State v. Allen

518 P.2d 1332, 16 Or. App. 456, 1974 Ore. App. LEXIS 1212
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedFebruary 19, 1974
DocketNo. C 73-06-1713 Cr
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 518 P.2d 1332 (State v. Allen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Allen, 518 P.2d 1332, 16 Or. App. 456, 1974 Ore. App. LEXIS 1212 (Or. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

SCHWAB, C.J.

The defendant upon trial by jury was convicted of criminally negligent homicide, ORS 163.145. The charge arose out of a collision between an automobile driven by defendant and a boy on a bicycle, as a result of which the boy died.

On appeal the defendant argues: (1) that his demurrer to the indictment should have been sustained on the grounds that the facts stated in the indictment do not constitute a crime; (2) that since, [458]*458prior to the commencement of the negligent homicide trial he had pleaded gnilty in district court to driving while his operator’s license was suspended, OES 482.-650, at the time and place of the accident which caused the death, his plea of former jeopardy should have been sustained; and (3) that his motion for judgment of acquittal based upon the insufficiency of the evidence to make a jury question of criminally negligent homicide in the manner in which he operated his automobile should have been allowed.

(1) Sufficiency of the Indictment.

The indictment for violation of OES 163.145 read:

“The above-named defendant is accused by the Grand Jury of Multnomah County, State of Oregon, by this indictment of the crime of CEIMI-NALLY NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE committed as follows:
“The said defendant, on or about June 7, 1972, in the County of Multnomah, State of Oregon, did unlawfully and with criminal negligence cause the death of another human being, to-wit: Gregory Center, by:
“1. Driving a motor vehicle without keeping a proper lookout under circumstances then and there existing;
“2. Driving a motor vehicle without proper control thereof under the circumstances then and there existing;
“3. Driving a motor vehicle at a speed that was greater than reasonable and prudent under the circumstances then and there existing,
“Dated June 8, 1973 * *

OES 163.145 reads:.

“(1) A person commits the crime of criminally negligent homicide when, with criminal negligence, he causes the death of another person.
[459]*459“ (2) Criminally negligent homicide is a Class C felony.”

ORS 161.085 (10) states:

“ ‘Criminal negligence’ or ‘criminally negligent,’ when used with respect to a result or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense, means that a person fails to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the result will occur or that the circumstance exists. The risk must be of such nature and degree that the failure to be aware of it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation.”

It follows that the indictment alleges that the defendant caused the death of another unlawfully and with “criminal negligence,” a term which is clearly defined in ORS 161.085 (10). The indictment further alleges that the conduct which the state contends was criminally negligent was defendant’s operation of a motor vehicle, and that this criminal negligence manifested itself in three ways- — lack of a proper lookout, lack of proper control and driving at an unreasonable speed. The indictment is thus clearly sufficient to state a crime in that it not only alleges that defendant caused a death by driving in a criminally negligent manner, but further specifies the particular manner in which defendant’s operation of the vehicle was criminally negligent, even though such particularity is not required. State v. Andrews, 16 Or App 144, 517 P2d 1062 (1974). There is no substance to defendant’s argument that the allegations concerning the particular manner in which he was negligent necessarily charge him with only simple negligence. The indictment apprised defendant that the state intended to prove that he acted in stated particulars with such a degree of [460]*460negligence as to be guilty of criminally negligent homicide. State v. Andrews, supra; cf., State v. Marlene House and James House, 260 Or 138, 144-45, 489 P2d 381 (1971); State v. Eaton, 8 Or App 123, 492 P2d 506 (1972).

(2) Former Jeopardy.

Defendant contends that this prosecution. for criminally negligent homicide is barred under the principles of State v. Brown, 262 Or 442, 497 P2d 1191 (1972). This court has held that Brown is applicable to cases in which the original prosecution is for a traffic offense. State v. Leverich, 14 Or App 222, 511 P2d 1265 (1973), aff’d 99 Adv Sh 331, — Or —, 522 P2d 1390 (1974). However, even if we assume that driving with a suspended license is an act rather than a condition — an act which would invoke the Brown double-jeopardy doctrine as we interpreted it in Leverich — one of the Brown criteria is not present here. State v. Brown, supra at 457-58, states:

“* * * We hold, therefore, that under Article I, Section 12, of our constitution, a second prosecution is for the ‘same offense’ and is prohibited if (1) the charges arise out of the same act or transaction, and (2) the charges could have been tried in the same court, and (3) the prosecutor knew or reasonably should have known of the facts relevant to the second charge at the time of the original prosecution." (Emphasis supplied.)

Here, we cannot say that the prosecutor knew or reasonably should halve known of the facts relevant to the negligent homicide charge at the time defendant pleaded guilty in district court to the driving-wdth-a-suspended-operator’s-license charge. The accident occurred on June 7, 1972. The investigating police officer who came to the scene gave a citation to defendant, charging him with driving while his operator’s license [461]*461was suspended/ and directing him to' appear in district court on the charge on June 28, 1972. The defendant appeared on the prescribed date and his plea of guilty on the charge was received during routine processing of traffic matters at which no representative of the district attorney’s office was present, a procedure which, a deputy district attorney testified was normal.

At the time of the guilty plea the police had not initiated a full-scale investigation into the fatal accident and had not notified the district attorney’s office of any facts which would give rise to a potential felony prosecution. As a matter of fact, when, as a result of circumstances which we need not discuss here, the fact of the death and the question of whether a negligent homicide charge should have been brought first came to the attention of the district attorney’s office (some time after the defendant’s plea of guilty to the suspended license charge), a member of the district attorney’s staff reviewed' the files' and police reports and decided that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute for negligent homicide. Later, the name of a. witness, theretofore unknown to the police or the district attorney’s office, was made known by private counsel representing the parents of the deceased boy.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
518 P.2d 1332, 16 Or. App. 456, 1974 Ore. App. LEXIS 1212, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-allen-orctapp-1974.