State v. Coody

448 So. 2d 100
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedFebruary 27, 1984
Docket83-KK-1369
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 448 So. 2d 100 (State v. Coody) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Coody, 448 So. 2d 100 (La. 1984).

Opinion

448 So.2d 100 (1984)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Wandall W. COODY.

No. 83-KK-1369.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

February 27, 1984.
Rehearing Denied April 13, 1984.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Johnny C. Parkerson, Dist. Atty., Allen Harvey, Asst. Dist. Atty., for applicant.

Paul Henry Kidd, Kidd and Kidd, Monroe, for respondent.

*101 CALOGERO, Justice.

Wandall W. Coody, Sheriff of Morehouse Parish, was charged in a two count bill of information with malfeasance in office, in violation of La.R.S. 14:134(3),[1] and injuring public records, a violation of La.R.S. 14:132.[2] He filed a motion to quash the bill of information contending that the two counts contained in the bill of information are "duplicitous in that the two counts actually constitute only a single offense." The trial court, after conducting a hearing on the motion to quash, concluded that the two counts were duplicitous and thus granted defendant's motion.[3] The Court of Appeal denied the state's request for review finding no error in the trial court's ruling. We granted the state's application for writs.

Because the trial court granted the motion to quash, the case has yet to be tried. Thus, there is no trial evidentiary record. Nonetheless, to better understand the limited legal issue involved it is necessary that we review the state's contentions. Presumably the state seeks to prove the following facts:

On April 11, 1981, two brothers were arrested for attempted theft. The arresting officers issued a summons, completed an arrest report and recorded the arrests in the Sheriff department's arrest log book. Shortly thereafter one of the arrestees telephoned Sheriff Coody and asked him to look into the matter. The Sheriff asked his chief deputy to investigate the incident and give him an account of the circumstances surrounding the arrest. The deputy reported his findings to the Sheriff who then concluded that there were insufficient grounds to charge the arrestees. At that time the deputy informed the Sheriff that the arrestees had been booked and their names recorded in the booking log. Pursuant to Sheriff Coody's instructions the deputy removed from the booking log the page containing the names of the arrestees. Some months later the arresting officers were trying to determine the status of the case when it was discovered that the arrestees' names were missing from the booking log. The problem was reported to the District Attorney's office which then issued subpoenas for the booking log and the investigative file on the arrestees. The log which was produced had no reference to the arrests of the two brothers. Several days later the deputy who had removed the page from the booking log found all records of the arrest stored away in his home. Shortly thereafter Sheriff Coody, defendant in these proceedings, was charged with malfeasance in office and injuring public records.

The bill of information by which defendant was charged reads:

... Wandall Coody ... on or about the 13th day of April, 1981, in the Parish and State aforesaid, did then and there wilfully and unlawfully:
*102 COUNT # 1: commit the crime of malfeasance in office when as a public officer, being the Sheriff of the Parish of Morehouse, he did knowingly permit another public employee, under his authority, namely Chief Deputy Sheriff Allen Brown, to intentionally refuse or fail to perform a duty lawfully required of him, namely his lawful duty pursuant to Code of Criminal Procedure Article 229, by knowingly permitting the aforementioned Deputy as officer in charge of the jail or police station, to intentionally fail to notify the District Attorney of the bookings of Manzie Reese and Mizell Reese, persons booked on or about April 11, 1981 for a violation of State statute, namely, R.S. 14:67 by intentionally permitting the aforementioned Deputy to fail to communicate the bookings to the District Attorney, by removing the names of the aforementioned Manzie Reese and Mizell Reese from the booking document kept pursuant to Code of Criminal Procedure Article 228, and by secreting all records of the arrest of Manzie Reese and Mizell Reese for six months, contrary to the provisions of R.S. 14:134(3);
COUNT # 2: commit the crime of injuring public records when he did intentionally remove, destroy, alter, and falsify a record of document, namely portions of the booking log maintained by the Sheriff's Office, Parish of Morehouse, filed or deposited, by authority of law, namely Code of Criminal Procedure Article 228, in a public office, namely the office of the Sheriff, Parish of Morehouse, contrary to the provisions of R.S. 14:132.

Stripped of its nonessential language, and paraphrased, the bill of information can reasonably be read as stating the following:

Count 1: Defendant did commit the crime of malfeasance 1) by permitting the Chief Deputy intentionally to fail to notify the District Attorney of the bookings, 2) by removing the names from the booking document, and 3) by secreting all records of the arrest(s) for six months.
Count 2: Defendant did commit the crime of injuring public records by intentionally removing (or destroying, altering or falsifying) a record, namely, portions of the booking log.[4]

Both state and federal constitutions provide that no person shall twice be put in jeopardy of life or liberty for the same offense. U.S. Const. Amend. V; La. Const. art. 1, § 15. The double jeopardy clause protects the accused against multiple punishment for the same offense as well as a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal or conviction. North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 2076, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969); State v. Vaughn, 431 So.2d 763, 767 (La.1983); State v. Doughty, 379 So.2d 1088, 1090 (La.1980). In Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S.Ct. 180, 182, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932), the established test for determining whether two offenses are sufficiently distinguishable to permit the imposition of cumulative punishment was stated as follows:

The applicable rule is that where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one, is whether each provision requires proof of an additional fact which the other does not...

This rule is constitutionally required of the states. Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 53 L.Ed.2d 187 (1977); State v. Doughty, 379 So.2d at 1090.

This Court has also utilized the "same evidence" test, which was articulated as follows, in State v. Steele, 387 So.2d 1175 at 1177 (La.1980):

... If the evidence required to support a finding of guilt of one crime would also have supported conviction for the other, *103 the two are the same under a plea of double jeopardy, and a defendant can be placed in jeopardy for only one. The test depends on the evidence necessary for a conviction, not all the evidence introduced at trial.

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Bluebook (online)
448 So. 2d 100, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-coody-la-1984.