State v. Norkeveck

168 P.3d 265, 214 Or. App. 553, 2007 Ore. App. LEXIS 1160
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedAugust 22, 2007
Docket03C-46404, 04C-48750 A125781, A125782
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 168 P.3d 265 (State v. Norkeveck) 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. Norkeveck, 168 P.3d 265, 214 Or. App. 553, 2007 Ore. App. LEXIS 1160 (Or. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

RICHARDSON, S. J.

This is a consolidated appeal of two separate judgments of conviction on the basis of two separate indictments. Defendant was indicted in Marion County case number 03C46404, for 12 counts of sexual conduct with a girl under 12 years old. He was subsequently indicted for 10 counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree. That indictment was dismissed with prejudice and a subsequent indictment, Marion County case number 04C48750, charged defendant with 10 counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the second degree. The two surviving indictments were joined for trial over defendant’s objection, and his motion to sever the cases for separate trials was denied.

Defendant filed various pretrial motions in both cases, which were denied, and the charges were tried to the court on stipulated facts. The court entered convictions for 6 of the 12 counts in the first indictment, and 5 of the 10 counts in the other. Defendant separately appealed both judgments, and the cases were separately briefed but consolidated for appeal. For the reasons explained below, we affirm.

The assignments of error all relate to the denial of defendant’s pretrial motions. Defendant moved in both cases to suppress evidence seized from his computer and to sever the cases for separate trials. In the first case, he moved to exclude evidence that was seized from his computer and that was the basis of the 10 charges in the other indictment. In that case, he also moved to allow evidence of the victim’s prior sexual activity under OEC 412 (governing evidence of a victim’s past sexual behavior). In the second case, he moved to dismiss the 10-count indictment on the ground of former jeopardy.

The analysis of the claims of error does not require a recitation of the facts of the crimes. It is sufficient to recite some of the history leading to the indictments. Defendant was arrested on the basis of an accusation of sexual contact with a girl under 12 years old, and was later indicted for that conduct. He was taken into custody, advised of his rights, and interviewed. When he asserted his right to have counsel present, the interview was discontinued. Later, at the request of [556]*556an officer, he gave written consent for the police to seize and search his personal computer.

The following day, the police performed a single examination of the contents of the computer. The examination revealed a large number of sexually explicit images involving young children. Defendant was indicted for 10 counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree, ORS 163.684. Each count was based on one of the images of child pornography found in the computer. The trial court later dismissed that indictment with prejudice because the state failed to comply with the court’s discovery order.1

Approximately two months later, in a third indictment, defendant was charged with 10 counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the second degree. ORS 163.686. That latter indictment is based on 10 different images taken from defendant’s computer. Like the child pornography images used in the earlier 10-count indictment, the images supporting the counts in the latter 10-count indictment came from the single search of defendant’s computer.

We first address defendant’s assignment that the court erred by denying his motion to dismiss the second 10-count indictment on former jeopardy grounds. The motion was premised on several bases: ORS 131.515; Article I, section 12, of the Oregon Constitution; and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

As is our practice, we address the statutory basis for defendant’s claim first. ORS 131.515 provides, in part:

“(1) No person shall be prosecuted twice for the same offense.
“(2) No person shall be separately prosecuted for two or more offenses based upon the same criminal episode, if the several offenses are reasonably known to the appropriate prosecutor at the time of commencement of the first prosecution and establish proper venue in a single court.”

[557]*557Essentially, that statute provides two different aspects of former jeopardy protection:

“Subsection (1) of that statute is consistent with the constitutional prohibition against former jeopardy contained in Article I, section 12, of the Oregon Constitution * * * and bars successive prosecutions for the same offense. Subsection (2) * * * provides greater protection for criminal defendants because it bars consecutive prosecutions not only for the same offense but also for all known charges arising out of the same criminal episode.”

State v. Lyons, 161 Or App 355, 360, 985 P2d 204 (1999). (Citations omitted; emphasis in original.)

A necessary predicate to either source of protection in the statute is that there have been a previous prosecution. Defendant asserts that the dismissal with prejudice of the initial 10-count indictment was such a prosecution. The state does not respond or otherwise discuss the necessity of a previous prosecution. We might assume from the state’s lack of argument that it accepts the dismissal as a “first prosecution” sufficient to trigger the analysis under ORS 131.515(2) and the constitutional provisions.

However, in applying a statute or a constitutional provision, we implicitly construe it, and we are loath to construe a statute or constitutional provision by making an assumption based on a default in argument. We accordingly address defendant’s contention that there was a previous prosecution.

The essential argument asserted by defendant is encompassed in the following quote from his brief:

“ORS 131.505R5)] states that a ‘person is prosecuted for an offense when the person is charged therewith by an accusatory instrument filed in any court of this state or in any court of any political subdivision of this state ***.’”

However, he does not quote or otherwise note a critical part of ORS 131.505(5):

“and when the action either:
“(a) Terminates in a conviction upon a plea of guilty, except as provided in ORS 131.525(2);
[558]*558“(b) Proceeds to the trial stage and the jury is impaneled and sworn; or
“(c) Proceeds to the trial stage when a judge is the trier of fact and the first witness is sworn.”

None of those three outcomes occurred in this case.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
168 P.3d 265, 214 Or. App. 553, 2007 Ore. App. LEXIS 1160, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-norkeveck-orctapp-2007.