Lenzy v. State

1993 OK CR 53, 864 P.2d 847, 64 O.B.A.J. 3533, 1993 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 59, 1993 WL 492785
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 18, 1993
DocketNo. F-91-988
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1993 OK CR 53 (Lenzy v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lenzy v. State, 1993 OK CR 53, 864 P.2d 847, 64 O.B.A.J. 3533, 1993 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 59, 1993 WL 492785 (Okla. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

OPINION

JOHNSON, Vice Presiding Judge:

LEON LENZY, appellant, was tried by a judge for the crime of Perjury in violation of 21 O.S.1981, § 491, in Case No. CF-88-4952 in the District Court of Tulsa County before the Honorable Joe Jennings, District Judge. Judge Jennings returned a verdict of guilty and set punishment at two (2) years imprisonment. From this Judgment and Sentence, appellant has perfected this appeal.

Appellant filed a lawsuit against the K-Mart Corporation in the District Court of Tulsa County, Case No. CJ-86-3195, in which he claimed that he slipped and fell in a K-Mart store and suffered personal injury. On August 1, 1986, K-Mart’s attorney, Mr. Dan Rogers, deposed appellant concerning this civil lawsuit. During the depo[848]*848sition, appellant testified under oath that he had never been involved in a lawsuit before or filed any claims against an employer. Mr. Rogers knew appellant’s testimony was incorrect, but he chose not to say anything until the case came closer to trial.

Just prior to trial, appellant and his attorney dismissed the civil suit against El-Mart, with prejudice, after being confronted with evidence which demonstrated that he had previously instituted nine (9) other personal injury suits against various parties. In testimony before the Honorable Donald C. Lane, taken in chambers and transcribed, appellant admitted that he had perjured himself during the deposition.

On December 12, 1988, appellant was formally charged with the offense of Perjury in the Tulsa County District Court. A preliminary hearing was held on May 30, 1990, before the Honorable J. Bradford Griffith, Special Judge. The only evidence presented was the testimony of Mr. Rogers, the transcript from the deposition and the transcript from the hearing conducted before Judge Lane. At the conclusion of the preliminary hearing, Judge Griffith sustained appellant’s demurrer and dismissed the case finding that the perjury offense had not been completed as the deposition had not been delivered to the civil court. Judge Griffith based his decision upon this Court’s ruling in Graham v. Lanning, 698 P.2d 25 (Okl.Cr.1985).

Pursuant to 22 O.S.1989, § 1089.1 et seq., the State appealed this decision. On approximately June 18, 1990, the Honorable Clifford E. Hopper, District Judge, reversed the dismissal and remanded the case back to the preliminary hearing level with instructions to bind appellant over on the charge of Perjury. Thereafter, on October 4, 1990, a non-jury trial was held before Judge Joe Jennings. The evidence consisted of a transcript from the preliminary hearing, a transcript of the deposition and a transcript of the proceedings before Judge Lane.

In his sole proposition of error, appellant contends the trial court erred in finding that as a matter of law there was sufficient evidence adduced to support a conviction of Perjury. Appellant asserts that the crime of perjury was never completed as a transcript of the deposition was never used or delivered to the trial court handling the civil lawsuit. We disagree.

The statutory definition of “perjury” is unambiguous. Title 21 O.S.1981, § 491 provides in pertinent part:

Whoever, in a trial, hearing, investigation, deposition, certification or declaration, in which the making or subscribing of a statement is required or authorized by law, makes or subscribes a statement under oath, affirmation or other legally binding assertion that the statement is true, when in fact the witness or declar-ant does not believe that the statement is true or knows that it is not true or intends thereby to avoid or obstruct the ascertainment of the truth, is guilty of perjury.

Under this provision, an individual who makes a knowing misrepresentation within a sworn deposition has clearly committed the crime of perjury. The statute is straight forward, clear, and unambiguous. Merely three simple inquiries must be made:

Was the proceeding such a one in which an oath may be administered, did the party take an oath to testify, declare, depose, or certify truly before any competent tribunal, officer, or person, and did such person willfully and contrary to such oath state a material matter which he knew to be false?

Campbell v. State, 23 Okl.Cr. 250, 214 P. 738, 743 (1923).

Under these criteria, appellant clearly committed perjury when he made false statements during his sworn deposition on August 1, 1986. However, confusion appears to have been created by our decision in Graham v. Lanning, 698 P.2d 25 (Okl.Cr.1985). Consequently, we find that clarification is necessary.

The Graham decision restates a position first set out by this Court in Arnold v. State, 132 P. 1123 (1913). The holding in Arnold was based upon the construction of [849]*849R.L.1910, Section 2219 1, which established the following three classifications of punishment for perjury:

Perjury is punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary as follows: (1) When committed on the trial of an indictment for felony, by imprisonment not less than ten years nor more than twenty years. (2) When committed on any other trial or proceeding in a court of justice, by imprisonment for not less than five nor more than ten years. (3) In all other cases by imprisonment not more than five years.

During a murder trial, the defendant in Arnold testified against his accomplice. After the trial was completed, he executed an affidavit for the accomplice recanting his testimony and stating that the jury had visited him in the county jail while they were deliberating. Thereafter, the accomplice filed a motion for new trial in which the defendant’s affidavit was attached. The defendant was subsequently charged with the offense of perjury. The twelve jurors from the murder trial and the jailer each testified at the defendant’s perjury trial that they did not talk with the defendant about the case. The defendant was found guilty and sentenced to ten (10) years imprisonment pursuant to subdivision one of Section 2219.

On appeal, the defendant maintained he was improperly sentenced pursuant to subdivision one. The Court agreed finding that subdivision one did not apply to the case as the felony murder trial had already been completed. The Court concluded that the defendant should have been punished under subdivision two of § 2219 and modified his sentence to (5) years. Subdivision two specifically requires that the perjury be committed at a trial or proceeding in a court of justice. Therefore, the Court was confronted with the issue of “whether or not an affidavit made or deposition not given in open court, but made or given for the purpose of being used on a trial or in any other proceeding in a court of justice, when so used comes within the meaning of the second subdivision.” Arnold at 1127. Referring to R.L.1910, Section 22172, the Court found:

Under this statute the person before whom a deposition is

taken or an affidavit is made becomes the agent of the giver of such deposition or the maker of such affidavit until it is delivered to the place where it is intended to be used, and that place is the court in which the proceeding or trial is pending. Therefore the crime under the second subdivision of the statute

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1993 OK CR 53, 864 P.2d 847, 64 O.B.A.J. 3533, 1993 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 59, 1993 WL 492785, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lenzy-v-state-oklacrimapp-1993.