State v. Harrison

2009 Ohio 3547, 912 N.E.2d 1106, 122 Ohio St. 3d 512
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 28, 2009
Docket2008-0331
StatusPublished
Cited by65 cases

This text of 2009 Ohio 3547 (State v. Harrison) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Harrison, 2009 Ohio 3547, 912 N.E.2d 1106, 122 Ohio St. 3d 512 (Ohio 2009).

Opinions

Pfeifer, J.

{¶ 1} On May 2, 2002, dispatcher Denise Kohler of the Wapakoneta Police Department discovered a running tape recorder placed behind a trash can in the restroom of the police department’s ladies’ locker room. The tape recorder belonged to appellant David Harrison, who was then Wapakoneta’s chief of police. [513]*513Later that same day, Harrison submitted a letter of retirement to the Wapakoneta safety services director.

{¶ 2} Within one week, the safety services director requested that the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (“BCI”) initiate an investigation into Harrison’s activities. During the investigation, law enforcement seized a floppy disk located in Harrison’s office; the disk contained child pornography. The investigation also revealed pornographic images on Harrison’s city-owned computer and transfer logs that showed file transfers between Harrison’s office computer and his laptop computer. On June 17, 2002, investigators executed a search warrant on Harrison’s house, seizing electronic storage media containing images of suspected child pornography. The investigation also revealed Internet searches for websites containing sexual content involving children.

{¶ 3} On June 17, 2003, Harrison, his counsel, and Special Prosecutor Lawrence S. Huffman signed a negotiated plea agreement. In the agreement, the state agreed not to object to a presentence investigation or to the setting of bond and agreed to make no recommendation on sentencing. Harrison waived his right to be prosecuted by indictment and consented to be prosecuted through a bill of information. He agreed to plead guilty to the six counts in the bill of information. Count One alleged obstruction of official business, in violation of R.C. 2921.31(A), a misdemeanor of the second degree; Counts Two, Three, and Four alleged unauthorized use of a computer, computer system, or computer network, in violation of R.C. 2913.04(B), a felony of the fifth degree; Count Five alleged pandering obscenity involving a minor, in violation of R.C. 2907.321(A)(5), a felony of the fourth degree; and Count Six alleged pandering obscenity, in violation of R.C. 2907.32(A)(5), a felony of the fifth degree. Only Counts One and Two in the bill of information alleged a specific date on which the offense occurred. As for the other counts, the prosecutor told the judge at the plea hearing, “[T]here was no use I felt, to make a separate count for each photograph or separate count for each date.” The bill of information alleged instead that all the charged crimes took place during a certain range of dates.

{¶ 4} On the same day that Harrison and the special prosecutor signed the negotiated plea agreement, the bill of information was filed with the court, Harrison pleaded guilty at the hearing, and the trial court found Harrison guilty of all counts. On July 31, 2003, Harrison was sentenced to one year in prison. The court incorrectly informed Harrison in its journal entry that he was additionally subject to an optional three-year period of postrelease control. The court’s journal entry reads:

{¶ 5} “The Court has further notified the Defendant that Post Release Control is OPTIONAL in this case for THREE (3) years, as well as the consequences for violating conditions of Post Release Control imposed by the Parole Board under [514]*514Ohio Revised Code § 2967.28. The Defendant is ORDERED to serve as part of this sentence any term of Post Release Control imposed by the Parole Board, and any prison term for violation of that Post Release Control.” (Capitalization sic.)

{¶ 6} The parties agree that the trial court’s entry was incorrect. They further agree that pursuant to R.C. 2967.28(B), which requires a felony sex offender’s sentence to include five years of postrelease control, the court should have imposed a mandatory five years of postrelease control on Harrison. Neither the special prosecutor nor defense counsel, however, sought to correct the journal entry at the time of sentencing.

{¶ 7} Harrison filed a motion for early judicial release pursuant to R.C. 2929.20 on September 4, 2003. In a November 12, 2003 entry, the court denied Harrison’s motion for judicial release but did modify Harrison’s sentence to allow him to complete his incarceration in a county jail instead of at the state facility in Orient. The Adult Parole Authority did not impose any postrelease control upon Harrison’s release from the county jail. The state has argued that “due to the defendant serving the balance of his term in the Auglaize County Correctional Center instead of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, officials of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, including the Parole Board, had no ability to place the defendant on post release control for either the optional term as ordered by the Court or for the mandatory five year term as is mandated by statute.”

(¶ 8} Harrison was released from the county jail in July 2004, having served his entire sentence. Over six months later, on February 18, 2005, the Auglaize County Prosecutor moved to resentence Harrison to impose the mandatory five-year postrelease control. On March 23, 2005, the court essentially granted the state’s motion to resentence Harrison. Its entry read:

{¶ 9} “R.C. 2967.28(B)(1) states that each sentence for a felony sex offense shall contain a five-year period of post release control. Because the court, and the Parole Authority for that matter, has no discretion to avoid the imposition of post release control in this case, any order other than a resentencing would constitute an attempt to render the statutory mandatory term of five years of post release control a nullity. See (State v. Hams, 2003 WL 760156 (Ohio App. 8 Dist.) 2003-Ohio-1003).” (Emphasis sic.)

{¶ 10} The court made clear in its entry that it would be resentencing Harrison, but it also offered Harrison the opportunity to withdraw his plea:

{¶ 11} “The court, therefore, orders this matter set for resentencing in accordance with the requirements of R.C. 2967.28(B).

{¶ 12} “The court further will grant the defendant leave prior to the resentencing hearing to withdraw his pleas of guilty to Counts V and VI since the court [515]*515erroneously informed the defendant of the terms of post release control for those counts during the guilty plea dialogue.”

{¶ 13} On March 25, 2005, Harrison filed a petition for a writ of prohibition in the Third District Court of Appeals to prevent the trial court from proceeding with the resentencing. On March 28, 2005, Harrison filed a motion to stay the resentencing hearing until the appellate court ruled upon his prohibition petition. In an entry signed that same day, the trial court denied the motion for stay. The appellate court thus had not ruled upon Harrison’s prohibition petition at the time of the March 29, 2005 resentencing hearing.

{¶ 14} At the resentencing hearing, the court engaged in a direct conversation with Harrison and his attorney regarding the withdrawal of Harrison’s guilty pleas:

{¶ 15} “THE COURT: This matter comes on today for resentencing pursuant to the Court’s entry and order of March 22nd of 2005 and filed on March 23rd of 2005, finding that the Court had erred at the original sentencing hearing by failing to sentence the Defendant to a mandatory five (5) years of Post Release Control for violations of Ohio Revised Code Section 2907.321(A)(5) and Revised Code Section 2907.32(A)(5).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2009 Ohio 3547, 912 N.E.2d 1106, 122 Ohio St. 3d 512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-harrison-ohio-2009.