State v. Servatius

395 P.3d 910, 285 Or. App. 45, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 535
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedApril 26, 2017
Docket111050998; A156412
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 395 P.3d 910 (State v. Servatius) 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. Servatius, 395 P.3d 910, 285 Or. App. 45, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 535 (Or. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

DUNCAN, P. J.

In this criminal case, defendant appeals the trial court’s judgment convicting him of multiple offenses, asserting that the trial court erred when it found him guilty of failure to appear on a criminal citation, ORS 133.076, following a bench trial.1 The issue in this case is whether ORS 133.076 requires the state to prove that defendant knew—on the day of his court date—that he was required to appear in court. The trial court concluded that it did not need to make a finding regarding defendant’s mental state on the day of his missed court appearance. That was error; therefore we reverse and remand.

We begin with the relevant historical and procedural facts. On September 13, 2011, defendant was arrested and given a citation to appear in court on October 11, 2011. Defendant did not appear for that court date., and the state subsequently charged him with the crime of failure to appear on a criminal citation, which is defined by ORS 133.076.2 Consistent with ORS 133.076, the charging instrument alleged that defendant “knowingly” failed to appear.

Defendant waived his right to a jury trial, and the state tried its case to the court. At trial, the state presented evidence that defendant had been given the citation to appear for court and had not appeared. Defendant did not dispute either of those facts, but he contended that he was not guilty of violating ORS 133.076 because he did not “knowingly” fail to appear. In support of his defense, defendant presented evidence that he has dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease and that he suffers from short-term memory loss and has difficulty remembering dates and appointments. Defendant testified that he could not remember what he had been doing on October 11, but he would not intentionally miss a court date.

[47]*47The parties disputed whether the state had to prove that defendant knew of his court date when he failed to appear. The state asserted that it was required to prove only that defendant had notice of the court date and that it did not matter whether defendant subsequently forgot it. Defendant disagreed, asserting that, in order to prove that he knowingly failed to appear, the state had to prove that he knew of his court date when he failed to appear.

The trial court agreed with the state and ruled that it did not need to find that defendant knew of his court date when he failed to appear. In the court’s view, the state was required to prove only that defendant had received notice of the court date. Therefore, the court concluded, what happened after defendant received the citation was irrelevant:

“What happened after that, whether [defendant] lost the citation, forgot about the date, got involved in other things and just never thought about it, woke up on the morning of October 11th, looked at his day planner, didn’t see anything written down, so did something else, I think that’s all irrelevant under the case law.”

The cases to which the judge was referring are State v. Rogers, 185 Or App 141, 59 P3d 524 (2002), and State v. Carter, 238 Or App 417, 241 P3d 1205 (2010), rev den, 350 Or 130 (2011). In each of those cases, the issue was whether the defendant was entitled to a judgment of acquittal on the charge of failing to appear.

In Rogers, the defendant disputed that she had received a citation to appear in court. The trial court found that the defendant had received the citation, and the trial court inferred from the defendant’s receipt of the citation that the defendant had knowingly failed to appear. We affirmed, holding that, on the record before it, the trial court could find that the defendant had received the citation, and that from that fact, the trial court could infer that the defendant “knew of her obligation to appear on [her court date], that is, that she knowingly failed to appear.” 185 Or App at 147.

Similarly, in Carter, we held that, “to prove that defendant knowingly failed to appear, the state had the burden to prove that she knew of her obligation to appear on [48]*48that date.” 238 Or App at 421-22. In Carter, the state presented evidence that the defendant had received a citation and complaint that specified the time, date, and location of her court appearance. We held that, from that evidence, “a reasonable factfinder could infer that defendant knew she was charged with [a crime] and was required to be in court as specified in the citation and complaint [.] ” Id. at 422.

In this case, defendant contended that Rogers and Carter establish that a factfinder can—but is not required to—infer that a defendant who receives notice of a court date and who later fails to appear for the court date does so “knowingly.” In other words, in defendant’s view, Rogers and Carter establish that notice can be circumstantial evidence of later knowledge, but they do not establish that notice is all that is required. With respect to the charged failure to appear, defendant argued:

“The requisite mens rea is on October * ⅜ * the 11th. I’m not sure the court can infer beyond a reasonable doubt, even if you make a finding that he understood the date and time on [September] 13th, that you can infer beyond a reasonable doubt that [defendant] had the requisite mens rea * * * nearly one month later.”

The trial court ultimately concluded that it did not have to make any finding with respect to defendant’s mental state on October 11, the date he failed to appear for court. When defendant asked the court if it was inferring that defendant “had knowledge on October 11th of the court date,” the court replied that it was not, stating:

“No. I’m finding that the statute only requires that he be given knowledge of the court date. I can’t say that I’m making an inference as to what he knew or didn’t know.”

Thus, the court did not make a finding regarding whether defendant knew of his court date at the time he failed to appear; all the court found was that defendant had received notice of it. Based on that finding, the court convicted defendant.

On appeal, defendant renews the argument he made in the trial court, asserting that “[b]ecause the trial [49]*49court convicted defendant for failure to appear by applying an incorrect understanding of the mental state requirement in ORS 133.076, this court must reverse that conviction and remand for a new trial.” To be clear, defendant does not argue that he is entitled to an acquittal; he acknowledges that notice of a court date can be circumstantial evidence of knowledge of the court date. Thus, the issue in this case is different from the issue in Rogers and Carter, in which the defendants challenged the trial courts’ denials of their motions for judgments of acquittal.

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Related

State v. Rytting
527 P.3d 777 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2023)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
395 P.3d 910, 285 Or. App. 45, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 535, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-servatius-orctapp-2017.