State v. Pounds

522 So. 2d 1119, 1988 La. App. LEXIS 600, 1988 WL 15932
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 23, 1988
DocketNo. KA 87 1002
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 522 So. 2d 1119 (State v. Pounds) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Pounds, 522 So. 2d 1119, 1988 La. App. LEXIS 600, 1988 WL 15932 (La. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinions

ALFORD, Judge.

The defendant, Marion Pounds, was charged by bill of information with public bribery, in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:11s.1 She filed a motion to quash the bill of [1121]*1121information, which was denied by the trial court. Thereafter, the defendant pled guilty, reserving her right to appeal the denial of her motion to quash. See State v. Crosby, 338 So.2d 584 (La.1976). She received a sentence of two years at hard labor; however, the trial court suspended this sentence and placed her on active probation for a period of three years with the following special conditions of probation: the defendant must (1) pay a fine of $1,000.00 plus court costs; (2) pay costs of probation; (3) perform eight months (40 hours per week) of community service work at the Community Christian Concern Center in Slidell, Louisiana; and (4) report to the Washington Parish Jail every Saturday and Sunday for three months and perform work assigned by the Sheriff.

The defendant has appealed, alleging four assignments of error, as follows:

1. The trial court erred in denying the defendant’s motion to quash the bill of information.

2. The trial court erred in denying the defendant’s motion to quash the bill of information.

3. LSA-R.S. 14:118 is unconstitutionally vague and ambiguous in violation of both the Louisiana and U.S. Constitutions.

4. The trial court erred in imposing an excessive sentence.

Assignment of error number three was not briefed on appeal and, therefore, is considered abandoned. Uniform Rules— Courts of Appeal, Rule 2-12.4.

On November 30, 1984, Ulices Hopkins shot and killed his brother, Russell Hopkins, in an apparent hunting accident which occurred in Washington Parish. Ulices Hopkins was apparently arrested for negligent homicide. During the next two months, the Washington Parish District Attorney’s Office was evaluating its case against Ulices Hopkins. During this period, the defendant was a secretary at the Washington Parish District Attorney’s Office. Through her position as a secretary, the defendant learned that the District Attorney had decided that criminal proceedings would not be instituted against Mr. Hopkins. Thereafter, she contacted Mr. Hopkins and informed him that if he paid her $300.00 she would prevent him from being prosecuted. The District Attorney’s Office discovered this fact and tape-recorded a telephone conversation between the defendant and Mr. Hopkins in which she instructed him to bring $300.00 to the District Attorney’s office building and leave it in the bathroom.

After the defendant was arrested, she made a tape-recorded statement in which she confessed to the instant offense. She explained that she had only engaged in this criminal conduct because she had many debts which she could not pay and became desperate.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR NUMBERS ONE AND TWO

In these assignments of error, the defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying her motion to quash the bill of information. In assignment of error number one, the defendant argues that the bill of information should have been quashed because it was ambiguous, misleading, and failed to charge the defendant with all of the necessary elements of public bribery.

The instant bill of information provided, in pertinent part:

To the Honorable, the Twenty-Second Judicial District Court of Louisiana, sitting in and for the Parish of Washington, comes now into open court the undersigned District Attorney of the 22nd Judicial District of Louisiana, in the name and by authority of said State, informs the said Honorable Court:
That one Marion Pounds late of the Parish of Washington, on the 30th day of January, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and eighty-five (1985), in the Parish of Washington aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction of the Twenty-Second Judicial District Court of Louisiana, for the Parish of Washington, (sic)
Unlawfully violated R.S. 14:118, public bribery, by taking Three Hundred and no/100 ($300.00) from Ulices W. Hop[1122]*1122kins to prevent him from being prosecuted on Negligent Homicide charges, contrary to the form of the Statutes of the State of Louisiana in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the same.

The defendant points out that the bill of information did not state her position, such as public officer or employee, elected official, grand or petit juror, etc. The defendant also contends that the offense of public bribery requires a specific intent; and, therefore, the failure to include this element in the bill of information violated La.C.Cr.P. art. 472.2 However, in State v. Gainey, 376 So.2d 1240, 1244 (La. 1979), the Louisiana Supreme Court stated: “[T]he indictment itself need not set out the detailed facts constituting the violation, since those facts can be given to the defendant by answers to a bill of particulars. If the indictment sufficiently identifies the conduct charged and the statute violated, a motion to quash will not be sustained.” Therefore, we conclude that the failure of the bill of information to state that the defendant was a public employee was not a fatal defect. Furthermore, without deciding whether or not the offense of public bribery requires a specific intent, we also conclude that the instant bill of information sufficiently complied with La.C.Cr.P. arts. 4633 and 464 4, and that it sufficiently identified the conduct charged and the statute violated. State v. Gainey, 376 So.2d at 1244. In assignment of error number two, the defendant contends that the facts of the case presented at the hearing on the motion to quash indicated that the defendant did not have the specific intent to commit public bribery. Specifically, defense counsel argues that the defendant did not actually accept this money with the specific intent of having her conduct influenced. In his brief, defense counsel explains that the defendant, a secretary at the Washington Parish District Attorney’s Office, could do nothing to influence the decision of whether or not the District Attorney would prosecute Ulices Hopkins, especially since the decision had already been made to drop the charges against him. However, the above argument is, in effect, an argument that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the defendant under the public bribery statute.5

The motion to quash is essentially a mechanism by which to raise pre-trial pleas of defense, those which do not go to the merits of the charge. La.C.Cr.P. arts. 531-534; State v. Rembert, 312 So.2d 282 (La.1975). In a hearing on a motion to quash, the evidence is limited to procedural matters; the question of factual guilt or innocence of the offense charged is not raised by the motion to quash. State v. Rembert, 312 So.2d at 284; State v. Patterson, 301 So.2d 604 (La.1974); State v. [1123]*1123Beauchamp, 510 So.2d 22, 25 (La.App. 1st Cir.), writ denied, 512 So.2d 1176 (La.1987).

For the above reasons, these assignments of error are meritless.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER FOUR

In this assignment of error, the defendant contends that the trial court erred in imposing an excessive sentence.

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Related

State v. Linson
654 So. 2d 440 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1995)
State v. Pounds
581 So. 2d 319 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1991)
State v. Jones
544 So. 2d 1209 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1989)
State v. Pounds
526 So. 2d 789 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1988)

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Bluebook (online)
522 So. 2d 1119, 1988 La. App. LEXIS 600, 1988 WL 15932, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-pounds-lactapp-1988.