Matthews v. State

854 S.W.2d 339, 313 Ark. 327, 1993 Ark. LEXIS 343
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJune 1, 1993
DocketCR 92-1383
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 854 S.W.2d 339 (Matthews v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Matthews v. State, 854 S.W.2d 339, 313 Ark. 327, 1993 Ark. LEXIS 343 (Ark. 1993).

Opinion

David Newbern, Justice.

The appellant, Dan Matthews, was convicted of rape and kidnapping and sentenced as an habitual offender to 140 years imprisonment. He argues the Trial Court erred by (1) not recusing generally after recusing from hearing a motion for attorney’s fees and costs, (2) refusing to grant relief due to the State’s violation of Matthews’ right to a speedy trial, and (3) refusing to suppress a pretrial identification given by the victim. We find no error and affirm.

The State alleged that in the early morning of January 30, 1991, the female victim went to a restaurant to eat. While inside, she was approached by a man who asked to be taken to the hospital because his wife had been in a car accident. She agreed, and on the way to the hospital the man pulled out a knife and told her to stop the car in a parking lot. He then threatened her with the knife and raped her.

The victim stated she had several opportunities to see the assailant’s face, and she described his facial features. She testified the man told her he worked at Con-Agra in Batesville. The investigating officer prepared a photo lineup which included photographs of six men she believed approximately matched the victim’s description. The victim was shown the lineup the day after the assault and was “almost positive” Matthews was her assailant. During a hearing on a motion to suppress, the victim testified she went to high school with one suspect in the lineup and had seen two others before.

A week after viewing the photo lineup the victim was taken to Con-Agra where she viewed employees leaving the plant and positively identified Matthews. Matthews was arrested February 1,1991. At the trial, held May 5,1992, the victim testified she was one hundred percent sure Matthews committed the crime.

1. Disqualification

Prior to trial, appointed defense counsel moved for interim attorney’s fees and costs incurred in connection with the case. A hearing was conducted on the motion. Judge John Dan Kemp, on whose docket the case appeared, recused from the hearing on the motion. Prior to the case proceeding to trial, defense counsel moved for Judge Kemp’s recusal from the case generally. Judge Kemp declined.

In his order responding to the recusal motion Judge Kemp explained that he had recused from hearing the fees motion because at the time he owned a building in which defense counsel rented office space. His financial relationship with counsel could have been perceived as having an effect on his decision whether to award the fees sought. By the time of the trial, the landlord-tenant relationship between the judge and counsel had ended, and thus Judge Kemp denied the motion.

Judges must refrain from presiding over cases in which they might be interested and avoid all appearances of bias. Ark. Const, art. 7, § 20; see also Arkansas Code of Judicial Conduct Canon 3(C) (1988); City of Jacksonville v. Venhaus, 302 Ark. 204, 788 S.W.2d 478 (1990); Patterson v. R.T., 301 Ark. 400, 784 S.W.2d 777 (1990). The matter of whether to disqualify is to be determined in the sound discretion of the judge in question, and we will not reverse absent abuse of discretion. Woods v. State, 278 Ark. 271, 644 S.W.2d 937 (1983).

While it was proper for Judge Kemp to avoid the appearance of impropriety by declining to hear a matter in which he could have been thought to have a financial interest, we see no reason why he should have further recused from the entire case. This situation is not like the one in Hobson v. Cummings, 259 Ark. 717, 536 S.W.2d 132 (1976), where the Trial Court continued to conduct ancillary matters after recusing from the case generally. In that case our decision that the judge improperly conducted a contempt proceeding was founded upon the order assigning the case to another judge. The order specifically included all ancillary proceedings.

Nor is this case like Bolden v. State, 262 Ark. 718, 561 S.W.2d 281 (1978), in which we wrote that a trial judge who disqualified “from participating in [the] case” at the beginning of a pretrial conference lost jurisdiction except to “make the proper transfer. . .or take. . .steps for the selection of another judge.” Prior to the assignment of another judge, the judge who had disqualified selected and instructed a jury commission and ruled on a motion challenging the charges against the defendants. We held those acts were improper. The distinction from the case now before us is obvious.

Although we have found no Arkansas cases directly on point, there- is authority for the proposition that, absent a statutory provision to the contrary, a determination of disqualification will not prevent a judge from reassuming full jurisdiction if the disqualification has been removed. See, e.g., Miller-Vidor Lumber Co. v. Schreiber, 298 S.W. 154 (Tex. Civ. App. 1927); Bank of Marlinto v. Pocahontas Development Co., 106 S.E. 881 (W.Va. 1921); Disqualification of a judge in pending case as subject to revocation or removal, 162 A.L.R. 641 (1946).

Two Florida cases, Florida Patient’s Comp. Fund v. Von Stetina, 474 So.2d 783 (Fla. 1985), and Margulies v. Margulies, 528 So.2d 957 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1988), are particularly instructive. In the Von Stetina case, Justice Ehrlich of the Florida Supreme Court partially recused from hearing the issue of attorney’s fees but participated in the remaining issues on appeal. In denying a general suggestion of disqualification, Justice Ehrlich stated the attorney’s fee issue was legally and procedurally severable from the remaining issues. The opinion of the Court specifically approved the procedure.

In the Margulies case, a Florida Court of Appeals recognized the general rule that a disqualified trial judge is prohibited from taking any further action in the case but distinguished the Von Stetina case because it involved a partial recusal on a severable issue.

Judge Kemp’s disqualification was only with respect to the hearing on attorney’s fees and not from the entire case. He considered the fees issue to be severable from the merits of the criminal trial, and we agree. The reason for his disqualification from the hearing on fees had disappeared by the time the recusal motion was made. There was no abuse of discretion.

2. Speedy trial

Matthews argues the Trial Court erred by not releasing him on his own recognizance nine months after he was arrested as required by Ark. R. Crim. P. 28.1(a). Alleged violation of Rule 28.1(a) is not a basis for reversal. Jurney v. State, 298 Ark. 91, 766 S.W.2d 1 (1989).

He also contends, however, that the State failed to bring him to trial within 12 months from the date of his arrest or the date the information was filed as required by Ark. R. Crim. P. 28.1(b), and thus the charges should have been dismissed.

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Bluebook (online)
854 S.W.2d 339, 313 Ark. 327, 1993 Ark. LEXIS 343, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matthews-v-state-ark-1993.