State v. Borges

467 So. 2d 375, 10 Fla. L. Weekly 779, 1985 Fla. App. LEXIS 13064
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 20, 1985
DocketNos. 84-160 to 84-165
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 467 So. 2d 375 (State v. Borges) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Borges, 467 So. 2d 375, 10 Fla. L. Weekly 779, 1985 Fla. App. LEXIS 13064 (Fla. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

BOARDMAN, EDWARD F., (Ret.) Judge.

The state challenges the trial court’s order dismissing the charges against appel-lees and discharging them from further prosecution on the basis of the procedural due process violation purportedly reflected in the following chronology of events. We reverse.

According to the record, appellee George N. Borges was arrested on April 25, 1983, for allegedly dealing in stolen property and committing four counts of grand theft. Appellees Ralph Borges and Mary Ann Yglesia were arrested the next day for the same offenses.

The state charged appellees by information with two counts of grand theft on September 9, 1983, 137 days after George Borges’ arrest and 136 days after Ralph Borges’ and Mary Ann Yglesia’s arrests. Arraignment of all three individuals followed on September 15, 1983. Appellees appeared at arraignment without benefit of counsel, entered pleas of not guilty, and were scheduled for trial on October 18, 1983, a date 39 days after the charges had been filed and 4 and 5 days, respectively, before expiration of the 180-day speedy trial period for each appellee.1

On September 19, 1983, appellees retained Attorney Frank V. Vaccaro to represent them in defending against the charged offenses;2 Vaccaro demanded discovery from the state on the day following his retention. The state responded to defense counsel’s discovery demand by furnishing the names of fourteen witnesses who had information about the charged offenses and by disclosing its possession of statements given by each appellee, information provided by a confidential informant, tangible papers not obtained from appellees, and documents relating to search and seizure. Although the state provided this information in an answer filed with the clerk’s office at 4:38 p.m. on Friday, September 30, 1983, defense counsel did not receive the state’s answer until Monday, October 3, 1983, 14 days before the scheduled trial date.

After attempting, without success, to schedule depositions through the state attorney’s office, defense counsel moved for a continuance chargeable to the state on October 10, 1983. In support of this motion, Mr. Vaccaro argued that the state’s delay in charging his clients had left them with an insufficient time to prepare for trial within the period mandated by the expedited trial date. According to defense counsel, the continuance necessitated by the state’s delay should be charged to the prosecution in order to safeguard appellees from having to waive their speedy trial rights under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.191 in order to protect their coequal right to adequate preparation under rule 3.220. Judge Ray E. Ulmer, Jr., granted appellees’ motion but declined to charge the continuance' to the state. Ap-pellees’ trial was rescheduled for the week of February 20, 1984, a date approximately 10 months after their arrests. The 180-day speedy trial period was not extended during the resulting interim, and appellees at no time demanded a speedy trial.

On December 5, 1983, appellees moved for dismissal of the charges against them or alternately for discharge from prosecution on the basis that the state’s inaction had presented them with the “Hobson’s choice” of sacrificing their right to a speedy trial under rule 3.191 in order to preserve their right to adequate prepara[377]*377tion for trial. Appellees maintained that forcing them to make such a choice deprived them of procedural due process of law, in contravention of both the federal and state "constitutions. At a motion hearing held on January 5, 1984, the assistant state attorney explained to the court that the delay in charging appellees had resulted from the state’s need to marshal its evidence and corroborate information furnished by a confidential informant. Judge Wayne L. Cobb agreed with appellees’ contention, however, and granted their motions for dismissal on January 17, 1984, discharging them from further prosecution on the charged offenses. The state then filed this timely appeal.

After subjecting this case to exhaustive examination, we have found no valid legal theory supporting the trial court’s decision to relieve appellees from further prosecution under the facts presented.

Appellees have predicated their claim for relief upon a procedural due process violation which allegedly resulted from the “Hobson’s choice” created by the state’s delay in filing charges against them. However, they have cited no persuasive authority expressly recognizing a criminal defendant’s due process right to dismissal of the charges against him when confronted with such a choice. While appellees submit that Mulryan v. Judge, Division “C” Circuit Court, 350 So.2d 784 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977); State ex rel. Wright v. Yawn, 320 So.2d 880 (Fla. 1st DCA 1975), and Sumbry v. State, 310 So.2d 445 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975), support their contention, we find these cases distinguishable.

Mulryan and Wright admittedly discharged defendants who were presented with the “Hobson’s choice” faced by appel-lees, but both cases apparently were decided under an application of the procedural speedy trial rule then in effect. See Mulryan, 350 So.2d at 785 (on petition for rehearing); Wright, 320 So.2d at 882. As the Fifth District noted in State v. Fraser, 426 So.2d 46, 48 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982), petition for review denied, 436 So.2d 98 (Fla.1983), “no sufficient explanation appears for the holding” in either case. In any event, both cases predate the 1980 amendment to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.191(e) and hence would not be dispositive of a question governed by the amended rule. See Fraser, 426 So.2d at 48.

Likewise, this'court’s decision in Sumbry v. State lends no support to the particular due process argument advanced by appel-lees. In Sumbry, this court reversed the conviction of a defendant who had been given 7 days to prepare for trial after having been charged by information 171 days after his arrest, concluding that the defendant’s due process right to adequate preparation for trial had not been observed under the circumstances presented. Unlike appellees, who were granted a continuance to facilitate full preparation for trial, the defendant in Sumbry was compelled to go ■to trial unprepared after he refused to waive the protection of the speedy trial rule by seeking a continuance. Although the Sumbry court acknowledged in dictum that the prosecutor’s delay in filing the information might subtly force a defendant to make “the unhappy choice between a speedy trial and a fair opportunity to prepare his case,” Sumbry, 310 So.2d at 447, the court also observed that a “171-day delay in filing the information cannot operate of itself to deny the state the right to go to trial within 180 days if the trial calendar permits.” Id. Conversely, the court opined that discharge might be appropriate under the then-prevailing speedy trial rule when the spirit of the rule had been violated by a charging delay which resulted from “oppressiveness or prosecu-torial overzealousness” — a conclusion not supported by the record presented in either Sumbry or the instant case. See id. Thus, the Sumbry court remanded for a new trial and did not dismiss the charges against the defendant solely because he had been confronted with the “Hobson’s choice” described by appellees.

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Bluebook (online)
467 So. 2d 375, 10 Fla. L. Weekly 779, 1985 Fla. App. LEXIS 13064, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-borges-fladistctapp-1985.