State of Iowa v. Stephanie Marie Fatland

882 N.W.2d 123, 2016 WL 2745211, 2016 Iowa App. LEXIS 489
CourtCourt of Appeals of Iowa
DecidedMay 11, 2016
Docket15-1430
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 882 N.W.2d 123 (State of Iowa v. Stephanie Marie Fatland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of Iowa v. Stephanie Marie Fatland, 882 N.W.2d 123, 2016 WL 2745211, 2016 Iowa App. LEXIS 489 (iowactapp 2016).

Opinion

BOWER, Judge.

Defendant Stephanie Fatland appeals her convictions for two counts of child endangerment resulting in bodily injury. We determine the district court abused its discretion by imposing conditions prohibiting Fatland from having unsupervised contact with children under the age of five and becoming pregnant while on probation. We vacate her sentences and remand to the district court for resentencing as directed in this opinion.

I. Background Facts & Proceedings

Fatland was charged with three counts of child endangerment resulting in serious injury, in violation of Iowa Code section 726.6(5) (2013), class “C” felonies. The State alleged Fatland had shaken her five-month-old baby on three occasions, causing injury to the child. Fatland entered into a plea agreement in which she pled guilty to two counts of child endangerment resulting in bodily injury, in violation of section 726.6(6), class “D” felonies. The State agreed to dismiss the third charge of child endangerment and to stand silent at sentencing.

The district court accepted Fatland’s guilty pleas. The court sentenced her to a term of imprisonment not to exceed five years on each count, to be served consecutively. The court then suspended the sentences and placed Fatland on probation for a period of five years with the conditions, “Shall have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 5 years,” and “Shall not become pregnant while on probation.”

Fatland filed a Motion to Reconsider a Condition of Probation, stating the court had improperly infringed upon her fundamental right to bear children by the condition on her probation prohibiting her from becoming pregnant. The court denied the motion, finding “temporarily prohibiting the defendant from becoming pregnant is directly related to the defendant’s criminal conduct and her rehabilitative needs.” Fatland now appeals.

II. Standard of Review

“When a defendant challenges the terms of probation, ‘[i]t has long been a well-settled rule that trial courts have a broad discretion in probation matters which will be interfered with only upon a finding of abuse of that discretion.’ ” State v. Valin, 724 N.W.2d 440, 444 (Iowa 2006) (citation omitted). “[0]ur task on appeal is not to second guess the decision made by the district court, but to determine if it *125 was unreasonable or based on untenable grounds.” Id. at 445.

II. Conditions of Probation

A. Fatland first claims the district court abused its discretion by prohibiting her from having “unsupervised contact with children under the age of 5 years.” She states the restriction is unnecessarily restrictive because it does not provide an exception for unintended, incidental, or innocuous contact. Fatland states the restriction would prohibit her from most everyday activities, such as going to the store, because a child under the age of five might be present.

In State v. Lathrop, 781 N.W.2d 288, 291 (Iowa 2010), a probation condition was imposed on a defendant ordering him to “have no contact with anyone under the age of 18 without the permission of his supervising officer.” The Iowa Supreme court noted, “[t]he legislature has given the courts broad, but not unlimited, authority in establishing the conditions of probation.” Lathrop, 781 N.W.2d at 298-99. A condition of probation should be “reasonably related to the crime of which defendant was convicted or to future criminality,” and at the same time not be unnecessarily harsh or excessive. Id. at 299. The court concluded the probation condition was unreasonable and stated:

We vacate the no-contact condition of the defendant’s probation, and remand this case to the district court for the opportunity to fashion a more realistic and precise condition on the defendant’s probation that would ensure he does not have contact with minors in situations that would jeopardize the safety of the community and the defendant’s rehabilitation.

Id. at 301.

In State v. Hall, 740 N.W.2d 200, 201 (Iowa Ct.App.2007), a probation condition was imposed prohibiting ...the defendant from, being “in the immediate vicinity of locations where children are normally found,” and he was ordered to “have no contact with minors [with the] exception [of] incidental contact in public places where other responsible adults are present.” We found:

We disagree with Hall’s assertion that . the restriction on contact with minors would prevent him from going to public places where children are present because the restiiction contains an excep: tion for “incidental contact in public places where other responsible adults are present.” We find the prohibition against being “in the immediate vicinity of locations where children are normally found,” with an exception for incidental contact, is neither an overbroad nor unreasonable condition of Hall’s probation.

Hall, 740 N.W.2d at 204. We found, however, the probation condition was ambiguous concerning communication with minors, and possibly excessively broad, because there was no exception for incidental communication with minors. Id. at 205. We remanded to the district court for “clarification of the restriction on communication with minors to allow an exception for incidental communication with minors where other responsible adults aré present.” Id.

We vacate the condition on Fatland’s-probation prohibiting her from having unsupervised contact with children under the age of five years. We remand to the district court for resentencing in: order to create a more realistic and precise condition on her probation regarding contact with young children. The condition should not jeopardize the safety of the community and her rehabilitation, but at the .same time, it should not be overbroad and unduly restrictive of her freedom and autono *126 my. See Lathrop, 78i N.W,2d at 301. The condition should contain an exception for “incidental contact in public places where other responsible adults-are present.” See Hall, 740 N,W.2d at 204.

B, Fatland claims the condition on her probation prohibiting her from becoming pregnant while she is on probation violates a constitutionally protected fundamental right. The State agrees this probation condition is unreasonable. See People v, Zaring, 8 Cal.App.4th 362, 10 Cal.Rptr.2d 263, 270 (1992) (holding a condition prohibiting a defendant from getting pregnant during the term of her probation was unlawful and must be stricken); Rodriguez v. State, 378 So.2d 7, 10 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1979) (holding a condition of probation-prohibiting defendant from becoming pregnant was invalid because the condition was not-reasonably related to future criminality); Trammell v. State, 751 N.E.2d 283

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882 N.W.2d 123, 2016 WL 2745211, 2016 Iowa App. LEXIS 489, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-iowa-v-stephanie-marie-fatland-iowactapp-2016.