State v. Gruhlke

306 P.3d 773, 257 Or. App. 485, 2013 WL 3470544, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 830
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJuly 10, 2013
Docket0200995CR; A147055
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 306 P.3d 773 (State v. Gruhlke) 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. Gruhlke, 306 P.3d 773, 257 Or. App. 485, 2013 WL 3470544, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 830 (Or. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

NAKAMOTO, J.

Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for driving while under the influence of intoxicants (DUII) and challenges the trial court’s denial of her demurrer to the accusatory instrument, a 2007 district attorney’s information, and her motion to dismiss the information. She contends that the information was void when it was filed based on the prohibition against double jeopardy or was ineffective because the state failed to seek leave to file it under ORS 135.670(1). Alternatively, she argues that the information was defective because it did not on its face contain allegations of facts that would establish that the prosecution was timely commenced. We agree with defendant’s alternative argument, and so we reverse and remand with instructions to the trial court to enter an order granting defendant’s demurrer.

This case is before us for a third time, and the relevant facts are entirely procedural. On April 20, 2002, defendant was issued uniform citations and complaints for DUII and attempting to elude police. Defendant was then charged by way of a district attorney’s information on April 22. That information was superseded by an indictment filed on April 30, again charging defendant with felony attempt to elude and misdemeanor DUII for the April 20, incident. After defendant successfully demurred to that indictment, the state filed an “Amended Indictment” in November 2004, which again charged the same April 2002 offenses. Defendant again demurred and moved to dismiss, arguing that the amended indictment started a new case and, with respect to the DUII charge, was filed beyond the two-year statute of limitations. The trial court overruled the demurrer and denied the motion to dismiss. In 2005, defendant entered a conditional guilty plea to the DUII charge, with the state’s dismissal of the felony attempt to elude charge. She then appealed her DUII conviction arising from the 2004 indictment.

Although the 2004 indictment, on its face, charged crimes that had occurred more than two years before its issuance, it did not contain allegations of “any facts that would demonstrate that the state commenced the prosecution” in [487]*487a timely fashion. State v. Gruhlke, 214 Or App 169, 170, 162 P3d 380 (2007). The indictment, we held, did not satisfy the requirements of ORS 132.540(1)(c). Id. Under that statute, an indictment is sufficient if it can be understood to allege that the crime “was committed at some time prior to the finding of the indictment and within the time limited by law for the commencement of an action therefor.” We accepted the state’s concession in Gruhlke that “the trial court erred in failing to dismiss the indictment,” and we reversed and remanded defendant’s 2005 conviction. 214 Or App at 170.

In the meantime, while defendant’s appeal in Gruhlke was pending, the state filed yet another accusatory instrument in May 2007 titled, “AMENDED INFORMATION OF DISTRICT ATTORNEY.” That information again charged defendant with DUII for the same April 20, 2002, incident. It also included the following additional allegation:

“The state further alleges that the prosecution was originally commenced and consistently maintained thereafter prior to the expiration of the original statute of limitations.”

Once we decided Gruhlke and remanded the case to the trial court, defendant sought dismissal of both the 2004 indictment and the 2007 information because they each alleged that defendant had committed the DUII offense more than two years — the limitation period for misdemeanors— before the dates of the accusatory instruments. In response, the state argued that the 2004 indictment was superseded by the 2007 information, which in turn had cured the pleading deficiency that plagued the 2004 indictment.

In 2008, the trial court denied defendant’s motion to dismiss and entered an amended judgment of conviction, which defendant appealed. We eventually vacated the judgment upon a joint motion of the parties, because the plea for that conviction was deficient. We then remanded the case to the trial court a second time, in March 2010.

On remand, defendant had new defense counsel and relitigated the propriety of the 2007 information through another demurrer and motion to dismiss. The state argued on the merits that the trial court should adhere to its ruling [488]*488in 2008. The court did so, again denying defendant relief, but it issued two written opinions explaining why it was rejecting defendant’s arguments. Defendant entered a conditional guilty plea to DUII, and the court entered a judgment of conviction in 2010.

Defendant’s current appeal challenges the rulings related to the 2007 information upon which her 2010 conviction rests. She assigns error to the trial court’s denial of her demurrer and motion to dismiss and raises three principal arguments, which she also relied upon in the trial court. In two of those arguments, defendant challenges the validity of the 2007 information. First, she contends that the information was void upon filing and should have been dismissed based on the double jeopardy prohibition under state and federal law. Second, she argues, the information was rendered ineffective after Gruhlke, because the state was required to seek leave of the court to file it under ORS 135.670(1), which the state did not do. We need not decide the merits of either of those arguments, because we agree with defendant’s third, alternative argument that the trial court erred when it denied her demurrer based on the statute of limitations.

In denying the demurrer, the trial court (1) concluded that the 2007 information was sufficiently alleged and (2) determined by going beyond the face of the information that the DUII charge was timely. First, the court rejected defendant’s argument based on case law applying ORS 135.630(2)1 and ORS 132.540(1)(c)2 that a court must look [489]*489only at the face of the information and determine whether the information affirmatively establishes timely prosecution through specific factual allegations, because those provisions apply by their terms to an indictment, not an information. The court concluded instead that defendant brought her demurrer to the information as to timeliness of the DUII prosecution under ORS 135.630(5). Under ORS 135.630(5), a “defendant may demur to the accusatory instrument when it appears upon the face thereof’ that “the accusatory instrument contains matter which, if true, would constitute a legal justification or excuse of the offense charged or other legal bar to the action * * * ” The trial court concluded that the 2007 information was not subject to demurrer because its contents did not establish that the DUII charge was untimely.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
306 P.3d 773, 257 Or. App. 485, 2013 WL 3470544, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 830, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gruhlke-orctapp-2013.