State v. Surette

876 A.2d 582, 90 Conn. App. 177, 2005 Conn. App. LEXIS 295
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJuly 12, 2005
DocketAC 24744
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 876 A.2d 582 (State v. Surette) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Surette, 876 A.2d 582, 90 Conn. App. 177, 2005 Conn. App. LEXIS 295 (Colo. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

Opinion

BISHOP, J.

This appeal requires us to determine whether a defendant may be subject to the enhanced penalties provided by General Statutes § 14-227a (g) (3) when he has three prior convictions for violations of § 14-227a but has not before been presented as a repeat offender. Because we answer the question in the affirmative, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The following facts and procedural history are relevant to our consideration of the issue on appeal. On July 28, 2000, the defendant, William J. Surette, was convicted of three violations of § 14-227a for having operated a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. The convictions stemmed from three separate incidents occurring on April 18, July 24 and August 14, 1999, in which the defendant was apprehended by the police and charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. The three cases arising from the defendant’s [180]*180arrests were assigned for the same court date, and on July 28, 2000, the defendant pleaded guilty to three violations of § 14-227a. The defendant was not charged in any of the cases with being a repeat offender. In the vernacular, he was treated in three separate files as being a first time offender.

Subsequently, on May 23, 2003, the defendant was apprehended by the police and charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor in violation of § 14-227a. In this case, the prosecutor also filed a part B information charging the defendant as a subsequent offender as a consequence of his July 28, 2000 convictions. In response, the defendant filed a motion to dismiss part B of the information on the ground that he could not be charged with being a third time offender because he had never been convicted of being a second time offender. After the court denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss, the defendant pleaded guilty to the first part of the information and entered a conditional plea of nolo contendere to part B of the information, reserving his right, pursuant to General Statutes § 54-94a, to appeal from the judgment of conviction to contest the court’s denial of his motion to dismiss. The court thereafter sentenced the defendant as a third and subsequent offender pursuant to § 14-227a (g) (3). This appeal followed.

On appeal, the defendant raises two issues. He claims (1) that the court did not have the legal authority to treat him as a third time offender under § 14-227a (g) (3) because he had not been convicted previously of being a second time offender under § 14-227a (g) (2), and (2) that his plea to part B of the information was constitutionally infirm because the evidence utilized by the corut to support a finding of guilt was legally insufficient. We respond to each claim in turn.

Because the defendant’s first claim presents a question of statutory interpretation, our review is plenary. [181]*181Bengtson v. Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, 86 Conn. App. 51, 56, 859 A. 2d 967 (2004), cert. denied, 272 Conn. 922, 867 A.2d 837 (2005). “Relevant legislation and precedent guide the process of statutory interpretation. [General Statutes § l-2z] provides that, [t]he meaning of a statute shall, in the first instance, be ascertained from the text of the statute itself and its relationship to other statutes. If, after examining such text and considering such relationship, the meaning of such text is plain and unambiguous and does not yield absurd or unworkable results, extratextual evidence of the meaning of the statute shall not be considered.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Rodriguez v. Ancona, 88 Conn. App. 193, 197, 868 A.2d 807 (2005). Section 14-227a (g) provides in relevant part: “Any person who violates any provision of subsection (a) of this section shall ... (3) for conviction of a third and subsequent violation within ten years after a prior conviction for the same offense, (A) be fined not less than two thousand dollars or more than eight thousand dollars, (B) be imprisoned not more than three years, one year of which may not be suspended or reduced in any manner, and sentenced to a period of probation requiring as a condition of such probation that such person perform one hundred hours of community service, as defined in section 14-227e, and (C) have such person’s motor vehicle operator’s license or nonresident operating privilege permanently revoked upon such third offense. ...” That language, evincing a sentence enhancement design, is plain and unambiguous. Nowhere does the statute require, as a condition to the imposition of enhanced penalties for a third offense, that a defendant must have been convicted previously of being a second time offender. To the contrary, the statute speaks only in terms of prior convictions of § 14-227a, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. Because the defendant, at the time of his convic[182]*182tion under part B of the information, already was burdened with three convictions for violations of § 14-227a, the enhancement scheme plainly was applicable to him.

Although not set forth as a separate claim, the defendant also asserts, as part of his first issue, that because he previously had not been convicted as a second time offender, he had no notice that a subsequent conviction would subject him to a part B information charging him with being a third time and subsequent offender. We begin our analysis of this claim with the time worn maxim that “everyone is presumed to know the law, and that ignorance of the law excuses no one . . . .” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Provident Bank v. Lewitt, 84 Conn. App. 204, 209, 852 A.2d 852, cert. denied, 271 Conn. 924, 859 A.2d 580 (2004). Those tenets “are founded upon public policy and in necessity, and the idea [behind] them is that one’s acts must be considered as having been done with knowledge of the law, for otherwise its evasion would be facilitated and the courts burdened with collateral inquiries into the content of men’s minds.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., 209-10. Thus, the defendant is charged with knowledge of the law.

In addition, the record demonstrates that the defendant had actual knowledge of the jeopardy he would face from a subsequent conviction under § 14-227a. When the defendant entered his guilty pleas in regard to his first three convictions under § 14-227a on July 28, 2000, as a first time offender, the court warned him as follows:

“The Court: As a fourth offender, which you would have had if you had one more incident whatsoever, it would add a year in jail, mandatory year in jail, and a lifetime revocation of your driver’s license. You would never be able to legally drive a car again. That would be a pretty short driving career.”

[183]*183In order to give the defendant an opportunity to avail himself of rehabilitation services, his sentencing hearing was deferred until October 4, 2000. At that hearing, the following colloquy took place:

“The Court: ... I don’t know what underlies it, sir. I mean, obviously, I know what underlies [it]; you’ve got to have a problem, obviously, to have three [convictions of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor].

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
876 A.2d 582, 90 Conn. App. 177, 2005 Conn. App. LEXIS 295, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-surette-connappct-2005.