State v. Weber

707 N.E.2d 1178, 125 Ohio App. 3d 120
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided December 31, 1997·No. No. 97APA06-777.·Published·Cited by 31 cases

Opinions

Lazarus, Judge.

Defendant-appellant, Maria J. Weber, appeals from a May 8, 1997 judgment entry in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas denying her motion to withdraw her 1990 guilty plea to attempted theft, a violation of R.C. 2923.02 as it relates to 2913.02. Appellant contends that her guilty plea might be set aside under R.C. 2943.031(D) because the trial court failed to advise her, as required by that statute, of the possible consequences that her guilty plea might have on her immigration status. Appellant also contends that the judgment should be reversed because the trial court violated the attorney-client privilege by ordering appellant’s former trial counsel to testify as to what advice counsel gave, appellant regarding the possible effects her guilty plea might have on her immigration status. Because we hold that the trial court incorrectly applied the mandates of R.C 2943.031(D) for setting aside a guilty plea, we reverse the judgment below.

Appellant is a citizen of Poland. In October 1989, appellant and her daughter from a previous marriage legally entered the United States to live with her husband, a U.S. citizen.

On May 23, 1990, the Franklin County Grand Jury indicted appellant on one count of theft and one count of possession of criminal tools related to an incident in which appellant was caught attempting to steal $400 worth of clothing from a Lazarus department store. On November 12, 1990, appellant agreed to.plead guilty to a lesser included offense of count one, attempted theft, in exchange for a nolle prosequi on the remaining count of the indictment. At that time, appellant executed an entry of guilty plea form, on which appellant noted that she was not a citizen of the United States, and during the plea hearing, the court was specifically told that appellant was Polish. Thereafter, the court conducted, through an interpreter, a plea dialogue with appellant but did not give the advisement regarding the possible deportation consequences of her guilty plea as required by R.C. 2943.031. The trial court accepted appellant’s plea and on December 17, 1990, sentenced appellant to six months in jail, suspended on condition of serving a two-year term of probation. On December 16, 1992, the trial court discharged appellant from probation.

*123 On March 21, 1997, appellant filed a motion to vacate or withdraw her guilty plea. Appellant’s motion was based on the trial court’s failure to advise appellant of the possible consequences that her guilty plea might have had on her immigration status and that this failure required the guilty plea to be vacated under R.C. 2943.031 and the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. According to appellant, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”) initiated deportation proceedings against appellant in 1994 based on appellant’s conviction in the instant case and a subsequent conviction for theft in January 1994. Appellant contends that, while her convictions made her automatically deportable under federal law, she was able to defend against the deportation through a “waiver of deportation” provision based upon family hardship available to alien spouses of United States citizens. According to appellant, this defense became unavailable due to recent amendments to the United States immigration laws and the death of appellant’s husband in 1996. As a result, appellant contends that, to prevent her deportation, it became necessary to challenge the criminal charges underlying the deportation proceedings, including appellant’s conviction in this case.

On May 7 and 8, 1997, the trial court held a hearing on appellant’s motion. At the hearing, appellant testified that, if the trial court had given the advisement required under R.C. 2943.031(A), she would not have entered a guilty plea but would have taken the case to trial. Appellant also presented evidence that the INS had instituted deportation proceedings against her because of her conviction. In opposition to the motion, appellee, state of Ohio, presented evidence that, after the guilty plea in this case, appellant entered guilty pleas on two separate occasions and that appellant did so even after being specifically advised by the court as to the potential deportation consequences. In addition, the state called appellant’s former counsel to testify. Over appellant’s objection and after being ordered to testify by the trial court, appellant’s former counsel testified that, prior to the plea hearing in November 1990, he advised appellant of the possibility of deportation if she was convicted, using her husband as an interpreter. Appellant’s former counsel further testified, however, that he did not know whether appellant actually understood the potential deportation consequences of a conviction at the time appellant entered her guilty plea in November 1990.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court overruled appellant’s motion to withdraw her guilty plea. The court concluded that appellant was entitled to the advisement regarding possible deportation consequences under R.C. 2943.031(A) and that the trial court failed to give the advisement. The trial court held, however, that appellant wás not prejudiced because appellant would have pled guilty even if he had given the advisement. In other words, appellant failed to show that the trial court’s failure to advise appellant was, in the words of *124 appellant’s brief, “outcome determinative” of appellant’s decision to plead guilty. In addition, the trial court held that appellant failed to show manifest injustice as required under Crim.R. 32.1 to withdraw a guilty plea after sentencing. In particular, the trial court stated:

“However, in reviewing the facts in this case, your client has said that the failure of me to give that advice influenced her plea; had I given her that advice under no circumstances would she have entered that plea.
“The court finds your client is absolutely not credible at all. She is not a credible witness. Not only her record of five, I believe, five prior theft offenses that have been admitted to, your client is not credible on the witness stand and the lack of credibility was supported by the testimony of her own counsel. The court believes that she had an awareness, and not a particular awareness, but an awareness, there may be deportation consequences and there’s no doubt the defendant at every subsequent plea that she has entered she has been advised of her deportation consequences.
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“But more importantly, we are talking about manifest injustice and manifest injustice deals with the entire system. It also deals with your client. What injustice has been done in this case? The injustice has not been that your client has been deported as a result of this court’s lack of giving her notice; the injustice is your client, one, sitting around for six years and not taking any action with respect to my lack of notice that she at least knew about in 1992; injustice to the system is for your client to sit around and wait for the ramifications for six years and when the prejudice takes place, oh, my heavens, now I want to go back.
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State v. Weber, 707 N.E.2d 1178, 125 Ohio App. 3d 120 (Ohio Ct. App. 1997).

707 N.E.2d 1178 (State v. Weber) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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