State v. Crider

418 P.3d 18, 291 Or. App. 23
Court of Appeals of Oregon·Decided March 28, 2018·No. A158946·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

ORTEGA, P.J.

*24Defendant appeals a judgment in which he was convicted of (1) failure to report as a sex offender that he changed residence, former ORS 181.812(1)(d) (2013) (Count 1), and (2) failure to report as a sex offender by failing to make an annual report, former ORS 181.812(1)(e) (2013) (Count 2).1 He assigns error to the trial court's failure to merge the two guilty verdicts, arguing that the subsections of former ORS 181.812 under which he was charged are merely two ways of committing the same crime. He also assigns as plain error the trial court's imposition of $628 in court-appointed attorney fees because the court lacked the authority to do so in the absence of evidence that defendant could pay the fees. The state concedes that the trial court plainly erred as to the imposition of attorney fees, and we accept the state's concession. As for defendant's merger argument, we conclude that the crimes of conviction are separate crimes and, therefore, the trial court did not err in declining to merge his convictions.

We begin with defendant's argument that the trial court erred by not merging the guilty verdicts, a ruling that we review for legal error. State v. Black , 270 Or. App. 501, 504-05, 348 P.3d 1154 (2015). Defendant was charged with the following two counts of failure to report:

"COUNT 1
"The defendant, on or about December 11, 2014, in Washington County, Oregon, being a person who was required by law to report in person, as a sex offender, to the Department of State Police, a chief of police or a county sheriff or, if the person is under supervision, to the supervising agency, within 10 days of a change of residence in this state, having changed residence in this state and having knowledge of the reporting requirement, did feloniously fail to report as required.
*25"COUNT 2
"The defendant, on or about December 11, 2014, in Washington County, Oregon, being a person who was required by law to report in person, as a sex offender, to the Department of State Police, a chief of police or a county sheriff or, if the person is under supervision, to the supervising agency, within 10 days of his birth date, and having knowledge of the reporting requirement, did unlawfully fail to make an annual report , as required, to an appropriate *20agency or official within 10 days of his birth date."

(Emphases added.) Count 1 was alleged as a violation of former ORS 181.812(1)(d), which provides that a person who is required to report as a sex offender commits the crime of failure to report if the person "[m]oves to a new residence and fails to report the move and the person's new address." Count 2 was alleged as a violation of former ORS 181.812 (1)(e), which provides that a person who is required to report as a sex offender commits the crime of failure to report if the person "[f]ails to make an annual report." Defendant pleaded guilty to both counts.

At sentencing, defendant argued that, under ORS 161.067(1) (the "anti-merger" statute), the guilty verdicts for the two failure to report counts should merge, because the two offenses violate only one statutory provision.2 The trial court rejected defendant's argument, concluding that the failure to report provisions that defendant was charged with violating are "separate laws" and also have "separate classifications," in that one is classified as a misdemeanor and the other as a felony under former ORS 181.812. Failure to report as a sex offender is a Class A misdemeanor, former ORS 181.812(3)(a), except when, among other exceptions, the crime for which the person is required to report is a felony and the person fails to report having moved to a new residence, former ORS 181.812(3)(b)(B). Because defendant's sex offense convictions were felonies, his failure to *26report a change of address is a felony offense, and his failure to make an annual report is a misdemeanor offense.

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State v. Crider, 418 P.3d 18, 291 Or. App. 23 (Or. Ct. App. 2018).

418 P.3d 18 (State v. Crider) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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