State v. Early

43 P.3d 439, 180 Or. App. 342, 2002 Ore. App. LEXIS 475
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMarch 27, 2002
Docket98C52034; A105784
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 43 P.3d 439 (State v. Early) 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. Early, 43 P.3d 439, 180 Or. App. 342, 2002 Ore. App. LEXIS 475 (Or. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

*344 LINDER, J.

Defendant was charged with and convicted of felony driving while suspended or revoked (felony DWSR). ORS 811.182 (1997). On appeal, he argues that the indictment failed to state a crime because it did not allege the particular basis of the underlying suspension of his driving privileges. We affirm.

The indictment in this case charged that defendant had committed “the Criminal Offense(s) of: ORS 811.182 * * * DRIVING WHILE SUSPENDED - FELONY” and alleged that he did

“unlawfully and feloniously drive a motor vehicle upon Sunnyview Road., N.E., Salem, Oregon, to-wit: a public highway, during a period when the defendant’s driving privileges and right to apply for driving privileges were revoked by the Department of Transportation.”

(Emphasis added.) At trial, defendant did not demur to or otherwise challenge the sufficiency of the indictment or move for a judgment of acquittal. He does so for the first time on appeal, however, claiming that the indictment failed to state facts sufficient to constitute the crime of felony DWSR. See State v. Crampton, 176 Or App 62, 66, 31 P3d 430 (2001) (“A defendant may raise for the first time on appeal a demurrer to an indictment on the ground of failure to state facts constituting an offense, as provided in ORS 135.630(4).”). Because defendant’s ability to raise his challenge on appeal is coextensive with an analysis of the merits of his challenge, we turn to that issue.

To better understand the parties’ arguments, we begin with an overview of the statutes that penalize persons who drive while either suspended or revoked. ORS 811.175 (1997) 1 describes the basic offense of DWSR, making it an infraction for a person to drive a motor vehicle on a highway “during a period when the person’s privileges or right to apply for driving privileges have been suspended or revoked *345 in this state by a court or by the Department of Transportation.” Under ORS 811.182 (1997), a person commits the offense of “criminal” driving while suspended if the person violates ORS 811.175 and the underlying suspension or revocation is among those described in either subsection (3) or subsection(4) of the statute. Those subsections, in turn, make criminal DWSR either a felony or a misdemeanor offense, depending on the circumstances that gave rise to the predicate suspension or revocation. For example, the crime is a Class C felony if the suspension or revocation resulted from any degree of murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, or assault resulting from operation of a motor vehicle. ORS 811.182(3)(b). 2 Likewise, the crime is a Class C felony if the revocation was for driving under the influence of *346 intoxicants. ORS 811.182(3)(g). The crime is a Class A misdemeanor, however, if, for example, the underlying suspension was due to a refusal to take a breath or a blood test when required to do so under the implied consent statute, ORS 813.100, or the suspension was due to the commission of menacing or criminal mischief resulting from the operation of a motor vehicle. ORS 811.182(4)(a), (c).

On appeal, defendant challenges the indictment as insufficient because it merely pleaded that he “feloniously’ drove during a period when his driving privileges were suspended in this state. Relying in part on Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 US 466, 120 S Ct 2348, 147 L Ed 2d 435 (2000), defendant argues that the state must plead the specific facts that bring the suspension within the circumstances specified in ORS 811.182(3), thus elevating the crime to a felony. In response, the state agrees that it was required to plead that the offense was a felony-level DWSR, rather than a violation- or misdemeanor-level DWSR, and that it was required to prove the elevating fact to the trier of fact. But the state contends that it met its pleading obligation by alleging in the indictment that the. offense was committed “feloniously.” Defendant’s real complaint, according to the state, is that the state did not plead the elevating factor with sufficient specificity, which is an issue that defendant was obligated to raise at trial and cannot raise for the first time on appeal. See Crampton, 176 Or App at 66 n 2. For the following reasons, we agree with the state.

Under Apprendi, any fact, other than the fact of a prior conviction, that elevates an offense from one level to a higher level carrying a greater statutory maximum penalty must be pleaded in the charging instrument and must be proved to the trier of fact. 530 US at 490. We therefore agree with the parties that Apprendi requires a defendant charged with felony DWSR to be placed on notice through the charging instrument that the state intends to prove the existence of an aggravating or enhancing factor that elevates ordinary DWSR (a violation) to felony DWSR, and that the state must then present proof of that factor to a jury. That is so because, under the pertinent statutes, the offense of driving while suspended or revoked can be a violation, a misdemeanor, or a felony, each carrying different statutory maximum penalties *347 depending on the circumstances that resulted in a defendant’s suspended or revoked status. In effect, the statutes established three separate crimes or “acts” that the state could and did single out for separate punishments. 3 See Apprendi, 530 US at 476 (explaining that, under the New Jersey scheme at issue, possession of a weapon and “selection of victims with purpose to intimidate” were separate “acts” singled out for separate punishments; the procedural safeguards relating to indictment and proof were applicable to each act).

Unlike the defendant in Apprendi, however, defendant in this case was not indicted for a lesser offense and then convicted and punished for an aggravated one.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
43 P.3d 439, 180 Or. App. 342, 2002 Ore. App. LEXIS 475, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-early-orctapp-2002.