State v. Medina

324 P.3d 526, 262 Or. App. 140, 2014 WL 1316283, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 413
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedApril 2, 2014
DocketCR100685; A147883
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 324 P.3d 526 (State v. Medina) 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. Medina, 324 P.3d 526, 262 Or. App. 140, 2014 WL 1316283, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 413 (Or. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

TOOKEY, J.

Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for identity theft under ORS 165.800,1 which arose out of an incident in which defendant identified himself as another person to a police officer during a traffic stop, signed the name of that other person on documents at the police department, and then submitted those documents to the police.2 He contends that the trial court erred when it denied his motion for judgment of acquittal. We conclude that the trial court did not err and affirm.

When reviewing the denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal, we “view the evidence in the light most favorable to the state to determine whether a rational trier [142]*142of fact, making reasonable inferences, could have found the essential elements of the crime proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” State v. Hall, 327 Or 568, 570, 966 P2d 208 (1998).

Defendant stipulated to the following facts. After a police officer stopped defendant for traffic violations, defendant claimed that he had no driver’s license; defendant misidentified himself as “Sergio Molina” and gave the officer a birth date purportedly belonging to that person. The officer ran the provided information through dispatch, but dispatch was unable to locate “Sergio Molina.” The officer arrested defendant for failure to carry and present a license and transported defendant to the police department.

During the booking process, someone prepared a property record and a fingerprint card for “Sergio Molina.”3 The documents bear that name as well as a birth date. The fingerprint card also bears defendant’s fingerprints and a social security number. Defendant signed the name “Sergio Molina” on the two written documents.

Defendant was cited and released, and defendant’s fingerprints were faxed to the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) — a system that obtains, stores, and analyzes fingerprint data. An AFIS employee called the officer and reported defendant’s true identity. When the officer later spoke to defendant in jail, where defendant was lodged on a different matter, defendant told the officer that he did not know anyone named “Sergio Molina.” Defendant also told the officer that he had lied about his identity because there was a warrant out for his arrest.

The state charged defendant with identity theft under ORS 165.800, alleging that defendant, with the intent to deceive, did “utter or convert to defendant’s own use personal identification of‘Sergio Molina.’” The case proceeded to a bench trial, and defendant moved for judgment of acquittal. At trial, defendant argued that ORS 165.800 did not apply to his conduct because, when he signed the property record and fingerprint card at the police department, he was merely continuing the crime of giving false information to a police officer. To support that argument, defendant [143]*143cited State v. Fields, 191 Or App 127, 128, 79 P3d 915 (2003), in which this court held in a per curiam opinion that the defendant did not commit the crime of identity theft when he “identified himself as his friend” to a police officer and “gave the officer his friend’s personal identifying information.”4 The state argued, on the other hand, that defendant committed identity theft when he signed the name “Sergio Molina” on the property record and fingerprint card with the intent to deceive the police and to avoid arrest on an outstanding warrant. The trial court denied defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal, and defendant was convicted as noted above.

On appeal, defendant argues that his conduct did not constitute identity theft under ORS 165.800. Although defendant concedes that he may have converted to his own use the signature of another person when he signed the property record and fingerprint card, defendant argues that such conduct did not violate ORS 165.800 because he did not convert to his own use a written document. Defendant also contends that he did not utter the personal identification of another person, but that he merely “caused” the police officer to utter such personal identification. Citing Fields, defendant further asserts that the legislature did not intend to punish someone who signs the name of another person to a document under circumstances such as those in this case.5

The state responds that defendant, with the intent to deceive, converted to his own use, and uttered, the personal identification of “Sergio Molina” when he signed the property record and fingerprint card, thereby violating ORS 165.800. The state also contends that Fields is not disposi-tive because it relies entirely on legislative history from the 1999 regular session of the Legislative Assembly. The state notes that, in 2001, the legislature broadened the scope of the identity theft statute to criminalize conduct undertaken [144]*144“with the intent to deceive [.]” Or Laws 2001, ch 870, § 3. In the state’s view, that change demonstrates legislative intent to punish the conduct at issue in this case.

Whether ORS 165.800 applies to defendant’s conduct is a matter of statutory interpretation. See, e.g., State v. Smith, 259 Or App 36, 312 P3d 552 (2013) (reviewing trial court’s denial of the defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal and analyzing the text of ORS 165.572 to determine whether that statute applied to the defendant’s conduct). When interpreting a statute, our goal is to discern legislative intent. State v. Gaines, 346 Or 160, 171, 206 P3d 1042 (2009). We first look to the statutory text and context to determine the plain meaning of the statute. Id. Then, if it is useful to our analysis, we also consider legislative history. Id. at 172.

As noted, a “person commits the crime of identity theft if the person *** utters or converts to the person’s own use the personal identification of another person.” ORS 165.800.6 Our analysis of the text and context focuses on an examination of the following terms: “convert,” “utter,” and “personal identification.” When a term is defined by a statute, we look to the statutory definition, but when a term is not statutorily defined, we look to dictionary definitions to ascertain the plain meaning of the term. See Gaines, 346 Or at 175 (using dictionary definitions to discern the plain, natural, and ordinary meaning of terms). In this case, ORS 165.800

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Related

City of Seattle v. Department of Revenue
357 P.3d 979 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2015)
City of Seattle v. Dept. of Rev.
Oregon Supreme Court, 2015
State v. Medina
355 P.3d 108 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2015)
State of Iowa v. John Robert Hoyman
863 N.W.2d 1 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
324 P.3d 526, 262 Or. App. 140, 2014 WL 1316283, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 413, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-medina-orctapp-2014.