State v. Freitag

925 N.E.2d 143, 185 Ohio App. 3d 580
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 7, 2009
DocketNo. 09CA0030
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 925 N.E.2d 143 (State v. Freitag) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Freitag, 925 N.E.2d 143, 185 Ohio App. 3d 580 (Ohio Ct. App. 2009).

Opinions

Carr, Judge.

{¶ 1} Appellant, Daniel Freitag, appeals his conviction for speeding. This court reverses.

I

{¶ 2} On October 18, 2007, Freitag was driving his wife, Jane, and one of his employees through the village of West Salem on their way to Freitag’s business outside the village. Patrolman Ken Roth, of the village police department, followed Freitag’s vehicle outside the village and stopped him after he had turned into the driveway of his business. Patrolman Roth informed Freitag that he had stopped him for speeding and going left of center within the village limits, [583]*583although the officer cited Freitag only for speeding in violation of section 333.03 of the Codified Ordinances of the Village of West Salem (“Ord.”).

{¶ 3} Freitag pleaded not guilty, and the matter proceeded to bench trial on November 16, 2007. At the conclusion of trial, the trial court found Freitag guilty solely upon consideration of the officer’s use of a radar device to determine Freitag’s speed. The trial court sentenced Freitag accordingly. Freitag timely appealed. This court overruled Freitag’s assignments of error challenging the sufficiency of the evidence. State v. Freiteg,1 9th Dist. No. 07CA0082, 2008-Ohio-6573, 2008 WL 5205203. Although we concluded that the radar readings were not admissible evidence, we recognized that there was other evidence that the trial court could have properly considered. This court concluded that Freitag’s manifest-weight-of-the-evidence challenge was not ripe because the trial court had rendered its guilty verdict solely upon consideration of evidence that was not properly admitted. We remanded the matter for further consideration of the properly admitted evidence, specifically the officer’s “testimony as to his visual and audible assessment of Freitag’s speed.” Freiteg at ¶ 16.

{¶ 4} On remand, the trial court considered the officer’s testimony regarding his visual and audible observations and found the officer credible. Based on the officer’s testimony, the trial court found a prima facie violation of the speeding ordinance. It further found that Freitag had not met his burden of proving that a speed in excess of the posted limit was not unreasonable. The trial court found Freitag guilty and imposed sentence accordingly. Freitag has again appealed, raising three assignments of error for review. This court consolidates some assignments of error to facilitate review.

II

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR I

The trial court erred by failing to grant appellant Freitag’s motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of the state’s case.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR II

The judgment was not supported by sufficient evidence.

{¶ 5} Freitag argues that his conviction was not supported by sufficient evidence. This court disagrees.

{¶ 6} Crim.R. 29 provides:

[584]*584(A) The court on motion of a defendant or on its own motion, after the evidence on either side is closed, shall order the entry of a judgment of acquittal of one or more offenses charged in the indictment, information, or complaint, if the evidence is insufficient to sustain a conviction of such offense or offenses. The court may not reserve ruling on a motion for judgment of acquittal made at the close of the state’s case.
An appellate court’s function when reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction is to examine the evidence admitted at trial to determine whether such evidence, if believed, would convince the average mind of the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The relevant inquiry is whether, after viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

State v. Galloway (Jan. 31, 2001), 9th Dist. No. 19752, 2001 WL 81257.

{¶ 7} The test for sufficiency requires a determination of whether the state has met its burden of production at trial. State v. Walker (Dec. 12, 2001), 9th Dist. No. 20559, 2001 WL 1581570. See also State v. Thompkins (1997), 78 Ohio St.3d 380, 390, 678 N.E.2d 541 (Cook, J., concurring).

{¶ 8} In Freiteg, this court was compelled to address whether Freitag’s conviction was supported by sufficient evidence. The Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Section 10, Article I of the Ohio Constitution protect a criminal defendant from multiple prosecutions for a single offense. Accordingly, notwithstanding some procedural defect by the trial court warranting reversal, the state remains entitled to “one, and only one, full and fair opportunity” to prosecute the defendant in regard to a single offense. Richardson v. United States (1984), 468 U.S. 317, 330, 104 S.Ct. 3081, 82 L.Ed.2d 242. When a case is reversed on the basis of trial error, such as the improper receipt or rejection of evidence, the Double Jeopardy Clause does not prohibit retrial “ ‘where the evidence offered by the State and admitted by the trial court — whether erroneously or not — would have been sufficient to sustain a guilty verdict.’ ” State v. Brewer, 121 Ohio St.3d 202, 2009-Ohio-593, 903 N.E.2d 284, at ¶ 17, quoting Lockhart v. Nelson (1988), 488 U.S. 33, 35, 109 S.Ct. 285, 102 L.Ed.2d 265.

{¶ 9} Brewer recognized the corollary, however, that the state is not entitled to retry a criminal defendant after reversal for trial court error if the state failed in the first instance to present sufficient evidence. Id. at ¶ 7-8. The Ohio Supreme Court emphasized that the interest in the administration of justice dictates that the appellate court review the issue of sufficiency in consideration of all evidence presented by the state in its case in chief, whether such evidence was properly admitted or not. Id. at ¶ 19.

[585]*585{¶ 10} This court, therefore, previously considered whether Freitag’s conviction was supported by sufficient evidence based on a consideration of all the evidence the state presented. In overruling his sufficiency challenges, we stated, “Officer Roth’s testimony that he both saw and heard Freitag’s vehicle traveling at a rate in excess of the posted speed, if believed, would properly support Freitag’s conviction.” Freiteg at ¶ 16. The Supreme Court of Ohio has held that the doctrine of the law of the case stands for the proposition that “[t]he decision of a reviewing court in a case remains the law of that case on the legal questions involved for all subsequent proceedings in the case at both the trial and reviewing levels.” Nolan v. Nolan (1984), 11 Ohio St.3d 1, 3, 11 OBR 1, 462 N.E.2d 410. See also McDowell v. DeCarlo, 9th Dist. No. 23376, 2007-Ohio-1262, 2007 WL 841040, at ¶ 11. As we have already determined this issue, our holding that Freitag’s conviction was supported by sufficient evidence is now law of the case. Freitag’s first and second assignments of error are overruled.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR III

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
925 N.E.2d 143, 185 Ohio App. 3d 580, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-freitag-ohioctapp-2009.