Walker v. State

467 N.E.2d 1248, 1984 Ind. App. LEXIS 2956
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 29, 1984
Docket3-883A270
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 467 N.E.2d 1248 (Walker v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walker v. State, 467 N.E.2d 1248, 1984 Ind. App. LEXIS 2956 (Ind. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

STATON, Presiding Judge.

Walker was convicted of check deception under Ind.Code 35-48-5-5(a) 1 which provides:

"A person who knowingly or intentionally issues or delivers a check, draft, or order on a credit institution for the payment of or to acquire money or other property, knowing that it will not be paid or honored by the credit institution upon presentment in the usual course of business, commits check deception, a class A misdemeanor."

On appeal, he raises the following issues: 2

(1) Whether the court erred in denying Walker's Motion for Discharge because he was not brought to trial within one year of his arrest;
(2) Whether Walker should be shielded from criminal liability because the dishonored check which he signed was made on a corporate account and Walker signed only in his representative capacity;
(3) Whether the statutory presumption in ICG 85-48-5-5(c) that one who writes a check which is subsequently dishonored knew it would be dishonored unconstitutionally shifts the bur *1250 den of proof to the criminal defendant;
(4) Whether the trial court abused its discretion by imposing unreasonable conditions of probation; and
(5) Whether the court abused its discretion in failing to fix the amount of restitution and the manner of performance.

Conviction affirmed; remanded with instructions to fix the restitution in an amount not exceeding that which Walker can or will be able to pay, and to fix the manner of performance.

I.

Speedy Trial

Walker contends the court erred in denying his Motion for Discharge under Ind. Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 4(C). The rule provides:

"No person shall be held on recognizance or otherwise to answer a criminal charge for a period in aggregate embracing more than one year from the date the criminal charge against such defendant is filed, or from the date of his arrest on such charge, whichever is later; except where a continuance was had on his motion, or the delay was caused by his act, or where there was not sufficient time to try him during such period because of congestion of the court calendar; provided, however, that in the last-mentioned circumstance, the prosecuting attorney shall file a timely motion for continuance as under subdivision (A) of this rule. Any defendant so held shall, on motion, be discharged."

Walker was arrested September 14, 1981 but was not brought to trial until one year and five months later. The record shows that a delay of forty-two days was attributable to Walker's Motion to Quash, and that a delay of one hundred twenty-five days occurred when the court on its own motion continued the cause twice: first because of inclement weather and second because of a scheduling conflict One hundred forty-seven days of the delay was due to the State's Motion for Continuance.

To determine whether or not Walker was denied his right to be brought to trial within one year, we will first add to the deadline the length of the delays caused by Walker's motion (42 days) and by the court's continuances (125 days). Little v. State (1981), Ind., 415 N.E.2d 44, 45; Dunville v. State (1979), 271 Ind. 393, 393 N.E.2d 143, 146. Thus, the State's deadline for bringing Walker to trial was extended to one year and one hundred sixty-seven days. Walker was tried within that time. He was not denied a speedy trial.

IL.

Representative Capacity

Walker wrote the check on a corporate account. He argues that, because he signed the corporation's check as its representative, he cannot be liable under the criminal "bad check" statute. The same argument was rejected in Cooper v. State (1979), 181 Ind.App. 275, 391 N.E.2d 841, 844-45.

The appellant in Cooper was convicted under a prior check deception statute 3 for knowingly issuing a bad check which he had signed on behalf of a corporation. The court in Cooper stated a general rule that a corporate officer who issues a worthless check in the corporate name may be held personally liable under a criminal check deception statute. Id. at 844. The court reasoned as follows:

"There is no language in the statute which exempts from its operation a person who shall obtain money or property with fraudulent intent by means of a check which he draws or makes in a representative capacity. If he draws the check as the representative or officer of a corporation, he is none the less the maker or drawer within the contemplation of this statute, and the fraud which the statute is designed to prevent *1251 is personal to him. There is no doctrine of agency in the criminal law which will permit an officer of a corporation to shield himself from criminal responsibili-. ty for his own act on the ground that it was the act of the corporation and not his personal act."

Id., quoting State v. Cooley (1918), 141 Tenn. 33, 206 S.W. 182. Walker was not improperly convicted for check deception.

TIL

Statutory Presumption

Ind.Code 8385-48-5-5(c) provides in part:

"The fact that a person issued or delivered a check, draft, or order, payment of which was refused by the drawee, constitutes prima facie evidence that the person knew that it would not be paid or honored."

Walker argues, without citation to authority, that this presumption of knowledge unconstitutionally shifts the burden of proof to the criminal defendant. We disagree.

A presumption is valid in a criminal case when the fact presumed is more likely than not to flow from the fact on which the presumption is based. United States v. Kelly (1974), 500 F.2d 72 (7th Cir.). Walker has offered nothing to persuade us that one who issues a dishonored check does not more likely than not know the check will be dishonored. Instead, he makes the bald assertion that there is no rational nexus between the act of issuing a "bad check" and the presumption of knowledge. We are not convinced that there is not a rational connection between the two. The statute properly shifts the burden of production to the defendant to show that he did not have the requisite knowledge. Id. See also, Cooper, supra, 391 N.E.2d at 844-45.

IV.

Conditions of Probation

Walker was sentenced to a one year term. He was ordered to serve five days each month and the balance of the jail term was suspended. The court granted probation on the condition: that Walker make restitution either in cash or by labor; 4

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Bluebook (online)
467 N.E.2d 1248, 1984 Ind. App. LEXIS 2956, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walker-v-state-indctapp-1984.