State v. Maharaj

317 P.3d 659, 131 Haw. 215, 2013 WL 6068086, 2013 Haw. LEXIS 379
Hawaii Supreme Court·Decided November 18, 2013·No. No. SCWC-29520·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinions

Opinion of the Court by

ACOBA, J.

We hold that the charge for Operating a Vehicle Under the Influence of an Intoxicant, (OVUII), HRS § 261E-61(a)(l) (2007) was insufficient because Respondent/Plaintiff-Ap-pellee the State of Hawai'i (the State) failed to allege the requisite states of mind of intentional, knowing, or reckless in the charge, State v. Apollonio, 130 Hawai'i 353, 358-59, 311 P.3d 676, 681-82 (2013); see also State v. Nesmith, 127 Hawai'i 48, 54, 276 P.3d 617, 623 (2012) 1 and because the charge failed to allege an “essential fact[] constituting the offense charged.” Hawai'i Rules of Penal Procedure (HRPP) Rule 7(d). Accordingly, the conviction of Petitioner/Defendant-Appellant Peter Newal Maharaj (Defendant) is dismissed without prejudice. The November 23, 2012 judgment of the Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA),2 filed pursuant to its October 25, 2012 Summary Disposition Order (SDO), having been to the contrary in affirming Defendant’s conviction, as well as the November 18, 2008 Judgment of conviction of the District Court of the First Circuit (the court)3 are therefore vacated.

[216]*216I.

A.

According to Defendant, he “was orally charged on April 10, 2008 with Operating a Vehicle Under the Influence of an Intoxicant, (OVUII), Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) §§ 291E61(a)(l)4 & (b)(1)5 (2007).”6 Defendant states the “oral charge was reduced to. an Order and Notice of Entry of Order [ (Order) ] on that same date.” He maintains “the [Order] does not clearly state in writing the specific allegations of the charge against [Defendant]” and “does not allege the relevant mens rea as there is no reference to an intentional, knowing or reckless state of mind in the charge.” Thus, Defendant points out, “the Order merely states that the violation charged is HRS [§ ] 291E-61[.]” A “Notice of Entry of Judgment and/or Order and Plea/Judgment [ (Judgment) ] was entered against [Defendant] on November 18, 2008.”

B.

Defendant appealed to the ICA on December 11, 2008. On appeal, Defendant argued that “(1) he received ineffective assistance of counsel because his trial counsel failed to introduce [his] medical records into evidence; (2) there was insufficient evidence to support [Defendant’s] conviction; and (3) [the court] erred in denying [Defendant’s] motion to suppress evidence.” State v. Maharaj, No. 29520, 128 Hawai'i 312 2012 WL 5272227 (Hawai’i App. Oct. 25, 2012)(SDO).7 The transcript of the second part of Defendant’s trial was made a part of the record on appeal. However, the ICA noted that “[t]he transcript for the September 29, 2008, hearing on the motion to suppress evidence and the beginning of trial was not made part of the record on appeal.” Maharaj, 2012 WL 5272227 at *1. The ICA affirmed the court’s judgment on October 25, 2012.

This court filed the decision in Nesmith on April 12, 2012.

Defendant filed a Motion for Reconsideration with the ICA on November 5, 2012, arguing that the charge against him was jurisdietionally defective since it did not “allege the requisite mens rea....” (Citing Nesmith, 127 Hawai'i 48, 276 P.3d 617.) In this motion, Defendant contended that the charge was “facially defective” and that the court “lacked subject matter jurisdiction,” which was “not waivable.” The State did not file a response to Defendant’s reconsideration motion contesting Defendant’s recitation of the contents of the charge. Nevertheless, the ICA denied Defendant’s Motion for Reconsideration on November 14, 2012, citing its decision in State v. Rivera, No. CAAP-11-0000774, 128 Hawai'i 311, 2012 WL 4344185 at *1 (App. Sept. 24, 2012) (SDO). State v. Maharaj, No. 29520,128 Hawai'i 312, 2012 WL 5272227 at *1 (App. Nov. 14, 2012) (SDO).

In Rivera, the ICA held in pertinent part, “the supreme court’s decision in [Nesmith ] raises, but does not clearly answer, the question of whether a deficiency in a charge for' failing to allege the requisite mens rea is a jurisdictional defect.” (Quoting Rivera, 2012 WL 4344185 at *2.) The ICA adopted what it construed as the concurring and dissenting opinion’s reading of the majority opinion in Nesmith,

[i]n Nesmith, the concurring and dissenting opinion by Justice Acoba reads the majority opinion as concluding ‘that a state of mind is a ‘fact’ that must be included in [217]*217an HRS § 291-E-61(a)(l) charge for due process purposes only, but not an element of HRS § 291E-61(a)(l) that must be included in a charge for purposes of jurisdiction.’ Although the Nesmith majority opinion does not state this distinction between the sufficiency of a charge for due process purposes and for jurisdictional purposes in unmistakable terms, pending further clarification, we adopt Justice Aco-ba’s reading of the majority’s opinion.

Id. (quoting Nesmith, 127 Hawai'i at 66, 276 P.3d at 635 (Acoba, J., concurring and dissenting) (brackets omitted)). In Rivera, the ICA concluded that the State’s failure to allege the mens rea was not a jurisdictional defect and because the said “defect” was not previously raised by Defendant, it was waived by Defendant.

Under this reading, the failure to allege a mens rea in the charge of OVUII with priors against Rivera would not constitute a jurisdictional defect in the charge. We therefore conclude that Rivera waived any challenge to the sufficiency of the charge for failure to allege a mens rea by not objecting on this basis in the Circuit Court and by not asserting this claim on appeal.

Id. (emphasis added). Accordingly, the ICA in Rivera affirmed the defendant’s conviction of the charge of OVUII. Relying on Rivera, the ICA denied Defendant’s Motion for Reconsideration, apparently because it believed any challenge to the sufficiency of the charge by Defendant was waived. In doing so, the ICA stated in a single sentence that the motion was denied and cited Rivera.

III.

In his Application, Defendant asks whether “the failure to allege a mens rea in charging the offense of OVUII ... HRS section 291E-61(a)(1) renders the charge jurisdictionally defective?” No response was filed by the State.

IV.

As noted, a transcript of the first part of trial, which presumably included the reading of the charge, was not in the record. Thus, Defendant in his application cited to the Notice of Entry of Order and the Notice of Judgment in order to establish the specific charges herein. The docket entry indicates Defendant was charged with HRS § 291E-61(a)(1) and (b)(1).8

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State v. Maharaj, 317 P.3d 659, 131 Haw. 215, 2013 WL 6068086, 2013 Haw. LEXIS 379 (haw 2013).

317 P.3d 659 (State v. Maharaj) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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