Satterwhite v. State

952 S.W.2d 613, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 4622, 1997 WL 528635
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 28, 1997
Docket13-95-523-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 952 S.W.2d 613 (Satterwhite v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Satterwhite v. State, 952 S.W.2d 613, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 4622, 1997 WL 528635 (Tex. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinions

OPINION

SEERDEN, Chief Justice.

William Satterwhite, appellant, was indicted for falsely holding himself out as a lawyer.2 A jury found appellant guilty and assessed punishment at confinement for-a term of four and one-half years, plus a $7,500 fine. On appeal, appellant challenges the jurisdiction of the trial court and the sufficiency of the evidence in support of his conviction. We affirm appellant’s conviction.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The facts in this ease are uncontested. On May 1, 1993, appellant was notified that his annual State Bar dues were due and payable by June 1, 1993. Prior to May 1, 1993, however, appellant was suspended for failure to meet the MCLE requirements.3 On July 1, 1993, the 30-day “grace period” afforded attorneys to pay their bar dues had expired. Appellant was not sent a reminder notice because, as stated above, appellant was already on suspension for noncompliance with the MCLE requirements.

On September 1, 1993, a letter was mailed from the State Bar to appellant notifying appellant that his license to practice law was suspended for nonpayment of State Bar dues. In October 1993, appellant sent two cheeks to the State Bar. These checks were not written in the correct amount and were returned by the State Bar. Appellant sent another check in November 1993, which was also written for an improper amount and returned. On November 8, 1993, a check was received from appellant in the correct amount, but this check was not paid due to insufficient funds. It was not until January 4, 1994, that appellant finally paid his bar dues in the proper amount.

However, on December 13,1993, at a time when appellant’s license to practice law in Texas was suspended, appellant represented John Lemke as his attorney of record in seven felony criminal cases. For this conduct, appellant was indicted under section 38.122 of the Texas Penal Code for falsely holding himself out as a lawyer. A jury found appellant guilty and assessed punishment at confinement for a term of four and one-half years, plus a fine of $7,500.00. Appellant brings four points of error complaining of the jurisdiction of the trial court and the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction.

JURISDICTION

Appellant, in his fourth point of error, challenges the jurisdiction of the trial court. [615]*615He was originally indicted under Cause No. 94-5-5104. This original indictment was filed on May 27, 1994, and indicates that it was presented to the Grand Jurors of Jackson County, Texas, at the January-July 1994 Term. The foreman of that term, J. Rodriguez, signed the indictment. Appellant was subsequently re-indicted under Cause No. 95-10-5464. This subsequent indictment was filed on October 17, 1995 and bore the signature of Pat H. Griffin, foreman. However, this latter indictment indicates that it too was presented to the grand jurors during the January-July 1994 Term. Appellant argues that because this latter indictment was filed fourteen months after the end of the January-July 1994 Term and was not signed by the foreman of the January-July 1994 Term, it did not meet the requirements set out in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. As a result, appellant argues, the trial court lacked the jurisdiction to proceed with trial on the merits in Cause No. 95-10-5464.

After a jury had been selected but before the indictment was presented to the jury, appellant objected to the trial courts’ proceeding with trial on the merits in Cause No. 95-10-5464, challenging the indictment as being fundamentally defective. In response, the State pointed out to the court that appellant was, in effect, contesting an incorrect grand jury allegation which would be a matter of form properly raised in a timely motion to quash. The trial court agreed and denied appellant’s request, indicating that it was not entertaining any motions to quash at that time.

Although the indictment returned by the Grand Jury in Cause No. 95-10-5464 recites that it was returned during the January-July 1994 Term, it appears from a review of the record that this indictment was actually returned during the January-July 1995 Term. This error, the State argues, is a defect of form properly raised in a motion to quash presented to the court before trial on the merits commences. We agree.

In response to an allegation that an indictment was defective because the indictment, on its face, reflected a term of court for the grand jurors which was an impossible term, the Court of Criminal Appeals has stated,

He contends that the indictment should have been amended. We do not agree that such was necessary. In Osborne v. State, 24 Tex.App. 398, 6 S.W. 536, the Court of Appeals said:
“It was surplusage to allege the time when the term of the court began; and this portion of the indictment might have been stricken out without invalidating the indictment.”
Later this Court in Fagnani v. State, 66 Tex.Cr.R. 291, 146 S.W. 542, said:
“Appellant’s motion to quash the indictment, because it incorrectly gave the term at which the grand jury was impaneled ‘at the May term, A.D. 191_,’ instead of ‘at the May term, A.D.1911,’ was properly overruled.”

Guerra v. State, 478 S.W.2d 483, 484 (Tex.Crim.App.1972). Later, the court reaffirmed its holding in Guerra by stating that an “allegation in the indictment as to the terms of court or the grand jury is unnecessary and need not be stated in the indictment.” Phillips v. State, 615 S.W.2d 756, 757 (Tex.Crim.App.1981).

In light of these pronouncements, we find the term of the court returning the indictment is surplusage or merely a matter of form. Article 1.14 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure provides that a defendant waives the right to object to a defect, error, or irregularity of form or substance in an indictment if he does not object before the date on which the trial on the merits commences. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 1.14 (Vernon 1994). Our review of the record shows that a jury had been selected and impaneled before appellant’s challenge to the indictment was made. Accordingly, because trial on the merits had begun, we hold that appellant waived the right to complain about the form of the indictment. See Hinojosa v. State, 875 S.W.2d 339, 342 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1994, no pet.) (trial on merits “commences” when jury impaneled and sworn); Bucciarelli v. State, 793 S.W.2d 289, 290 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1990, pet. ref'd) (motion to quash that is filed on the day of trial is untimely and will not be considered).

[616]*616Appellant’s fourth point of error is overruled.

Sufficiency of the Evidence

In his first and second points of error, appellant complains that the evidence adduced at trial was legally and factually insufficient to support his conviction for the offense of falsely holding oneself out as a lawyer. Appellant also relies on the retroactive effect of article III, § 7(a) of the State Bar Rules. We will address each argument in turn.

Legal Sufficiency

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952 S.W.2d 613, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 4622, 1997 WL 528635, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/satterwhite-v-state-texapp-1997.