State v. Beeney

114 P.3d 996, 34 Kan. App. 2d 77, 2005 Kan. App. LEXIS 659
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedJuly 8, 2005
DocketNo. 92,367
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 114 P.3d 996 (State v. Beeney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Beeney, 114 P.3d 996, 34 Kan. App. 2d 77, 2005 Kan. App. LEXIS 659 (kanctapp 2005).

Opinion

Johnson, J.:

Charles L. Beeney appeals his jury conviction for one count of feloniously fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer in violation of K.S.A. 8-1568(b). Beeney challenges his conviction on three bases: (1) the complaint was fatally defective because it omitted essential elements of the crime and because the complaint language failed to allege a crime; (2) the instruction defining the crime was clearly erroneous because it did not ask the jury to find the elements alleged in the complaint; and (3) the evidence produced at trial was insufficient to support the fleeing or attempting to elude conviction. Finding that the complaint upon which Beeney was tried did not charge the crime alleged, we reverse.

On a foggy November morning, Trooper Gardner responded to a report that a man who may have been the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant was in the parking lot of the Tortilla King plant occupying a bluish-silver Ford Taurus with Vermont license plates. The trooper, in full uniform and operating a marked Kansas Highway Patrol vehicle, drove through the plant parking lot. The trooper parked and exited the patrol vehicle, proceeding afoot to look at some vehicles which were backed into parking spaces.

[78]*78The trooper spotted a silver vehicle with Vermont tags, which from approximately three car lengths away appeared to be a Taurus. The trooper thought the car was unoccupied, but as he walked towards the vehicle a person sat up into the driver’s seat as if the person had been lying on the passenger side. The person, later identified as Beeney, started the vehicle and slowly left the parking space. As the trooper walked between vehicles, he raised his hands and told Beeney to “stop the vehicle.” The trooper would testify that he made eye contact with Beeney when he motioned his hands and gave his verbal command to stop.

The vehicle accelerated, drove past the trooper and the patrol car, and exited the parking lot. The trooper observed the vehicle’s direction of travel and heard aggressive acceleration. By the time the trooper returned to his patrol car, activated its lights and sirens, and proceeded onto the street, Beeney’s car was out of sight. The foggy conditions had produced extremely limited visibility.

In short order, the trooper found the vehicle, abandoned and damaged. The physical evidence led the trooper to believe that the vehicle had gone into the ditch and rolled. A search for the driver, by foot and by helicopter, was unsuccessful. Subsequent investigation disclosed Beeney’s identity, and he was located in custody in Harvey County.

Because Beeney was serving another sentence at the Lansing Correctional Facility, prosecution of this case was delayed for over a year. Following a preliminary hearing, the State amended the complaint. At trial, Beeney admitted being in the vehicle, but alleged that he was not the driver. After his conviction, Beeney did not file any posttrial motions.

THE COMPLAINT

The amended complaint upon which Beeney went to trial was worded as follows:

“That on or about the 16th day of November, 2001, die above named defendant, within McPherson County, Kansas, did then and there contraiy to the statutes of the State of Kansas unlawfully, feloniously and willfully flee or attempt to elude a uniformed law enforcement officer when given visual or audible signals to bring the vehicle to a stop and is involved in a motor vehicle accident during die pursuit, [79]*79contrary to K.S.A. 8-1568(b), a Severity Level 9, Person Felony, 5-17 mos. (Felony Flee & Elude).” (Emphasis added.)

Originally, the complaint alleged that Beeney fled or attempted to elude a “pursuing police vehicle.” That language was replaced with “uniformed law enforcement officer” upon the State’s unopposed motion at preliminary hearing.

Beeney points to a number of omissions in the complaint which he contends renders it fatally defective. However, we will focus on the contention that fleeing or attempting to elude a uniformed law enforcement officer is not a crime proscribed by K.S.A. 8-1568.

The sufficiency of a charging document to confer jurisdiction is a question of law over which an appellate court has unlimited review. State v. Hooker, 271 Kan. 52, 60, 21 P.3d 964 (2001). However, the test for determining complaint sufficiency depends upon when the issue was first raised. State v. Hall, 246 Kan. 728, 764-65, 793 P.2d 737 (1990), overmled in part Ferguson v. State, 276 Kan. 428, 444, 78 P.3d 40 (2003) (extending post-Hall common sense rule to collateral attack cases). Defective complaint issues raised for the first time on appeal are subject to a common sense approach. The complaint or information is reviewed as a whole, interpreted to include facts which are necessarily implied, and construed liberally in favor of validity. Hall, 246 Kan. at 764.

Nevertheless, a defective complaint challenge will prevail, if the claimed defect has

“(a) prejudiced the defendant in the preparation of his or her defense; (b) impaired in any way defendant’s ability to plead the conviction in any subsequent prosecution; or (c) limited in any way defendant’s substantial rights to a fair trial under the guarantees of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights, § 10.” Hall, 246 Kan. at 765.

Here, Beeney did not move for an arrest of judgment and raises his defective complaint claim for the first time on appeal. However, he argues that the defect prejudiced the preparation of his defense and limited his constitutional rights. We agree.

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution gives an accused the right to “be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation”; the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights, § 10 man[80]*80dates that “the accused shall be allowed ... to demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him.” Statutorily, the complaint “shall be a plain and concise written statement of the essential facts constituting the crime charged, which complaint, information or indictment, drawn in the language of the statute, shall be deemed sufficient.” K.S.A. 2004 Supp. 22-3201(b).

Here, the complaint was not drawn in the language of the statute, which reads in pertinent part:

“(a) Any driver of a motor vehicle who willfully fails or refuses to bring such driver’s vehicle to a stop, or who otherwise flees or attempts to elude a pursuing police vehicle or police bicycle, when given visual or audible signal to bring the vehicle to a stop, shall be guilty as provided by subsection (c)(1), (2) or (3). The signal given by the police officer may be by hand, voice, emergency light or siren.

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Related

State v. Dinneen
297 P.3d 1185 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
114 P.3d 996, 34 Kan. App. 2d 77, 2005 Kan. App. LEXIS 659, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-beeney-kanctapp-2005.