Stachowski v. State

73 A.3d 290, 213 Md. App. 1, 2013 WL 4522494, 2013 Md. App. LEXIS 90
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland
DecidedAugust 27, 2013
DocketNo. 2051
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 73 A.3d 290 (Stachowski v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Special Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stachowski v. State, 73 A.3d 290, 213 Md. App. 1, 2013 WL 4522494, 2013 Md. App. LEXIS 90 (Md. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

KEHOE, J.

Kenneth Martin Stachowski, Jr. appeals his conviction by the Circuit Court for Somerset County for violating Maryland’s bad check law, Md.Code (2002, 2012 Repl-Vol., § 8-103 of the Criminal Law Article (“CL”)), and raises one issue:

Where a conviction is entered by a guilty plea and the sentence is imposed and suspended in favor of a probation, may a trial judge, as one of the conditions of the probation, [5]*5order that the defendant pay restitution arising from an unrelated case?

We answer this question in the negative and vacate the portion of the sentence requiring Stachowski to pay restitution.

Background

Between 2003 and 2005, Stachowski committed a variety of criminal offenses in Somerset and Wicomico counties in Maryland as well as in Delaware. We are concerned with two strands of this larger web. The first involves Stachowski’s violations of Maryland’s Home Improvement Law, Md.Code (1992, 1998 RepLVol.), § 8-101 et seq. of the Business Regulations Article (“BR”); and the second relates to his passing a bad check.

In 2003 and 2004, Stachowski entered into separate written home improvement contracts with three Somerset County residents, Darlene Wright, Ruth Daniels, and Emma Daniels. He failed to perform the agreed-upon work and the aggrieved individuals filed complaints with the Maryland Home Improvement Commission. As a result, Stachowski was charged in three separate proceedings in the District Court of Maryland, sitting in Somerset County, with failing to perform home improvement contracts in violation of BR § 8-605,1 and with acting as a contractor without a license in violation of BR § 8-601.2 All three of these cases were resolved on March 4, 2005 in the district court.

[6]*6In the Darlene Wright case, Stachowski pleaded guilty to failing to perform a home improvement contract and the State nolle prossed the charge for acting as a contractor without a license. Stachowski received a six month suspended sentence, a $1,000 suspended fine, three years supervised probation, and was ordered to pay restitution of $2,142.85, in $250 monthly installments.

In the Ruth Daniels case, Stachowski pleaded guilty to failing to perform a home improvement contract and the State nolle prossed the charge for acting as a contractor without a license. He received a six month suspended sentence, a $1,000 suspended fine, three years supervised probation, and was ordered to pay restitution of $8,997 in monthly payments of $250.

In the Emma Daniels case, Stachowski pleaded guilty to acting as a contractor without a license and the State nolle prossed the charge for failing to perform a home improvement contract. Stachowski received a 30-day suspended sentence, a $1,000 suspended fine, three years supervised probation, and was ordered to pay restitution of $4,140 in monthly installments of $250.

Stachowski did not make the required restitution payments and, eventually, the State filed petitions to revoke his probations. After a hearing, the district court found Stachowski to be in violation of probation in all three cases and ordered Stachowski to serve the previously suspended sentences in each case and to pay fines of $1,000 in each case, to be served off at a rate of $10 per day of confinement. The sentences were to run consecutively to one another. Stachowski timely [7]*7appealed the disposition of the three violation of probation cases to the circuit court.3 We turn now to the second strand.

In June, 2005, Stachowski gave a bad check in the amount of $182.86 to a company known as Somerset Well Drilling. Stachowski was charged in the Somerset County district court with obtaining property or services by bad check in violation of CL § 8-103.4 Upon Stachowski’s request for a jury trial, the case was transferred to the circuit court. Prior to the scheduled trial date in the circuit court, Stachowski’s wife made full restitution to Somerset Well Drilling.

The two strands came together on October 11, 2006, when all four cases were called for trial in the circuit court. At the beginning of the proceeding, the State represented that the parties had reached an agreement as to the disposition of all four cases (emphasis added):

[THE STATE]: Your Honor, I believe we’ve worked out a plea agreement although I had not stated that on the record. My understanding of the plea agreement, your Honor, three of these are an appeal for violation of probation from District Court. I think that we’re in agreement and the State would consent to the fact that Judge Hayman had imposed all of the backup time for the cases. And in addition to that he had imposed a thousand dollar fine per case and ordered that the defendant serve that off at ten dollars a day.
[W]e’re in agreement that the thousand dollar fine that he would serve off at ten dollars a day was an illegal sentence. [8]*8My understanding as part of the plea agreement the Defendant will agree to serve the suspended portion of the sentence which was six months, six months and thirty days----
[T]he Defendant has agreed to plead guilty in [the Somerset Well Drilling case] to [a] ... single count of bad check. Your Honor, the State would recommend an active portion of five months incarceration which would be consecutive to the three other sentences as well.
In this case the suspended portion, your Honor, we would leave up to you, but we would recommend some sort of a split sentence with an active period of incarceration.
As well, your Honor, restitution has already been paid in this case. His wife provided documentation this morning—
Your Honor, as well, the State is not opposed to work release for those active incarcerations as well as local time contingent on the fact that if he is granted work release that he would pay restitution to the victims in the violation of probation cases. Your Honor, he will agree to pay three hundred dollars a month that would be a hundred dollars per victim. Your Honor, that’s not going to be enough to cover all of the restitution but at least they’ll be able to recover some portion of it. And then either sue him civilly or you know—
[THE COURT]: Central Collection.
[THE STATE]: Central collection or put a lien on his house or something of that nature.
[THE STATE]: And, your Honor, I believe that that would be the nature of the plea agreement.

(Emphasis added.)

As part of this agreement, the State entered a nolle prosequi on the theft charge in the Somerset Well Drilling case, and Stachowski both waived a jury trial, and pleaded guilty to the bad check offense. After the prosecuting attorney recounted [9]*9the factual basis for the guilty plea, the circuit court found Stachowski guilty of violating CL § 8-103.

As to his violation of probation appeals, Stachowski conceded that he had not made the required restitution payments but testified that he was struggling to support his family.

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Related

Rogers v. Home Equity USA, Inc.
160 A.3d 1207 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2017)
Wiredu v. State
112 A.3d 1014 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 2015)
State v. Stachowski
103 A.3d 618 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2014)
Lindsey v. State
98 A.3d 340 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
73 A.3d 290, 213 Md. App. 1, 2013 WL 4522494, 2013 Md. App. LEXIS 90, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stachowski-v-state-mdctspecapp-2013.