State v. Roberts

436 P.3d 57, 295 Or. App. 670
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJanuary 16, 2019
DocketA163221
StatusPublished

This text of 436 P.3d 57 (State v. Roberts) 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. Roberts, 436 P.3d 57, 295 Or. App. 670 (Or. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

DeVORE, J.

*58*671The statute on first-degree criminal mistreatment, ORS 163.205(1)(b), sanctions a defendant who unlawfully takes or appropriates money or property from an elderly or dependent person if the defendant had a "legal duty to provide care" for the elderly or dependent person. After judgment of conviction on a number of offenses, defendant appeals the judgment regarding the three counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment. She assigns error to the trial court's denial of her motion for a judgment of acquittal, arguing that, for purposes of ORS 163.205(1)(b), she did not have a "legal duty to provide care" for her father when he authorized her to act pursuant to a power of attorney, regardless whether she unlawfully took or appropriated his money or property using that authority. Defendant contends that the "legal duty to provide care" under ORS 163.205 (1)(b) is limited to providing physical care. We disagree and, accordingly, affirm.

When denial of a defendant's motion for a judgment of acquittal "centers on the meaning of the statute defining the offense," we review the interpretation of the statute for legal error. State v. Hunt , 270 Or. App. 206, 210, 346 P.3d 1285 (2015) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). In determining the sufficiency of the evidence, we review the facts in the light most favorable to the state to determine whether a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Cunningham , 320 Or. 47, 63, 880 P.2d 431 (1994), cert. den. , 514 U.S. 1005, 115 S.Ct. 1317, 131 L.Ed.2d 198 (1995).

We provide a brief summary of the events giving rise to the issue on appeal, because the appeal reduces to a question of statutory interpretation. Defendant's father, the victim in this case, was taken to OHSU as a result of various health complications requiring surgeries. After the surgeries, he spent the next seven months in a nursing home and rehabilitation facility. Altogether, he was bedridden and unable to care for himself for about 10 months.

While the victim was physically incapacitated in hospital care, he signed a power of attorney over to defendant *672authorizing her to manage his financial affairs.1 He gave power of attorney to his daughter because he "trusted her" and because she is "family." He had a conversation with defendant, telling her that he was concerned about his finances and to "pay my bills and stuff, and make sure everything-basically make sure everything gets paid." He did not ask her to open any new bank accounts or obtain any credit cards in his name, and she never asked him permission to do so. He did not ask her to make any cash withdrawals for him either. Defendant, however, used the authority granted by the power of attorney to withdraw thousands of dollars from his bank account without his consent, to open multiple fraudulent credit-card accounts, and to trade in his car for another car with defendant's name on the title. The victim's credit score dropped from 780 to 520 while defendant was caring for his financial affairs.

Among other things, defendant was charged with three counts of criminal mistreatment in the first degree, ORS 163.205. To convict defendant of first-degree criminal mistreatment under ORS 163.205(1)(b)(D), the state had to prove that she (1) had a "legal duty to provide care" for an elderly person or dependent person or had assumed the care or supervision of the elderly or dependent person, and (2) intentionally or knowingly hid, took, or appropriated the elderly or dependent person's money or property for a use not in the due and lawful execution of defendant's responsibility. ORS 163.205(1)(b)(D) ; State v. Browning , 282 Or. App. 1, 3, 386 P.3d 192 (2016), rev. den. , 361 Or. 311, 393 P.3d 1170 (2017).

*59At the close of the state's case, defendant moved for a judgment of acquittal on the counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment, arguing that the state failed to prove that defendant had a "legal duty to provide care" to the victim within the meaning of ORS 163.205(1)(b), because the victim was in the physical care of medical professionals and defendant was not providing care for his physical needs.

*673Defendant contended, "To put it another way, [the victim] may have been a dependent person, but he was absolutely not dependent upon [defendant]" for his physical well-being. In defendant's view, the phrase "legal duty to provide care," as it is used in the first-degree criminal mistreatment statute, "does not mean a legal duty to provide financial care." The state countered that the phrase "legal duty to provide care" in ORS 163.205(1)(b) is not limited to persons providing "physical care" and includes the duty to provide financial care under a power of attorney.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
436 P.3d 57, 295 Or. App. 670, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-roberts-orctapp-2019.