State v. Copeland

270 P.3d 313, 247 Or. App. 362, 2011 Ore. App. LEXIS 1793
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedDecember 29, 2011
Docket090647486; A143210
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 270 P.3d 313 (State v. Copeland) 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. Copeland, 270 P.3d 313, 247 Or. App. 362, 2011 Ore. App. LEXIS 1793 (Or. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

[364]*364HASELTON, P. J.

Defendant appeals from a judgment imposing punitive sanctions against him for contempt of court, ORS 33.065, based on his violation of a Family Abuse Prevention Act (FAPA) restraining order, ORS 107.718. Defendant contends that the trial court erred by admitting the proof of service of the restraining order to show that he had knowledge of the restraining order. In that regard, defendant contends, in part, that admission of the proof of service violated his right to confront witnesses under Article I, section 11, of the Oregon Constitution because the state failed to establish that the deputy who had certified the proof of service was unavailable as a witness.1 We conclude that, as a public record, the proof of service falls within a “historical exception” to Article I, section 11. See, e.g., State v. William, 199 Or App 191, 110 P3d 1114, rev den, 339 Or 406 (2005). Accordingly, the trial court did not err in admitting the proof of service, and we affirm.

The underlying facts are as follows. On April 30, 2009, defendant’s wife, Copeland,2 obtained a restraining order that, among other things, prohibited defendant from coming within 150 feet of her home, her workplace, and other locations that she frequented, including three bars in southeast Portland: the Savoy Tavern, the Night Light Lounge, and the Press Club. On May 1, Multnomah County Deputy Sheriff Schweitzer certified by proof of service that he had personally served defendant with the restraining order that same day.3 On June 25, Copeland looked through the window [365]*365of the Clinton Street Pub, which is adjacent to the Savoy Tavern, and saw defendant seated at the bar. Copeland called the police, who came to the scene, reviewed her copy of the order, and then determined (by rolling a tape measure from one front door to the other) that the Clinton Street Pub was within 150 feet of the Savoy Tavern.

The police arrested defendant, and he was subsequently charged with violating the restraining order. The charging instrument alleged, in part, that defendant, “having received notice of [the FAPA restraining order] did * * * willfully enter * * * [and] remain at the area 150 feet from the Savoy Tavern” in violation of the restraining order. (Emphasis added.)

At trial, the state offered the proof of service of the restraining order as evidence of defendant’s knowledge of that order. In doing so, the state did not call Schweitzer as a witness or make any effort to establish that he was unavailable to testify. Defendant consequently objected to the admission of the proof of service as violating his confrontation rights under Article I, section 11, and the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.4 The state countered that the proof of service fell under the public records hearsay exception and, as such, was not subject to the confrontation protections of Article I, section 11. The court admitted the proof of service without stating the basis for admission and, ultimately, found defendant in contempt of court, for which the court imposed punitive sanctions.

On appeal, defendant renews his confrontation-based challenges to the admission of the proof of service in Schweitzer’s absence and without proof of his unavailability. In particular, defendant asserts that, because he has the right “to meet the witnesses face to face,” Article I, section 11, [366]*366the state was required to either produce Schweitzer as a witness or prove that he was unavailable to testify. The state, invoking State v. Conway, 70 Or App 721, 690 P2d 1128 (1984), rev den, 298 Or 704 (1985), and William, 199 Or App 191, contends that Article I, section 11, is inapposite to public records. Defendant remonstrates that those cases do not sweep as broadly as the state suggests and merely hold that confrontation protections do not apply when a public record is offered to prove a “collateral” matter. Conversely, defendant asserts, when a public record is submitted as proof of an essential element of the charged misconduct — here, defendant’s knowledge of the restraining order5 — Article I, section 11, requires the state to establish the declarant’s unavailability. As so joined, the parties’ dispute centers on Conway and William, which each invokes as supporting its position. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that those cases— and William in particular — unambiguously and conclusively corroborate the state’s position.

Two overarching principles inform our analysis. First, as a general matter, when the state seeks to present otherwise admissible hearsay statements in the declarant’s absence, Article I, section 11, precludes the admission of that evidence unless the state establishes that (a) the declarant is unavailable to testify and (b) the statements bear adequate indicia of reliability,” e.g., that the evidence “falls within a firmly rooted hearsay exception” or has “particularized guarantees of trustworthiness.” State v. Campbell, 299 Or 633, 648, 705 P2d 694 (1985) (adopting the two-part test from Ohio v. Roberts, 448 US 56, 66, 100 S Ct 2531, 65 L Ed 2d 597 (1980)) (internal quotation marks omitted);6 see also State v. Moore, 334 Or 328, 340, 49 P3d 785 (2002) (reiterating the unavailability requirement).

[367]*367Second, the confrontation protections of Article I, section 11 — and, hence, the Campbell/Moore unavailability-requirement — do not apply to all hearsay proffered by the prosecution in the declarant’s absence. Rather, there were, and are, certain “historical exceptions” corresponding to types of hearsay that “the framers of the Oregon Constitution would have understood * * * to have constituted an exception to the confrontation rights guarantee.” William, 199 Or App at 197; see also State ex rel. Gladden v. Lonergan, 201 Or 163, 177, 269 P2d 491 (1954) (“There is nothing to indicate that the framers of our constitution intended thereby to do away with the well-established exceptions to the confrontation rule.”); cf. State v. Saunders, 14 Or 300, 305, 12 P 441 (1886), overruled in part on other grounds by State v. Marsh, 260 Or 416, 490 P2d 491 (1971), cert den, 406 US 974 (1972) (stating that the confrontation rule “does not apply to such documentary evidence to establish collateral facts, as would be admissible under the rules of the common law in other cases”).

The inquiry in this case reduces to whether the submission of a public record to establish an essential — as opposed to “collateral” — fact in a criminal proceeding falls within such a “historical exception” to confrontation. We conclude that it does.

We begin with Conway, which antedated Campbell and Moore. There, we held, in a DUII prosecution, that the admission of an Intoxilyzer certification under the public records hearsay exception did not offend Article I, section 11. Conway, 70 Or App at 724. In so holding, the totality of our pertinent discussion was as follows:

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State v. Copeland
270 P.3d 313 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2011)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
270 P.3d 313, 247 Or. App. 362, 2011 Ore. App. LEXIS 1793, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-copeland-orctapp-2011.