People v. Gallegos

914 P.2d 449, 19 Brief Times Rptr. 1284, 1995 Colo. App. LEXIS 255, 1995 WL 442223
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 27, 1995
Docket94CA0250
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 914 P.2d 449 (People v. Gallegos) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Gallegos, 914 P.2d 449, 19 Brief Times Rptr. 1284, 1995 Colo. App. LEXIS 255, 1995 WL 442223 (Colo. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge JONES.

Defendant, Samuel Gallegos, appeals the denial of his Crim.P. 35(c) motion challenging the validity of his conviction for attempted theft. We affirm.

In February 1988, defendant was charged with theft in violation of § 18-4^-401, C.R.S. (1986 Repl.Vol. 8B). At that time, defendant was on parole from the Department of Corrections on a prior conviction. Because violating any state law constituted a violation of defendant’s parole, a parole revocation hearing was held, after which defendant’s parole was revoked for a period of two years and defendant was returned to the Department of Corrections.

Subsequent to the parole revocation hearing, defendant entered into a plea agreement with the prosecution, as a part of which he pled guilty to attempted theft. The court sentenced the defendant to eight years incarceration in the Department of Corrections.

Defendant then filed a Crim.P. 35(c) motion challenging his guilty plea as a violation of his protections against double jeopardy as established by the Fifth Amendment and Colo. Const, art. II, § 18. Subsequent to a hearing, the hearing court denied defendant’s Crim.P. 35(c) motion, and this appeal followed. '

Defendant contends that the hearing court erred in concluding that his constitutional *450 rights against double jeopardy were not violated when, after a finding of violation of parole in a parole revocation proceeding, he was convicted of attempted theft for the same conduct for which his parole was revoked. We disagree.

As a preliminary to determining defendant’s assertion that he has been subjected to a double risk of punishment, we must determine whether a parole revocation proceeding is the type of proceeding which invokes the protections of the constitutional double jeopardy clauses. As a case of first impression in this state, we are asked by the defendant to hold that the doctrine of double jeopardy is implicated when an individual admitted to parole has that parole status revoked because of behavior which constitutes criminal conduct and is, thereafter, prosecuted for the same conduct that constituted a violation of a condition of parole. We conclude that the doctrine of double jeopardy is not implicated in such a case.

Parole is a privilege, and no prisoner is entitled to it as a matter of right. Silva v. People, 158 Colo. 326, 407 P.2d 38 (1965). Moreover, one who is on parole is granted the privilege to be outside the confines of the institution while serving a sentence, but is subject to re-incarceration at any time. Furthermore, a parolee is considered to be under a restraint imposed by law and not a free person, but rather, is a constructive prisoner of the state and under control of the appropriate state officials. People v. Lucero, 772 P.2d 58 (Colo.1989).

Our supreme court has recognized that certain types of disciplinary sanctions imposed on a defendant do not constitute punishment for the substantive crime involved and, therefore, do not implicate the double jeopardy clauses. For example, in Silva v. People, supra, the court concluded, with respect to an escape from prison, that administrative disciplinary punishments that precluded a prisoner from earning deductions from the length of his sentence and that made him ineligible for parole for a certain period were administrative proceedings that did not constitute punishment for the substantive crime involved and, therefore, did not invoke the protections of the double jeopardy clauses. See People v. Martinez, 656 P.2d 1317 (Colo.1983). See also People v. Watson, 892 P.2d 388 (Colo.App.1994) (prior prison disciplinary proceeding for defendant’s assault of prison official did not bar subsequent criminal prosecution for same assault.)

Furthermore, several federal circuit courts have determined that parole and probation proceedings do not trigger the protections of the federal Double Jeopardy Clause. See U.S. v. McGowan, 960 F.2d 716 (8th Cir.1992); Priore v. Nelson, 626 F.2d 211 (2d Cir.1980); Averhart v. Tutsie, 618 F.2d 479 (7th Cir.1980).

More specifically, in U.S. v. Hanahan, 798 F.2d 187, 189-190 (7th Cir.1986), the court stated:

A parole revocation proceeding is an administrative proceeding designed to determine whether a parolee has violated the conditions of his parole, not a proceeding designed to punish a criminal defendant for violation of a criminal law. A criminal prosecution is a judicial proceeding that vindicates the community’s interests in punishing criminal conduct. Because the two proceedings serve different ends, the finding that the defendant no longer merits parole does not foreclose the criminal justice system from punishing the defendant for that conduct.

See also Kell v. U.S. Parole Commission, 26 F.3d 1016 (10th Cir.1994); Garcia v. U.S., 769 F.2d 697 (11th Cir.1985); U.S. v. Whitney, 649 F.2d 296 (5th Cir.1981).

Defendant argues that the aforementioned cases, and in particular, U.S. v. Hanahan, were effectively nullified when the Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Dixon, 509 U.S. 688, 113 S.Ct. 2849, 125 L.Ed.2d 556 (1993), that once a defendant was convicted in a criminal contempt proceeding, he could not subsequently be prosecuted for the same conduct in a criminal proceeding. We conclude that the defendant has misinterpreted Dixon and find that case inapplicable here.

In Dixon, the Supreme Court rejected the “same conduct” test in overruling Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508, 110 S.Ct. 2084, 109 L.Ed.2d 548 (1990), and re-established the “same-elements” test of Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932), as the only test of a double *451 jeopardy violation.

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914 P.2d 449, 19 Brief Times Rptr. 1284, 1995 Colo. App. LEXIS 255, 1995 WL 442223, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-gallegos-coloctapp-1995.