State v. McCahill

828 A.2d 1235, 265 Conn. 437, 2003 Conn. LEXIS 315
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedAugust 19, 2003
DocketSC 16817
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 828 A.2d 1235 (State v. McCahill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. McCahill, 828 A.2d 1235, 265 Conn. 437, 2003 Conn. LEXIS 315 (Colo. 2003).

Opinions

Opinion

KATZ, J.

The principal issue in this appeal is whether the trial court properly denied the motion to dismiss the information filed by the defendant, James A. McCahill, [439]*439after he was not brought to trial within thirty days after he filed a motion for a speedy trial pursuant to General Statutes § 54-82m1 and Practice Book § 43-41.2 The defendant appeals3 from the judgment of conviction of burglary in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-101 (a) (2)4 and sexual assault in the first [440]*440degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-70 (a) (l).5 The defendant contends that the trial court improperly concluded that the misfilings of his motion for a speedy trial constituted “good cause” for the state’s failure to commence his trial within the time frame required by § 54-82m and pursuant to Practice Book § 43-40.6 We agree and, accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand the case with direction to render judgment of dismissal.

The record reveals the following facts and procedural history that guide our resolution of this appeal. On or about the evening of January 22, 1999, the defendant allegedly broke into the condominium of his former girlfriend and physically and sexually assaulted her. The defendant was arrested that same day and, on January 25,1999, the state filed a short form information. The state thereafter filed a substitute long form information charging the defendant with the crimes of sexual assault in the first degree and burglary in the first degree. The defendant first appeared before the court on January 25, 1999. On August 5, 1999, the case was placed on the trial list.

On January 23, 2001, the defendant filed a motion for a speedy trial, which set forth the docket number in the present case (part A) and the docket number in a related case (part B), although the two cases were never consolidated, with the docket number of the part A case listed first. Two copies of the motion were filed with the clerk’s office, one for each of the defendant’s [441]*441files, and two copies were delivered to the state’s attorney’s office. The motion contained the requisite certification of service certifying that a copy of the motion had been mailed or hand delivered to the state’s attorney on January 23, 2001. On February 26, 2001, the defendant filed a motion to dismiss the information in both cases because his trial had not commenced within the thirty days following the filing of his motion for a speedy trial, as required under Practice Book § 43-41.7

On February 27, 2001, the trial court, Byrne, J., held a hearing on the defendant’s motion for dismissal, at which the court heard evidence and oral argument from the defendant, the state and an advocate for the victim. On March 30, 2001, based on a review of § 54-82m and the statute’s legislative background, and in the interest of “fundamental fairness,” the trial court denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss.8

The defendant subsequently was tried to a jury and convicted on the sexual assault and burglary counts. Following his conviction, the trial court, Hon. Bernard D. Gaffney, judge trial referee, denied the defendant’s posttrial motions for judgment of acquittal, arrest of judgment and a new trial, and, exercising the powers of the Superior Court, rendered judgment of guilty in accordance with the jury’s verdict. The defendant was sentenced to two concurrent twelve year terms of imprisonment, execution suspended after six years, followed by a six year period of special parole. This appeal followed.

The defendant contends on appeal that the trial court improperly: (1) denied his motion to dismiss the infor[442]*442mation after he was not brought to trial within thirty days following the filing of his motion for a speedy trial; (2) permitted the state to present constancy of accusation evidence from a police officer not specifically identified by the victim and allowed the officer to present detailed testimony concerning the statement that the victim had given the police; and (3) found that there was sufficient evidence presented at trial to support the jury’s verdict finding the defendant guilty of burglary in the first degree. Because we agree with his first claim, we do not reach the remaining claims.

The following additional facts are necessary to our resolution of the speedy trial issue. At the hearing on the defendant’s motion to dismiss, the defendant and the state stipulated to the following relevant facts. The copies of the defendant’s motion for a speedy trial filed with the clerk’s office and at the state’s attorney’s office were misfiled.9 Specifically, the clerk’s office failed to follow several of its mandatory procedures when it handled the defendant’s speedy trial motion. These lapses included: placing both copies of the motion in the file of the part B case and not in the file of the part A case; failing to notify the clerk handling the part A case of the filing of the motion for a speedy trial; failing to notify the criminal case flow coordinator of the filing of the motion for a speedy trial in both the part A and part B cases; failing to notify the state’s attorney’s office of the filing of the defendant’s motion for a speedy trial; and failing to notify the criminal presiding judge of the filing of the motion for a speedy trial. As a result of these failures, the filing of the motion in the present case was not brought to the attention of those who [443]*443customarily would respond to it: the presiding criminal judge, the part A criminal clerk, the criminal caseflow coordinator and the state’s attorney.

During the course of the hearing on the defendant’s motion to dismiss, the state characterized the clerk’s mistake as having been the result of “ignorance or incompetence or apathy . . . .” The state further argued that this ignorance, incompetence or apathy led to an “utter and complete breakdown” in the clerk’s office and that “the statutory obligation [was] on the clerk’s office.” The state also conceded that the state’s attorney’s office “share [d] the blame in this as well. [The] office . . . received those motions and did the same thing, stuffed them in the part B file.” The trial court denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss because it concluded that § 54-82m provided the judges of the Superior Court with the discretion to adopt speedy trial rules and that, pursuant to those rules, the misfiling of the speedy trial motion in both the clerk’s office and the state’s attorney’s office constituted “exceptional circumstances” under Practice Book § 43-40; see footnote 6 of this opinion; which, in turn, constituted “good cause” for the denial of the defendant’s motion to dismiss under Practice Book § 43-41. See footnote 2 of this opinion.

On appeal, the defendant claims that, once the one year period for commencing his trial had passed, and he thereafter filed a motion for a speedy trial, the trial court was required to grant his motion to dismiss with prejudice because his trial did not commence within thirty days of the filing of his speedy trial motion.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
828 A.2d 1235, 265 Conn. 437, 2003 Conn. LEXIS 315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mccahill-conn-2003.