State v. Moody

806 N.W.2d 874, 2011 Minn. App. LEXIS 148, 2011 WL 6141653
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedDecember 12, 2011
DocketNo. A11-773
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 806 N.W.2d 874 (State v. Moody) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Moody, 806 N.W.2d 874, 2011 Minn. App. LEXIS 148, 2011 WL 6141653 (Mich. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION

BJORKMAN, Judge.

Appellant challenges the district court’s imposition of jail time as a condition of a stay of adjudication of his guilty plea to fifth-degree controlled-substanee possession. Because appellant consented to the district court’s stay and the state’s recommendation of jail time, we affirm.

FACTS

Shortly after midnight on June 3, 2010, a Princeton police officer approached a vehicle parked after-hours in a city park. The officer discovered appellant David Steven Moody and a passenger in the vehicle, and observed drug paraphernalia in plain view on the floor behind the driver’s seat. The officer searched the vehicle and found a baggie of marijuana and a box that contained a white powder that later tested positive for cocaine. The officer also discovered alcohol in the vehicle’s trunk. Moody was arrested and charged with fifth-degree controlled-substanee possession, possession of marijuana in a motor vehicle, possession of drug paraphernalia, and underage possession of alcohol.

Moody later pleaded guilty to felony fifth-degree controlled-substanee possession pursuant to an agreement in which the state agreed that adjudication would be stayed and that it would cap its request for jail time at 45 days. The district court stayed adjudication with Moody’s consent and placed him on probation for five years pursuant to MinmStat. § 152.18, subd. 1. As a probation condition, the district court ordered Moody to serve 45 days in the Mille Lacs County Jail. This appeal follows.

ISSUES

I. Is the appeal properly before this court?

II. Did the district court abuse its discretion in imposing jail time as a condition of Moody’s stay of adjudication pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 152.18?

ANALYSIS

Moody contends that the district court was not authorized to impose jail time as a condition of probation pursuant to a stay of adjudication, and that imposing jail time is otherwise unreasonable. This court reviews a sentence imposed or stayed for abuse of discretion. State v. Bradley, 756 N.W.2d 129, 132 (Minn.App.2008). Statutory interpretation is a question of law, which we review de novo. State v. Zacher, 504 N.W.2d 468, 470 (Minn.1993).

I. Stays of adjudication in felony cases are appealable as of right.

Before discussing the merits of the appeal, we address the state’s jurisdictional challenge. Generally, a criminal defendant may not appeal until an adverse final judgment has been entered against him. Minn. R.Crim. P. 28.02, subd. 2(2). A judgment is considered final when there is a judgment of conviction and sentence is imposed or the imposition of sentence is stayed. Minn. R.Crim. P. 28.02, subd. 2(1). Relying on State v. Verschelde, 595 [876]*876N.W.2d 192, 196 (Minn.1999), the state argues that Moody waived his right to appeal by consenting to being sentenced pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 152.18, subd. 1. The state further contends that Moody failed to timely pursue his only appeal option, a discretionary appeal pursuant to Minn. R.Crim. P. 28.02, subd. 3 (“In the interests of justice and on petition of the defendant, the Court of Appeals may allow an appeal from an order not otherwise appeal-able .... The petition must be served and filed within 30 days after entry of the order appealed.”). We disagree.

Following Verschelde, both the supreme court and this court have clarified that felony stays of adjudication are treated as sentences for appeal purposes. State v. Allinder, 746 N.W.2d 923, 924 (Minn.App.2008) (holding that “[a] stay of adjudication imposed for a felony offense is a sentence that the defendant may appeal as of right” under Minn. R.Crim. P. 28.02, subd. 2(3)). In Allinder, we followed and applied the supreme court’s unpublished order in State v. Manns, No. A06-478, 2006 WL 3007850 (Minn.App. Oct. 24, 2006). The Manns court reversed this court’s dismissal of the state’s appeal from a stay of adjudication in a felony case, stating that “[ajppeals from stays of adjudication in felony cases are to be treated as appeals from sentencings, from which an appeal may be taken as provided in Minn. R.Crim. P. 28.02, subd. 2, and 28.04, subd. 1.” Id. at 925 (quotation omitted). Accordingly, because Moody’s underlying fifth-degree possession offense is a felony, his appeal is properly before this court.

II. The district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing jail time as a condition of Moody’s stay of adjudication pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 152.18.

Moody contends that jail time is not appropriate because a guilty plea pursuant to section 152.18 is “not a conviction,” and incarceration “is not a reasonable condition of probation” when no conviction of guilt has been entered. He also argues that jail time is unreasonable given his lack of a criminal record and amenability to probation. We address each argument in turn.

We first consider Moody’s legal argument. Section 152.18 provides that “the court may, without entering a judgment of guilty and with the consent of the person, defer further proceedings and place the person on probation upon such reasonable conditions as it may require and for a period, not to exceed the maximum sentence provided for the violation.” Minn.Stat. § 152.18, subd. 1. The statute “was designed to give a second chance to those found guilty of relatively minor offenses involving possession of a controlled substance.” State v. Ender, 467 N.W.2d 39, 41 (Minn.App.1991) (quotation omitted). If the defendant does not violate any of the conditions of the stay during the probation term, the district court must discharge the defendant and dismiss the proceedings, leaving no public record of the offense. Minn.Stat. § 152.18, subd. 1. The statute does not, by its terms, prohibit incarceration as a condition of a stay. Rather, the statute affords a district court discretion to impose “reasonable conditions.” See id.

Moody argues that our caselaw provides “no guidance” as to whether section 152.18 allows imposition of jail time as a condition of a stay. We disagree. While we have found no case that directly addresses this question, the law is not wholly devoid of relevant authority. We first acknowledge that our supreme court has expressed “concern about the consequences of imposing jail time at the pretrial stage.” State v. Lee, 706 N.W.2d 491, 495 (Minn.2005). But at the same time, the supreme court [877]*877has “expressly authorized the imposition of conditions of probation, including jail time, as part of a stay of adjudication.” Id. The supreme court has also observed that “it is standard practice among judges to order defendants to serve a jail term of less than one year as a ‘condition’ of their probationary term under section 152.18.” State v. Krotzer, 548 N.W.2d 252, 256 (Minn.1996), limited on other grounds by State v. Foss, 556 N.W.2d 540 (Minn.1996); see also State v. Angotti,

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Bluebook (online)
806 N.W.2d 874, 2011 Minn. App. LEXIS 148, 2011 WL 6141653, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-moody-minnctapp-2011.