Winter v. State

781 So. 2d 1111, 2001 WL 20815
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 27, 2001
Docket1D99-3540
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 781 So. 2d 1111 (Winter v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Winter v. State, 781 So. 2d 1111, 2001 WL 20815 (Fla. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

781 So.2d 1111 (2001)

Anthony WINTER, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 1D99-3540.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

January 10, 2001.
Opinion Granting Clarification March 27, 2001.

*1112 Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender, and David P. Gauldin, Assistant Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Thomas D. Winokur, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

KAHN, J.

Appellant Anthony Winter seeks review after his conviction on all charges of a fourteen-count information brought by the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor ("OSP"). We conclude both that the OSP never properly invoked the jurisdiction of the circuit court and that Winter timely raised the absence of such jurisdiction. Accordingly, we reverse the convictions.

By a second amended information filed in Leon County, the OSP charged appellant with fourteen criminal counts arising out of his employment at Unisys, the former administrator of the Florida State Employees' Health Self Insurance Fund (Fund). Under the allegations of the information, the offenses charged in every count occurred in the Second Judicial Circuit, and specifically in Leon County, Florida. Appellant served as a supervisor at Unisys. According to the proof brought forth at trial, appellant and two other Unisys workers hatched an idea to process health claims through a false provider, receive and cash the benefits checks themselves, and then split the money amongst the three of them. To facilitate this scheme, appellant and his accomplices obtained and used a professional license number for Dr. Mark Minson, a psychologist practicing in Boca Raton, Florida. Appellant and the others then successfully obtained and cashed several checks drawn on the Fund. The charges brought against appellant included grand theft and money laundering, as well as conspiracy to commit grand theft and conspiracy to launder money. The criminal information brought by the OSP concludes with the following:

AND ALL OF SAID OFFENSES OCCURRED IN TWO OR MORE JUDICIAL *1113 CIRCUITS AS PART OF A RELATED TRANSACTION OR ALL OF SAID OFFENSES WERE COMMITTED IN CONNECTION WITH AN ORGANIZED CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY AFFECTING TWO OR MORE JUDICIAL CIRCUITS.

On May 7, 1999, three days before the trial was to begin, appellant moved to dismiss the information, arguing that the OSP did not have jurisdiction to prosecute the case. The motion to dismiss notes that because the information alleges that every offense occurred in the Second Judicial Circuit, the only rationale for an OSP prosecution would be if the alleged acts affected two or more judicial circuits. Appellant denied that such was the case and requested dismissal. The trial court orally denied the motion to dismiss and directed that the case proceed to trial. Appellant immediately sought a writ of prohibition in this court, arguing that the OSP lacked jurisdiction to prosecute his case. A panel of this court denied the petition without prejudice to Winter's right to raise the issue on plenary appeal. Having now been convicted, appellant seeks plenary appellate review.

As an initial matter, we must determine whether the question of the OSP's authority to bring this case is properly tested by appellant's motion to dismiss. The pertinent Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure provides:

(b) ... All defenses available to a defendant by plea, other than not guilty, shall be made only by motion to dismiss the... information, whether the same shall relate to matters of form, substance, former acquittal, former jeopardy, or any other defense.
(c) ... Unless the court grants further time, the defendant shall move to dismiss the ... information either before or upon arraignment. The court in its discretion may permit the defendant to plead and thereafter to file a motion to dismiss at a time to be set by the court. Except for objections based on fundamental grounds, every ground for a motion to dismiss that is not presented by a motion to dismiss within the time hereinabove provided for shall be taken to have been waived.

Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.190(b) and (c) (emphasis added).

Relying upon this rule, the State argues that because the motion to dismiss was not filed either before or upon arraignment, the motion was not timely, and appellant has therefore waived his objection to the authority of the statewide prosecutor. The issue here, then, is whether the motion to dismiss actually implicates the jurisdiction of the trial court. "[L]ack of jurisdiction can be raised at any time." See Booker v. State, 497 So.2d 957 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986). Moreover, lack of jurisdiction cannot be cured by consent, nor may it be waived by the defendant. See State v. Schafer, 583 So.2d 374 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991).

The Office of the Statewide Prosecutor is a creature of the Florida Constitution and of specific Florida Statutes. See Art. IV, § 4(c), Fla. Const.; § 16.56(1)(a), Fla. Stat. (1999); Zanger v. State, 548 So.2d 746 (Fla. 4th DCA 1989). Under the applicable constitutional provision, the statewide prosecutor has "concurrent jurisdiction with the state attorneys to prosecute violations of criminal laws occurring or having occurred, in two or more judicial circuits as part of a related transaction, or when any such offense is affecting or has affected two or more judicial circuits as provided by general law." Art. IV, § 4(c), Fla. Const. Additionally, section 16.56(1)(a), Florida Statutes (1999), provides that the OSP "may ... [i]nvestigate and prosecute" several enumerated crimes, *1114 but "[t]he office shall have such power only when such offense is occurring, or has occurred, in two or more judicial circuits as part of a related transaction, or when any such offense is connected with an organized criminal conspiracy affecting two or more judicial circuits."

In considering the question of whether a jurisdictional issue was in fact raised by the motion to dismiss in this case, we must first note the obvious—the Florida Constitution uses the term "jurisdiction" in its characterization of the OSP's authority. Similarly, courts dealing with the question of whether the OSP could properly prosecute a particular case have apparently treated the question as a matter of jurisdiction. The Fourth District, for instance, held that the OSP "has jurisdiction only in cases involving crimes which implicate more than one judicial circuit." Zanger, 548 So.2d at 748; see also Snyder v. State, 715 So.2d 367 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998); State v. Nuckolls, 677 So.2d 12 (Fla. 5th DCA 1996). The OSP must allege its jurisdiction on the face of the information "and any conviction based upon an information which does not properly allege jurisdiction is void." Zanger, 548 So.2d at 748.

In Nuckolls, the appellant challenged a conviction on the ground that the statewide prosecutor did not properly allege jurisdiction in the information. 677 So.2d at 15. The appellate court there framed the issue as "whether the trial court erred in not dismissing certain counts in the Information because it lacked jurisdiction." Id. Referring solely to the face of the information, the Nuckolls court concluded that an allegation tracking the statutory language fulfilled "the jurisdictional requirements for the statewide prosecutor." Id.

In Snyder, the defendant did not contest the sufficiency of the facial allegations of the information filed by the OSP.

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Bluebook (online)
781 So. 2d 1111, 2001 WL 20815, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/winter-v-state-fladistctapp-2001.