People v. Arledge

938 P.2d 160, 1997 Colo. LEXIS 384, 1997 WL 259766
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedMay 19, 1997
Docket96SC131
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 938 P.2d 160 (People v. Arledge) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Arledge, 938 P.2d 160, 1997 Colo. LEXIS 384, 1997 WL 259766 (Colo. 1997).

Opinion

Justice HOBBS

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

We granted certiorari 1 to review the judgment of the court of appeals which affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the charge against the defendant David Arledge (Ar- *162 ledge) pursuant to the speedy trial provisions of section 18-1-405, 8B C.R.S. (1986 & 1996 Supp.). 2 Five weeks prior to trial, the court denied Arledge’s recusal motion. Then, one business day before trial, the court granted the recusal motion and requested and obtained from Arledge a speedy trial waiver. Thirty-three days still remained in the speedy trial period, and Arledge was not brought to trial within that time.

After the original speedy trial period had run, defense counsel filed a motion with the reassigned judge to dismiss the case because his client had not been brought to trial within six months of his not guilty plea. The reassigned judge agreed and entered a dismissal order which was upheld by the court of appeals. We affirm the judgment of dismissal.

I.

Arledge was charged by information with accessory to first degree murder, a class four felony, see § 18-8-105(1) & (2), 8B C.R.S. (1986), 3 for allegedly assisting James Richard Bastin in transporting and burning the body of Mayra Lopez after Bastin had murdered her. Bastin and Arledge were scheduled to be tried separately but with the same trial judge presiding. On May 3, 1994, Arledge entered a plea of not guilty. Pretrial conference was set for September 30, 1994, and a jury trial for October 3,1994.

On August 25, 1994, defense counsel learned of an April 1994 television broadcast that aired an interview with the trial judge during jury deliberations in the Mayra Lopez murder trial. On August 26,1994, at a previously scheduled motions hearing, the defense filed a “Motion to Disqualify Judge,” supported by two affidavits executed by attorneys representing Arledge, stating their opinions that the judge’s television comment created “an appearance that the defendant will not receive a fair trial.” Arguing the motion, counsel for Arledge said, “I have to stress that the issue is not whether [bias or prejudice is] actual. The issue is whether there’s an appearance and that’s it.” 4 The alleged appearance of bias was based on the combination of the April 21, 1994 broadcast and two previous broadcasts that occurred in October 1998 and earlier in April of 1994, which alluded to defendant’s knowledge of the murder. The two previous broadcasts did not involve any comment by the trial judge.

In denying the recusal motion, the trial judge stated:

I suppose [I] would have to have a verbatim transcript of what was stated, but I *163 don’t believe that this Court made any comments regarding Mr. Arledge. Nor do I believe that the statements made by this Court, or allegedly made by this Court, express any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of Mr. Arledge as it relates to the charge of being an accessory to the crime of murder....
I don’t believe that there is anything in the motion to recuse which indicates that I have expressed any opinion as to Mr. Ar-ledge regarding any of those issues. And because of that, at this point in time, I’m going to deny the motion to recuse because I believe on the four comers of the motion fails, [sic] Certainly, if and when you obtain a hard copy of [the total interview] and if the comments seem to indicate otherwise, this Court would be more than happy to revisit that issue.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Judge, with that ruling, I have been informed by [the news station] that they can have a copy of the interview to us by Monday. And what I would ask the court for [is] a continuance until Monday to supplement this motion. And in the alternative, for a stay to perhaps file a Rule 21.
THE COURT: Well, you mean to continue all motions hearing?
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Yes.
THE COURT: No, I can’t do that and won’t do that. I’m denying the motion at this point in time. I recognize your right to refile this or to supplement this Mon-day_ [W]e simply don’t have the time to do that....

The trial court, in denying the recusal motion, provided for Arledge to refile or supplement the motion with additional materials by the following Monday, if he desired reconsideration. However, Arledge took no action to comply with the deadline set by the court for reconsideration.

Five weeks later, on September 30, 1994, the pretrial hearing convened one business, day before the scheduled October 3, 1994 trial. At the pretrial hearing, defense counsel requested permission to deposit the videotapes of the television news interview with the court. However, counsel told the court that the tapes contained no new evidence. The court then engaged Arledge and his counsel in the following colloquy, reopening the recusal motion which had been denied:

[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: First of all I had promised the Court on the last court date that I would deposit with the Court the videotapes from [the news station], and I’d like to mark them and give them to the Court. I’ve talked to the district attorney.
I apologize for not giving these to the Court earlier, but it doesn’t say anything. We didn’t think it was going [to] say anything, I mean, that we talked about in court, and so I just wanted to deposit these because these are the actual videotapes as opposed to the transcripts of the tape that we had last time.
THE COURT: Okay. Well, this dealt with the issue of disqualification of this judge and I don’t know if you’re still requesting that that happen or not.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Well, yes, Judge, we are continuing with our request [to disqualify the judge] and I had talked to the district attorney about it and told him. I didn’t make copies of this, but that he could—
THE COURT: If you’re still making that request, then as far as I’m concerned, I don’t have any particular desire to hear this case.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Okay. Judge, I would just like to make it for the record, that’s all.
THE COURT: You understand of course that, Mr. Arledge, if you do ask this Court to disqualify itself, it is going to require a delay in these proceedings because we will not be able to have a judge hear this matter next Monday, and therefore, if in fact this Court does disqualify itself, you would be giving up, at least to some extent, your right to a speedy trial, and any delays that may occur between now and the date of the trial, the new trial date, would be attributable to you and would be excluded from the speedy trial calculations.
MR. ARLEDGE: (Defendant nods head up and down.)

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Bluebook (online)
938 P.2d 160, 1997 Colo. LEXIS 384, 1997 WL 259766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-arledge-colo-1997.