Ratliff v. State

741 N.E.2d 424, 2000 Ind. App. LEXIS 2185, 2000 WL 1877819
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 28, 2000
Docket43A03-9912-CR-446
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 741 N.E.2d 424 (Ratliff v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ratliff v. State, 741 N.E.2d 424, 2000 Ind. App. LEXIS 2185, 2000 WL 1877819 (Ind. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinions

OPINION

ROBB, Judge

Scottie Ratliff appeals from his convictions for operating while intoxicated (“OWI”), a Class A misdemeanor, operating a vehicle with at least .10% of alcohol by weight in blood (“operating per se”), a Class C misdemeanor, resisting law enforcement, a Class D felony, and possession of marijuana, also a Class D felony, following a bench trial. He was sentenced to a total of seven years incarceration, with six months conditionally suspended, and was ordered to pay fines totaling $12,000. We affirm in part and remand in part.

Issues1

Ratliff raises six issues, which we consolidate and restate as three:

1. Whether he was deprived of a fair trial due to prosecutorial misconduct and trial court bias;
2. Whether he was denied the effective assistance of trial counsel; and
3. Whether the trial court erred in sentencing him.

In addition, we raise the following issues sua sponte: whether the trial court properly merged Ratliffs operating per se and OWI convictions.

Facts and Procedural History

On July 17, 1999, Kosciusko County Sheriffs Department Officer Dean Hill responded to a call from a county resident that a drunk driver had driven through his yard twice. The resident gave a description of the car and a license plate number. Officer Hill drove to the area and observed a vehicle which matched the description and license plate reported by the resident. Officer Hill observed Ratliff driving the [428]*428vehicle and also observed a passenger in the front seat. In the course of following the car, Officer Hill observed Ratliff driving slightly off the side of the roadway and speeding through a residential area. Officer Hill then activated his emergency lights and siren, but Ratliff continued driving at an increased rate of speed, disregarded a stop sign, drove in and out of cornfields along the roadside, drove into a school parking lot at an excessive rate of speed, drove through the school playground and into a cornfield, where the car disappeared.

When Officer Hill and assisting officers found the car, no one was in the driver’s seat, although the passenger was still in the car, passed out. Footprints leading away from the car led officers to Ratliff, who was lying face down with a clear plastic bag underneath his body. The bag contained four more bags, each of which contained a green, leafy substance later determined to be marijuana. Ratliff was determined to have a blood alcohol content of .137%, and also tested positive for cocaine and marijuana.

Ratliff was charged with OWI, operating per se, possession of marijuana and resisting law enforcement. He was also charged with the OWI enhancements to a Class D felony due to an alleged prior conviction. At his initial hearing, Ratliff was determined to be indigent, and counsel was appointed to represent him. At Rat-liffs jury trial, he was found guilty of all four charges. The State then moved to dismiss the two counts alleging penalty enhancements due to a prior conviction, which motion was granted. At sentencing, the trial court merged the operating per se conviction with the OWI conviction for purposes of sentencing, and sentenced Ratliff to an enhanced term of one year, with six months to be suspended if Ratliff paid $1,402.50 for property damage he caused during this incident. He was also fined $500. Ratliff was also sentenced to an enhanced term of three years for the resisting law enforcement conviction and fined $10,000, and three years for the possession conviction, plus a fine of $1,500. In addition, the sentences were ordered to run consecutively. Altogether, Ratliff was sentenced to seven years, with the possibility of six months suspended, and fined $12,000. Ratliff now appeals.

Discussion and Decision

I. Denial of Fair Trial

Ratliff alleges that he was denied a fair trial due to “pervasive” prosecutorial misconduct: the State charged Ratliff with the OWI enhancements, with no basis to support such enhancements, and offered a plea agreement which included a plea of guilty to OWI as a Class D felony; the State improperly “denigrated” Ratliffs right to remain silent in his opening statement; the State elicited testimony which Ratliff believes to be improper; and the State was belligerent to Ratliff and his counsel.2 He also alleges that the trial court’s bias against him facilitated the misconduct and contributed to denying him a fair trial.

A. Prosecutorial Misconduct

1. Standard of Review

When reviewing a charge of prosecutorial misconduct, we employ a two-step analysis: first, we consider whether the prosecutor engaged in misconduct; and second, we consider all the circumstances of the case to determine whether such misconduct placed the defendant in a position of grave peril to which he should not have been subjected. Sa[429]*429maniego v. State, 679 N.E.2d 944, 949 (Ind.Ct.App.1997), trans. denied. The latter is measured not by the degree of impropriety of the misconduct, but by the probable persuasive effect of the misconduct on the jury’s decision and whether there were repeated examples of misconduct that would evince a deliberate attempt to unfairly prejudice the defendant. Id. at 949-50.

2. Instances of Alleged Misconduct

a.Enhancements

Ratliff first contends that the State committed misconduct in pursuing charges for penalty enhancements to the OWI charges without any basis to prove the required element that Ratliff had a prior conviction. However, because the enhancements were dismissed and never brought before the jury, there was no opportunity for an improper persuasive effect on the jury’s verdict, and therefore, no error. Whether or not Ratliff did in fact have such a prior conviction is not relevant if, at the time the State filed the charges, it had a good faith belief that such a prior conviction existed. We have no cause to believe that the State did not have such a good faith belief, and given the fact that the State dismissed the charges, there was no demonstrable harm to Ratliff.

b.Opening Statement

Ratliff also alleges that in its opening statement, the State improperly denigrated his right to remain silent by stating:

What can you expect that the defense will try and present? Well the State’s not quite sure, but the State believes in some way, shape or form we’re going to come up with a mystery man. A Richard Kimbell. A man who took off or disappeared, who was actually driving the vehicle instead of the comatose passenger or Mr. Ratliff.

R. 205-06. Ratliff did not object to this statement, and therefore, to avoid waiver, he argues that this statement was so egregious as to rise to the level of fundamental error, or, in the alternative, that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object. We will address the ineffectiveness claim separately below.

The State’s comments do presuppose that Ratliff would be presenting evidence at trial in his defense, which he clearly did not have to do.

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Bluebook (online)
741 N.E.2d 424, 2000 Ind. App. LEXIS 2185, 2000 WL 1877819, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ratliff-v-state-indctapp-2000.