State v. Raschka

100 P.3d 339
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedNovember 9, 2004
Docket21417-6-III
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 100 P.3d 339 (State v. Raschka) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Raschka, 100 P.3d 339 (Wash. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

100 P.3d 339 (2004)

STATE of Washington, Respondent,
v.
Franklin John RASCHKA, Appellant.

No. 21417-6-III.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 3, Panel Two.

November 9, 2004.

*340 Dan K. Connolly, Okanogan, WA, for Appellant.

Karl F. Sloan, Stephen M. Bozarth, Okanogan, WA, for Respondent.

SCHULTHEIS, J.

A criminal defendant charged in superior court and not in custody must be tried within 90 days unless time is excluded or extended by rule. Former CrR 3.3(c)(1) (2001). Franklin Raschka waived speedy trial up to a certain date as allowed by court rule, but he was not brought to trial before the expiration of the speedy trial waiver. The time for trial was not interrupted and re-set by a failure to appear under former CrR 3.3(d)(2) (2001). We therefore reverse his conviction and dismiss the charge.

*341 FACTS

On February 11, 2002, Franklin Raschka was charged with one count of possession of methamphetamine. He was arraigned on February 21. His trial date was set for April 16. The speedy trial date was May 22. On April 8, Mr. Raschka waived his right to speedy trial until June 30 and agreed to a trial date of May 21 with a pretrial status conference on May 9. An order was entered reflecting these dates. Mr. Raschka signed an acknowledgement that his failure to appear at any of the hearing dates set forth in the order might result in the issuance of an arrest warrant and/or the trial date being stricken.

Prior to trial, Mr. Raschka moved to suppress the methamphetamine on the basis that it was the result of an unconstitutional pretextual search and seizure. On May 7, 2002, the court heard Mr. Raschka's motion to dismiss, but reserved its ruling until May 13. The May 9 status conference hearing was continued until that date.

The following exchange was recorded at the outset of the May 13 hearing:

THE COURT: Be seated. So the first matter today, Monday, May 13, 9:10 a.m., State vs. Raschka, XX-X-XXXXX-X.
I don't see the defendant here today.
MR. CONNOLLY [Defense Counsel]: Your Honor, Dan Connolly, for the record, here representing Mr. Raschka. He indicated in my office on Friday he had been involved in a serious automobile accident, head-on collision. He was in the hospital. I actually called Mid-Valley Hospital and spoke to him there — he was awaiting some kind of surgery on his knee as he had broke his kneecap, something like that, in a head-on collision — from the hospital. So I told him that the Court would probably excuse his presence.
THE COURT: In that case, I am not concerned about his presence, but I still would like to complete the 3.6 Hearing by announcing the decision. Is there any reason I can't do that?
MR. CONNOLLY: No, Your Honor. I think you can go ahead. He'd like to be here, but he's going to be in the hospital for a little while, it sounds like.
THE COURT: Mr. Perkins [Deputy Prosecuting Attorney], do you have anything to say about this situation?
MR. PERKINS: No, Your Honor. We don't object to his not being here. It does appear that he was in an accident.

Report of Proceedings (RP) (May 13, 2002) at 4-5 (emphasis added). The court then gave its oral decision denying the motion to suppress. Thereafter, the court noted:

[THE COURT:] So if you would convey that to your client and we'll — we need to find out his medical condition. I don't know when your next hearing is, but it sounds like it's fairly serious.
MR. CONNOLLY: Trial.
MR. PERKINS: The 25th.

RP (May 13, 2002) at 17.

There was some discussion off the record between the prosecutor and defense counsel about continuing the status conference, the trial date, or both. The prosecutor agreed to take responsibility for docketing the matter. He instructed the court administrator to remove the case from the trial calendar and said he would prepare the necessary paperwork to renote it. However, the prosecutor did not do so. He later explained that he lost track of the case, and it was his fault that the case "came to be lost." RP (Aug. 12, 2002) at 8.

Mr. Raschka was not brought to trial on May 21, 2002 or by the speedy trial date of June 30.

The prosecutor became aware of his mistake, and on July 25, 2002, he asked the court to set a new trial date. Defense counsel objected to a trial setting and asked to be heard on a motion to dismiss for a speedy trial violation.

After hearing arguments on the motion to dismiss, the court on August 12 found that although Mr. Raschka was not required to attend the hearing on May 13 for the court's ruling on the motion to suppress, his presence was required for the status conference. The court commented:

*342 If [the defense] would have asked [for a trial date], we would have set it. The court also could have issued a warrant when the defendant didn't appear. But instead, the court accepted your word that he was in the hospital and struck the hearing for that day and allowed his non-appearance.
. . . .
I am not saying it's his fault. I am just saying he wasn't here. So somebody is injured and doesn't come. I don't see how it's the court's fault or in these circumstances the State's fault.

RP (Aug. 12, 2002) at 12 (emphasis added). The court ultimately held that the speedy trial clock stopped when Mr. Raschka was absent from a proceeding for which his presence was required — the status conference on May 13, 2002 — and was reset when he made his presence known to the court on July 25, 2002. See former CrR 3.3(d)(2). The motion to dismiss was denied.

Mr. Raschka was convicted on August 13, 2002. He appealed on grounds, inter alia, that his right to speedy trial was violated. The State's motion on the merits was denied.

DISCUSSION

SPEEDY TRIAL RULE

The application of the speedy trial rule to a particular set of facts is a question of law subject to de novo review. State v. Branstetter, 85 Wash.App. 123, 127, 935 P.2d 620 (1997). Unless time is excluded or extended by rule, the trial of a defendant charged in superior court who is not in custody on the charge must begin no more than 90 days after arraignment. Former CrR 3.3(c)(1). Otherwise, the charge must be dismissed with prejudice. Former CrR 3.3(i) (2001); State v. Swenson, 150 Wash.2d 181, 187, 75 P.3d 513 (2003). Here, after Mr. Raschka was arraigned, he consented to a trial date of May 21, 2002 and waived speedy trial up to June 30. Mr. Raschka did not have a trial before June 30. The State argues that former CrR 3.3(d)(2) extended the time for speedy trial.

Former CrR 3.3(d)(2)[1] allows the speedy trial clock to be reset when an arraigned defendant fails to appear at a hearing at which his presence is required under CrR 3.4. CrR 3.4(a) requires the defendant's presence "at every stage of the trial including the empaneling of the jury and the return of the verdict, and at the imposition of sentence, except as otherwise provided by these rules, or as excused or excluded by the court for good cause shown." The clock does not start running again until the defendant is present in the county where the charge is pending and his presence is made known to the court on the record.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
100 P.3d 339, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-raschka-washctapp-2004.