State of Minnesota v. Rafael Alfonso Banks

875 N.W.2d 338, 2016 Minn. App. LEXIS 11
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedFebruary 8, 2016
DocketA15-279
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 875 N.W.2d 338 (State of Minnesota v. Rafael Alfonso Banks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of Minnesota v. Rafael Alfonso Banks, 875 N.W.2d 338, 2016 Minn. App. LEXIS 11 (Mich. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

CHUTICH, Judge.

Appellant Rafael Alfonso Banks appeals his conviction for violation of a domestic- *342 abuse no-contact order. See Minn.Stat. § 629.75, subd. -2(c) (2012). He argues that (1) the district court erred in denying his motion to dismiss the complaint; (2) the district court improperly permitted the state to elicit hearsay evidence, or alternatively, that his trial • counsel’s- failure to object to its admission denied him effective assistance of counsel; (3) the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction as a matter of law; and (4) the prosecutor committed prejudicial misconduct, entitling him to a new trial. Because we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Banks’s motion to dismiss and that the remainder of his claims lack merit or do not raise concerns that implicate his right to a fair trial, we affirm his conviction.

FACTS

This case arises from allegations that appellant Rafael Alfonso Banks violated a domestic-abuse no-contact order. The state charged Banks with domestic assault by strangulation 1 after he allegedly strangled A.M.P. on March 17, 2013. Three days later, at his first appearance on this charge, the district court issued a domestic-abuse no-contact order, which‘prohibited all contact between Banks and A.M.P. The order was to remain in effect until the disposition of the criminal case or until further order or modification.

Also on March 20, 2013, A.M.P. independently obtained an ex parte permanent order for protection against Banks. Approximately one month later, however, she requested that the order for protection be dropped, and the district court vacated it. The dismissal order specifically stated that it would “not affect any other No-Contact Orders including the Domestic Abuse No-Contact Order in [Banks’s domestic-assault’ case].”

On June 9, 2013, police arrested Banks for having contact with A.M.P. That evening, Officer Troy Okerlund began checking license plates in the parking lot of a park to discover any active warrants or driving violations. One license plate appeared as registered to A.M.P. in Minnesota but showed tfiat she had a Wisconsin driver’s license. Okerlund’s information from the Department of Vehicle Services provided no photo of A.M.P. An attachment to A.M.P.’s Minnesota registration showed that she had an active order for protection against Banks. 2

Having just seen a man and a woman with a child in a stroller leave the car registered to A.M.P., Okerlund’s curiosity was piqued. Because he identified the man leaving the car as Banks, he waited for them to return so he could investigate whether the woman with Banks was A.M.P., the subject of the order for protection.

Okerlund approached the couple when they returned, and he addressed the woman by A.M.P.’s first name to confirm her identity. She did not correct him. Once Okerlund informed them of the active order for protection prohibiting their contact, Banks hung his head and responded “I thought that got dropped.” Based on Banks’s reaction, Okerlund arrested him for violating the order for protection.

The state charged.Banks with violating the March 20 order for protection but dismissed the charge on June 17, 2013, citing “unavailability of admissible testimony.” Neither Okerlund nor the state *343 learned that the March'20 order for protection had been'vacated until after th¿ charge was dismissed. The domestic-abuse no-contact order, however, remained in effect.from March 20 until June 17. 3

On May 7, 2014, the state recharged Banks for the June'9, 2013 encounter in the park, this time for violating the March 20 domestic-abuse no-contact order. Banks moved to dismiss the charge, which the district court denied.

At trial, Banks testified that, although he was aware of the March 20 order for protection, he was unaware of the March 20 domestic-abuse no-contact order. ' He confirmed that he 'had been with his daughter in the park that day but insisted that the woman with him was J.S., his then-girlfriend, not A.M.P., the child’s mother. He described A.M.P. as five-feet-eleven-inches tall, “Caucasian,” 154 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair. He testified that J.S., however, is five-feet-five-inches tall, “Caucasian,” 156 pounds, with green eyes and red hair. He additionally explained that he had been driving the vehicle registered to A.M.P. because he had arranged with A.M.P. to assume the payments on her car so that he could have exclusive use of it. According to Banks, Okerlund rejected his explanation, including his assertion- that the woman was not A.M.P.

Okerlund, by contrast, testified that, although Banks insisted that the order for protection had been dropped, neither Banks nor A.M.P. had documentation to confirm this assertion. Okerlund further testified that neither suggested that the woman was not A.M.P. Additionally, Oker-lund testified that the woman’s identity was never in question because she identified herself for Okerlund’s report, he identified the child as the daughter of A.M.P. and Banks,, and they discussed A.M.P.’s need to obtain a Minnesota driver’s license. Following a one-day trial, the jury convicted Banks.

After his conviction, Banks moved for a new trial, asserting that he had been deprived of a fair trial, he had new evidence, 4 and the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. . The district court rejected Banks’s arguments, denied the motion for a new trial, and sentenced him to 365 days ■in the workhouse, with 362 days stayed for two, years, subject to conditions of probation. Banks appeals.

ISSUES

I. Did the district court abuse its discretion by refusing to dismiss the complaint?

II. Did the district court commit plain error by permitting the state to introduce hearsay testimony?

III. Was the evidence sufficient as a matter of law to sustain the conviction?

IV. Did the prosecutor commit prejudicial misconduct warranting a new trial?

ANALYSIS

I. Denial of Banks’s Motion to Dismiss the Complaint

Banks argues that the district court should have dismissed the proceedings under Minnesota Rule of Criminal Procedure 30.02 because the prosecutor waited eleven months before recharging him with violating the domestic abuse no-contact order. *344 He contends that rule 30.02 applies to this unnecessary pre-trial delay even when that delay causes no prejudice to a defendant.

We agree with Banks that rule 30.02 applies to pre-trial delay, as well as to post-charging delays But because the rule requires a defendant to show prejudice to his case before dismissal is warranted, and Banks failed to do,so, the .district court properly denied, his motion to dismiss the refiled charge. . .

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Bluebook (online)
875 N.W.2d 338, 2016 Minn. App. LEXIS 11, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-minnesota-v-rafael-alfonso-banks-minnctapp-2016.