “a prosecution or proceeding.” In Owens v. Commonwealth, 129 Va. 757, 105 S.E. 531 (1921), the Court held that, as a result of this amendment, a mere prosecution or proceeding involving the same act which does not result in a conviction does not [255]*255bar another prosecution. Id. at 759, 105 S.E. at 532.

Approximately thirty years later, in Wheeler v. Commonwealth, 192 Va. 665, 66 S.E.2d 605 (1951), the defendant was convicted in a single trial for felony manufacture of illegal alcohol, misdemeanor possession of a still, and misdemeanor possession of illegal alcohol. The defendant previously had been convicted for the sale of the identical illegal alcohol. Pursuant to the predecessor to Code § 19.2-294, the Court held that the prior conviction for the sale of the identical alcohol barred a subsequent conviction for the possession of that alcohol. The Court further held that possession of the still was a lesser-included offense of the felony of illegal manufacture of alcohol involving the same still and, therefore, the predecessor to Code § 19.2-294 was a bar to the conviction of both offenses. The Court then concluded that the Commonwealth could elect to prosecute the greater of the two offenses, and dismissed the misdemeanor conviction. Id. at 669, 66 S.E.2d at 607.

Following Wheeler, in Hundley v. Commonwealth, 193 Va. 449, 69 S.E.2d 336 (1952), a case involving a single trial, the Court held that the predecessor to Code § 19.2-294 was not a bar to convictions for driving while under the influence of intoxicants and reckless driving arising from one occurrence of driving. In Hundley, the defendant was driving while intoxicated and drove his vehicle at excessive speeds around curves and in such a manner as to endanger the police officer who was attempting to stop him. The Court found that the evidence disclosed two separate acts resulting in the commission of two separate offenses and, consequently, the statute was not applicable. Id. at 451, 69 S.E.2d at 337. In reaching this conclusion, the Court noted:

It is conceivable for a person under the influence of intoxicants to drive properly.

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Bluebook (online)
410 S.E.2d 689, 13 Va. App. 251, 8 Va. Law Rep. 1136, 1991 Va. App. LEXIS 288, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lash-v-county-of-henrico-vactapp-1991.