State of West Virginia v. Jerry Lee Hedrick

778 S.E.2d 666, 236 W. Va. 217, 2015 W. Va. LEXIS 962
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 7, 2015
Docket14-1185 & 14-1198
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 778 S.E.2d 666 (State of West Virginia v. Jerry Lee Hedrick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of West Virginia v. Jerry Lee Hedrick, 778 S.E.2d 666, 236 W. Va. 217, 2015 W. Va. LEXIS 962 (W. Va. 2015).

Opinion

KETCHUM, Justice:

These consolidated appeals concern supervised release mandated for certain sex offenses pursuant to W.Va.Code, 62-12-26 [2009]. The petitioner, Jerry Lee Hedrick, was convicted in Mineral County of two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree, and his sentence included placement on supervised release for twenty-five years. Hed-rick first served consecutive terms in the penitentiary and was placed on parole. His supervised release commenced upon his discharge from parole.

Hedrick is the principal owner of a vacation facility, open to the public, known as Smoke Hole Caverns and Resort. Until recently, he was a long-term resident on.the property. The terms of Hedrick’s supervised release require him to comply with a number of conditions governing his conduct. Appeal no. 14-0484 concerns Hedrick’s challenge to two of those conditions: (1) that he is not to be employed at Smoke Hole Caverns and Resort in any capacity and (2) that he is not to visit Smoke Hole Caverns and Resort, including the gift shop located on the property. The circuit court denied Hedrick’s motion to strike those conditions. Hedrick asks this Court to reverse and direct the circuit court to strike those conditions from the terms of his supervised release.

Appeal no. 14-1198 arose from the State’s petition to revoke Hedrick’s supervised release for alleged transgressions, such as possessing ammunition and locking a gate to a farm owned by Hedrick in Pendleton County. The circuit court declined to revoke Hed-rick’s supervised release. However, the court, sua sponte, entered an order which set forth additional conditions governing Hed-rick’s conduct. One of those conditions banned him from his Pendleton County farm. Hedrick asserts that the additional conditions are unreasonable and that the circuit court abused its discretion in imposing them.

For the reasons stated below, this Court upholds the two conditions in appeal no. 14-0484, banning Hedrick from Smoke Hole Caverns and Resort. We also uphold the additional conditions at issue in appeal no. 14-1198, except for the condition banning Hedrick from his Pendleton County farm. Procedural due process mandates that we reverse the ruling of the circuit court as to that condition and remand this case for a hearing at which Hedrick shall have the right to have his counsel present. In all other respects, the final orders in these consolidated appeals are affirmed.

*220 I. Appeal No. 14-0484

Factual and Procedural Background

Smoke Hole Caverns and Resort, located in Grant County, was purchased by Hedrick in 1977 and is a family business which Hed-rick operated with his wife and their three grown children. Hedrick and his wife are majority and minority owners of the business, respectively. The Resort includes a maintenance complex which houses Hedrick’s equipment, machinery and tools. Hedrick’s marital residence was on the property. Hed-rick and his wife are now estranged, and Hedrick resides elsewhere at this time. In addition to his Resort ownership, Hedrick owns various tracts of land, including a farm in Pendleton County and in Bath County, Virginia. 1

In July 2008, a Grant County grand jury returned an indictment charging Hedrick with two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree under W.Va.Code, 6Í — SB—7 (a)(1) [2006]. According to the State, Hedrick, forcibly touched the buttocks and breasts of a twenty-five year old female employed as a housekeeper at the Resort. 2 The victim left the premises and never returned, to Her employment,

Venue; was transferred to Mineral County on Hedrick’s motion, and a trial was conducted in May 2009. Hedrick was found guilty on both cpunts. On September 9, 2009, Hed-rick-signed an acknowledgment of sex offender registration requirements, and on October 21, 2009, he signed a document entitled “Sex Offender Conditions.” Although the document allowed for other conditions “as appropriate,” it did not address Hedrick’s employment or presencé at Smoke Hole Caverns and Resort.

On October 26, 2009, the circuit court entered an order sentencing Hedrick to two consecutive penitentiary terms of one to five years and directed him to pay a fine of $10,000 on each count. The order further directed that Hedrick would be under supervised release for twenty-five years following full discharge of his sentence or after completion of parole, - whichever is applicable. The supervised release was imposed pursuant to W.Va.Code, 62-12-26. [2009]. That statute provides that criminal defendants convicted of certain sex offenses, including sexual abuse-in the first degree, -shall be required to serve a period of supervised release, “in addition to any other penalty or condition imposed by the court.” No specific conditions associated with supervised release were imposed by the circuit court in the October 26, 2009, order.

Hedrick’s initial appeal to this Court was accepted solely to consider the constitutionality of the supervised release portion of his sentence. His appeal was consolidated in State v. James, 227 W.Va. 407, 710 S.E.2d 98 (2011), with the appeals of two othér defendants convicted of sex related offenses. Rejecting the appellants’ constitutional challenges, this Court, in James, concluded that W.Va.Code, 62N2-26 [2009], was neither im-permissibly vague nor violated a criminal defendant’s right to a jury determination of relevant' factual matters. Therefore, the statute did not violate the appellants’ right to due process of law. This Court further concluded, in James, that the statute did not violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment and double jeopardy. However, in James, this Court noted that an evaluation of Hedrick indicated that he was “at least at a moderate risk for recidivism and reoffending.” 227 W.Va. at 417, 710 S.E.2d at 108.

Hedrick was placed on parole following his incarceration in the penitentiary. Although, initially, he, was not allowed to enter the Resort property, that restriction was lifted by his parole officer. Hedrick’s wife, however, obtained an emergency domestic violence protective order from the Grant County Family Court barring him from the property. The appendix record does not disclose the *221 grounds for the emergency order. That order was terminated by the Family Court in September 2013. Hedrick was discharged from parole on January 14, 2014. His twenty-five year term of supervised release commenced at that time.

' Soon after, Hedrick signed two forms pertaining to his supervised release. On January 21, 2014, Hedrick signed a form entitled “Rules and Regulations Governing Probationers” which set'forth various conditions of release, including a handwritten restriction that Hedrick was “not to be employed at Smoke Hole Resort in any capacity.” Two days later, on January 23, 2014, Hedrick signed an additional form entitled. “Terms and Conditions of Supervised Release” which set forth other conditions, including a handwritten restriction providing that.

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Bluebook (online)
778 S.E.2d 666, 236 W. Va. 217, 2015 W. Va. LEXIS 962, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-west-virginia-v-jerry-lee-hedrick-wva-2015.