State v. McCrery

429 So. 2d 739
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided March 29, 1983·No. AN-286·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

429 So.2d 739 (1983)

STATE of Florida, Appellant,
v.
Bryan McCRERY and Subhiya Guertin, Appellees.

No. AN-286.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

March 29, 1983.
Rehearing Denied April 29, 1983.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and Richard A. Patterson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellant.

Larry G. Turner and Thomas W. Kurrus, Gainesville, for appellee McCrery.

Jack M. Ross, Jr., Gainesville, for appellee Guertin.

NIMMONS, Judge.

The State appeals from the trial court's order discharging both appellees under the Speedy Trial Rule, Fla.R.Cr.P. 3.191.[1]

The appellees were arrested on July 7, 1980, and charged jointly with the offenses of possession of a controlled substance and possession of controlled substance paraphernalia. On September 26, 1980, counsel for defendant McCrery filed a motion for continuance of the trial which was scheduled for October 13, 1980. The bulk of the motion consisted of a narration of the various reasons why counsel would not be ready for trial on October 13, including his vacation plans and inability to complete discovery. Paragraph 9 of his motion then stated:

The defendant, by and through his undersigned counsel, waives speedy trial through the month of November 1980, pursuant to Rule 3.191, R.Cr.P.

The last paragraph of counsel's motion stated that the prosecuting attorney had indicated to counsel that the prosecutor had no objection to the granting of the motion. On September 29, 1980, counsel for co-defendant Guertin filed a "Motion To Adopt" McCrery's motion for continuance in which Guertin's attorney stated additional reasons why he would not be prepared for trial on October 13. Nothing was stated in Guertin's Motion To Adopt concerning speedy trial. On September 29 the trial court entered an order continuing the trial. The order stated in pertinent part:

[T]he State has no objection to such continuance and... the defendant has *740 waived his rights to a speedy trial until the November, 1980 trial term.

The trial was again continued in November, 1980, pursuant to a stipulation by counsel with a waiver of speedy trial through January 31, 1981. In early January, the defendants filed motions for continuance purporting to waive speedy trial through February, 1981. On January 12, 1981, the court entered an order granting the motions for continuance and granted the pending motions to suppress filed on behalf of the defendants, from which order of suppression the state took an interlocutory appeal. Because of our view as to the legal consequences of the defendants' first motion for continuance in September, 1980, it is unnecessary to go into detail concerning the post-September, 1980, proceedings in the trial court and subsequently in this Court on the State's interlocutory appeal. After reversal by this Court of the trial judge's suppression order in State v. McCrery, 402 So.2d 49 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981), and the denial of certiorari in the Florida Supreme Court, 412 So.2d 467 (Fla. 1982), the defendants filed their motion for discharge.

The trial court granted the defendants' motion for discharge for the reason that the State had failed to request an extension of speedy trial pursuant to Rule 3.191(d)(2) when the State took its interlocutory appeal. The trial court's order assumed that the 180-day provisions of the Speedy Trial Rule were still in effect after the first continuance in September, 1980. Contrary to that assumption, we hold that the provisions for speedy trial under Rule 3.191(a)(1) were no longer in effect after the court continued the trial pursuant to the defendants' motion therefor. In State ex rel. Butler v. Cullen, 253 So.2d 861 (Fla. 1971), the court held that when a defendant moves for and is granted a continuance, the 180-day limitation set forth in Rule 3.191(a)(1) is no longer applicable. See also Butterworth v. Fluellen, 389 So.2d 968, 970 (Fla. 1980). It has even been held that a continuance of only one day upon the defendant's motion constitutes a surrender by the defendant of his right to rely upon the 180-day provisions of the Rule. State v. Brown, 412 So.2d 448 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982).

The defendants seek to avoid the application of the automatic waiver principle enunciated in Cullen by pointing to the statement contained in paragraph 9 of McCrery's motion for continuance which gratuitously states that the defendant "waives speedy trial through the month of November 1980, pursuant to Rule 3.191, R.Cr.P." Although the State apparently did not object to the September, 1980, continuance, there is nothing in the record of this case to support the suggestion that the State stipulated that the defendants would continue to be entitled to the benefits of the Speedy Trial Rule.[2] Further, the order of continuance, while alluding to the defendants' purported "limited" waiver of their right to speedy trial, neither extended nor tolled the running of the period for speedy trial as contemplated by subsection (d)(2) of the Rule. The order simply continued the trial as the defendants requested.

In State v. Freeman, 412 So.2d 452 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982), Freeman and his co-defendant both filed motions seeking "extensions of their trial dates" because defense counsel stated that they were unable to complete their pre-trial discovery. Their motions sought to "preserve" their "right to a speedy trial." The trial court entered orders granting continuance and reset trial dates for the two defendants. Subsequent events, insignificant for our purposes, occurred such that the defendants' case did not go to trial on the continued dates, and the defendants filed motions claiming entitlement to discharge under the Speedy Trial Rule. The trial court granted the motions for discharge. The Fifth District Court of Appeal reversed because both defendants "filed motions which sought a *741 postponement of the original trial dates." Stated the court:

The case law is well-established that a defendant who seeks a postponement under the pre-1981 Amendment to Rule 3.191, "waives" the initial one hundred eighty (180) day time limit, and thereafter, it is necessary for a defendant to file a demand for trial or motion to discharge in order to commence the running of the other time periods under the Rule. [412 So.2d at 453]

In State v. Register, 380 So.2d 543 (Fla. 5th DCA 1980), a dispute arose as to the right of a defendant to discharge under the Speedy Trial Rule. Counsel for the defendant represented to the trial court his recollection that the ore tenus motion for continuance had been accompanied by "an agreement" that the Speedy Trial Rule would not be waived by the continuance but merely tolled for 30 days. Relying upon Cullen, supra, the prosecutor denied that there had been an agreement for an extension of speedy trial and argued that the continuance of the case, pursuant to the defendant's motion, took the defendant out of the Speedy Trial Rule. The Fifth District, in reversing the trial court's order of discharge, cited to the pre-1981 provisions of Rule 3.191(d)(2),[3] which, as previously noted, are also applicable to the case sub judice. The court pointed out that, as in our case, there was no stipulation for an extension of time, there was no order of continuance "based on a motion by either party for any of the exceptional circumstances set forth in subsection (f) of the Rule" and none of the other circumstances which may serve as the basis for an extension under (d)(2) were demonstrated.

In State ex rel. Elliott v. Reasbeck,

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