People v. Bost

770 P.2d 1209, 13 Brief Times Rptr. 300, 1989 Colo. LEXIS 44, 1989 WL 21104
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedMarch 13, 1989
Docket86SA453
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 770 P.2d 1209 (People v. Bost) 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. Bost, 770 P.2d 1209, 13 Brief Times Rptr. 300, 1989 Colo. LEXIS 44, 1989 WL 21104 (Colo. 1989).

Opinion

LOHR, Justice.

The People appeal from a judgment of the El Paso County District Court dismissing charges of theft and aggravated motor vehicle theft in the first degree against the defendant, Andrew Elbert Bost. The district court held that dismissal was required because Bost had been denied his rights under the Interstate Agreement on Detain-ers (IAD), §§ 24-60-501 to -507, 10B C.R. S. (1988), and his rights to a speedy trial under the sixth amendment to the United States Constitution and article II, section 16, of the Colorado Constitution. 1 We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I.

It is necessary to set forth the facts in some detail in order to provide a background for discussion of the legal issues. On January 19, 1983, an information was filed against Andrew Elbert Bost in the El Paso County District Court. The information charged Bost with one count of theft, § 18-4-401, 8B C.R.S. (1986 & 1988 Supp.), and one count of first degree aggravated motor vehicle theft, § 18-4-409(2), 8B C.R. S. (1986 & 1988 Supp.). 2 These charges arose from events that occurred in November and December of 1982. The El Paso County District Court issued an arrest warrant based upon these charges.

Bost was arrested on March 6, 1983, in Maricopa County, Arizona, on a charge of aggravated assault on a police officer and upon the Colorado warrant. The following day, the sheriffs department of Maricopa County, Arizona, notified the El Paso County Sheriffs Department that Bost was in custody. On March 17, 1983, a Maricopa County sheriffs officer telephoned the El Paso County Sheriffs Department, asking to be notified when Bost was to be returned to Colorado. On May 10, 1983, after notification to the district attorney, the El Paso County District Court called the case for review on the court’s term day docket. The district attorney, apparently unaware of Bost’s arrest, informed the court at that time that he wished the warrant to remain active until Bost was apprehended. Subsequently, Bost was convicted in Maricopa County on charges of trafficking in stolen property and aggravated assault, and on May 23, 1983, Arizona authorities advised the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department that Bost had been sentenced to five years imprisonment in the custody of the Arizona Department of Corrections. On May 26, 1983, Bost was received by the Arizona Department of Corrections.

On June 9, 1983, the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office sent a written *1211 request for temporary custody to the Arizona Department of Corrections. 3 The Arizona Department of Corrections, however, has no record that it ever received the request. Consequently, Arizona authorities did not follow any of the procedures outlined in the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD), §§ 24-60-501 to -507,10B C.R.S. (1988), relating to final disposition of untried charges pending in other jurisdictions. Soon after being placed in the custody of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Bost asked his counselor at the penal institution to check on the pending Colorado charges. He repeated that request in September 1983. On each occasion he was informed that no record of those charges existed in the files of the Arizona Department of Corrections or the centralized databank.

On May 8, 1984, the El Paso County District Court again called the case pending against Bost in Colorado for term day review and again the district attorney requested that the warrant remain active until Bost could be apprehended. The next term day review on May 14,1985, came and went with the same result. After becoming aware that the Arizona Department of Corrections had never responded to the June 1983 request for temporary custody, the district attorney sent another such request to the Arizona authorities on July 26, 1985. The Arizona Department of Corrections received and filed this request on August 12, 1985. Then, on September 5, 1985, the Arizona Department of Corrections notified the El Paso County district attorney that the request for temporary custody received on August 12,1985, would act as a detainer against Bost and that the normal procedures outlined in the IAD had been invoked. 4 As required by article III(c) of the IAD, § 24-60-501(III)(c), 10B C.R.S. (1988), Bost was advised by Arizona Department of Corrections officials of his rights under the IAD.

Bost did not file a request for final disposition of the Colorado charges pursuant to article 111(a) of the IAD, § 24-60-501(III)(a), 10B C.R.S. (1988). Instead, he vigorously resisted being returned to Colorado. In particular, he contested his identification as the person wanted by Colorado and also contested the validity of the documentation supporting the requested interstate custody transfer. A hearing was held in Arizona on these issues with a result unfavorable to Bost. Bost then requested the governor of Arizona to disapprove the request for temporary custody pursuant to article IV(a) of the IAD, § 24-60-501(IV)(a), 10B C.R.S. (1988). The governor never granted this request. At some time after El Paso County requested temporary custody, Bost also filed a petition for habeas corpus relief in the Marico-pa County Superior Court. A hearing on the petition was scheduled for May 15, 1986; however, the hearing was continued at Bost’s request until August 15, 1986. The habeas corpus petition was dismissed in July 1986, so the scheduled hearing was never held. 5 In addition, the Maricopa County Superior Court issued a warrant on December 11, 1985, charging Bost with attempted escape based on events that took place in November 1985. This charge was later dismissed in March 1986 on a motion of the prosecution.

Colorado authorities took temporary custody of Bost on June 11, 1986, some three and one-half years after he had first been charged. Thereafter, Bost filed in the El Paso County District Court a motion to dismiss the pending Colorado charges due *1212 to alleged violations of the IAD and of his constitutional rights to a speedy trial. The district court held an evidentiary hearing on the motion on September 4, 1986. Appearing as witnesses on Bost’s behalf were his father, sister, and a friend, who testified that they could no longer remember Bost’s whereabouts at any relevant times in 1982 and the early part of 1983. Bost testified that he also was no longer able to remember specific times and places related to his activities during that period. 6 He further testified that he had been eligible for parole eighteen days after the August 12, 1985, detainer had been filed and might have been eligible for a temporary release program and other benefits of parole or pre-parole release.

The district court granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss the El Paso County charges on October 10, 1986. As to the delays since the August 12, 1985, detainer was filed, the court found that Bost’s rights under the IAD and his speedy trial rights had not been violated because he was responsible for the delays. The court held, however, that violations did result from the delay of more than two years between the sending of the first request for custody in June 1983 and the filing of the August 12,1985, detainer.

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Bluebook (online)
770 P.2d 1209, 13 Brief Times Rptr. 300, 1989 Colo. LEXIS 44, 1989 WL 21104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-bost-colo-1989.