State v. Nefstad

781 P.2d 358, 99 Or. App. 12, 1989 Ore. App. LEXIS 1522
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedOctober 18, 1989
DocketC 87-11-36208; CA A46738 C 87-11-36210; CA A46739 C 87-12-37479; CA A47382
StatusPublished

This text of 781 P.2d 358 (State v. Nefstad) 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. Nefstad, 781 P.2d 358, 99 Or. App. 12, 1989 Ore. App. LEXIS 1522 (Or. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinions

GRABER, P. J.

Defendant appeals from three separate contempt judgments that arose from her refusals to testify at various stages of the aggravated murder trial of Reyes Miranda and Stephen Nefstad, her husband.1 In the first case, the court held defendant in civil contempt. ORS 33.020(2). In the second and third cases, it held her in both civil and criminal contempt. ORS 33.020.2 Defendant argues in the first and second cases that she may not be held in contempt for refusing to testify “at a stage in [the] proceeding when there is no cognizable purpose in having her testify.” She asserts in the second and third cases that the “principles of double jeopardy and res judicata protect a contemnor-witness from multiple punishments and multiple judgments when she refuses to testify multiple times in the same proceeding.” We dismiss the first appeal as moot, reverse defendant’s conviction in the second case, and affirm in the third.

Near the end of jury selection in the murder trial, the attorney for one of the murder defendants told the prosecutor that defendant might refuse to testify. At the prosecutor’s request, the trial court interrupted jury selection and held a hearing to learn defendant’s intentions and to permit the state to take defendant’s testimony at that time, so that it would be available for use during the trial if she later refused to testify or otherwise became unavailable. The court rejected defendant’s argument that the proceeding was actually an impermissible deposition. See ORS 136.080 to ORS 136.100; ORS 136.420.

[15]*15The state then called defendant as a witness. The hearing had no purpose other than to determine whether defendant would testify and what that testimony would be. She refused to be sworn, stating that she did not know whether she would be truthful. The court found her in civil contempt and committed her to jail until she should purge herself of the contempt by testifying.

After the jury had been selected but before it was sworn, the state again called defendant as a witness. The district attorney explained that, if she again refused to be sworn, “I am going to ask the Court to hold her in criminal contempt as opposed to the civil contempt that she was held in on Friday.” Defendant took the oath. When the district attorney asked her if she was related to Nefstad, one of the murder defendants, she declined to answer on the ground that she might incriminate herself. The district attorney then said that no testimony that defendant gave would be used against her in any way and that she would not be prosecuted for any crime that her testimony might reveal. After a grant of immunity,3 the court ordered her to answer the question; she refused. She also refused to answer whether she was cohabiting with her then future husband on March 12, 1987. She stated, in response to another question, that, if the district attorney were to ask additional questions concerning events around the time of the murder and for several weeks thereafter, she would refuse to answer. The court, after reading a transcript of a police interview with defendant, found that she could give [16]*16probative testimony in the murder trial and held her in criminal and civil contempt. It sentenced her to six months imprisonment and also ordered that she remain in jail until she had complied with the order to testify.

During the murder trial, the state again called defendant as a witness. Because of her previous refusals, it did so outside the presence of the jury. She refused to take the stand or to be sworn. In response to the court’s questions, she stated that, if she took the stand, she would continue to refuse to answer the district attorney’s questions.4 The court again found her in contempt, imposed a criminal sentence that was concurrent with the time remaining on the previous one, and ordered her held until she had testified.

Defendant appealed all three judgments. While the appeals were pending, but after the conclusion of the murder trial, the trial court vacated the judgments to the extent that they had ordered defendant held until she had testified. Because the first judgment only committed defendant to jail until she had testified, that case is now moot. We dismiss that appeal. Moreover, we consider only the criminal aspects of the other judgments.

The state first argues that, in an appeal from a contempt judgment, a defendant may not collaterally attack the propriety of an underlying order to testify. In State v. Crenshaw, 307 Or 160, 168, 764 P2d 1372 (1988), the Supreme Court held that

“a challenge to the merits of the underlying order may be made in any appeal from an order of contempt where, for constitutional, statutory or practical reasons, no other remedy, either by appeal or mandamus, was available.” (Footnote omitted.)

Defendant was not a party to the murder trial and thus could not have appealed any judgment entered in it. Mandamus would be impractical, because the matter relates to a criminal trial in which she is not a party. She has “no other opportunity to raise the issue [of] the validity of the underlying order” except by appealing the judgments of contempt. State ex rel [17]*17Mix v. Newland, 277 Or 191, 200, 560 P2d 255 (1977). Therefore, in these appeals she can challenge the orders to testify.

In her second assignment of error,5 defendant argues that the court had no authority to call her as a witness before it had sworn the jury, because there was then no factfinding proceeding for which her testimony was necessary. She is partially correct. Although the court could properly call her when it did in order to determine whether she would testify at the trial, it could not order her to answer any questions that did not relate to whether she would testify.

The state argues that the trial court had “a legitimate reason for ascertaining pretrial whether [defendant] would testify, and thus it was within the court’s discretion to order her to testify at the pretrial hearing.” We agree that it was within the trial court’s discretion in managing the case to try to determine as early as possible whether defendant would testify. The state intended to summarize defendant’s expected testimony in its opening statement. If she thereafter were to refuse to testify, a mistrial was likely. The problem is that the trial court did not simply determine whether defendant would testify. After she clearly stated that she would not, it ordered her to give the substance of her testimony and found her in contempt when she refused. The question is whether the court had the authority to order defendant to give her testimony at that time.

A trial court’s authority to compel testimony derives from the constitution and the statutes.

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Related

State v. Crenshaw
764 P.2d 1372 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1988)
State v. Soriano
693 P.2d 26 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1984)
State Ex Rel. Mix v. Newland
560 P.2d 255 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1977)
State v. White
773 P.2d 824 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1989)
State Ex Rel. O'Leary v. Lowe
769 P.2d 188 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1989)
State v. Soriano
684 P.2d 1220 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1984)
State v. Thompson
659 P.2d 383 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1983)
State v. Farley
725 P.2d 359 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1986)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
781 P.2d 358, 99 Or. App. 12, 1989 Ore. App. LEXIS 1522, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-nefstad-orctapp-1989.