Anderson v. State

• Decision Date: 08 April 2008
• Docket Number: No. A07-91.,A07-91.
• Parties: Jennifer Diane ANDERSON, petitioner, Appellant, v. STATE of Minnesota, Respondent.
• Court: Minnesota Court of Appeals

746 N.W.2d 901

Jennifer Diane ANDERSON, petitioner, Appellant, v. STATE of Minnesota, Respondent.

No. A07-91.

Court of Appeals of Minnesota.

April 8, 2008.

Stephen P. Doyle, Kevin S. Sandstrom, Robin, Thompson & Doyle, P.A., Wayzata, MN, for appellant.

Lori Swanson, Attorney General, St. Paul, MN; and Kathleen A. Heaney, Sherburne County Attorney, Leah Emmans, Assistant County Attorney, Elk River, MN, for respondent.

Considered and decided by LANSING, Presiding Judge; ROSS, Judge; and JOHNSON, Judge.

OPINION

ROSS, Judge.

Jennifer Anderson appeals her conviction of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. After the state charged Anderson for having sex with a child whom she counseled in a juvenile rehabilitation program, she pleaded guilty to one count of criminal sexual conduct in exchange for dismissal of other counts. Anderson argues that her guilty plea cannot form the basis of her conviction because the district court had impermissibly interjected itself into the plea negotiations. She also argues that she was denied her constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel because of her attorney's advice and actions related to her guilty plea. And she argues that the district court erroneously denied her motion to withdraw her plea after sentencing because it was not voluntarily and intelligently made. We hold that the district court did not impermissibly interject itself into plea negotiations. But because Anderson's trial counsel's advice regarding the timing of her motion to withdraw the plea fell below an objective standard of reasonableness and prejudiced Anderson, we reverse and remand.

FACTS

Jennifer Anderson and M.C. met at the Bar None juvenile rehabilitation facility in 2003, where M.C. was a resident and Anderson was the program counselor. Anderson and her husband became M.C.'s foster parents several days after M.C. left the program.

In early 2004, the Elk River Police Department received a report of sexual contact between Anderson and 15-year-old M.C. After a police investigation, the state charged Anderson with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, with three counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, and with contributing to the need for protection, services, or delinquency of M.C. In May 2006, the state amended the complaint to charge two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

The evidence accumulated during the police investigation supported the state's theory of Anderson's sexual relationship with M.C. The evidence indicated that shortly after M.C. moved into the Andersons' Elk River home in 2003, Anderson began having sexual intercourse and engaging in oral sex with him. M.C. estimated that Anderson had sexual intercourse with him 15 to 20 times and oral sex even more. Anderson's husband confronted Anderson and M.C. with his suspicion about the alleged sexual relationship, and M.C. then moved from the Andersons' home. Although Anderson told police that she had no contact with M.C. after he moved out, police discovered that she made more than 60 telephone calls to M.C. and, according to M.C., often drove to St. Paul to meet and have sex with him.

Anderson pleaded not guilty and the charges were set for jury trial. Two days after the voir dire began, Anderson pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, and the state dismissed the remaining charges. The district court sentenced Anderson to 41 months in prison. Anderson then moved to withdraw her guilty plea, but the court denied the motion. Anderson now appeals from her conviction, raising various challenges to her guilty plea.

ISSUES

I. Did the district court improperly inject itself into plea negotiations?

II. Was Anderson denied effective assistance of counsel?

ANALYSIS

I

Anderson argues that her guilty plea is invalid because the district court impermissibly injected itself into the plea negotiations that precipitated the plea. The role of the district court during plea negotiations is to determine whether a proffered plea bargain is appropriate and to ensure that the defendant has not been improperly induced to plead guilty. State v. Johnson, 279 Minn. 209, 215-216, 156 N.W.2d 218, 223 (1968). It has discretion regarding whether to accept a plea agreement, but it should not participate in the plea bargaining itself. Id. It is therefore reversible error for the district court to accept a guilty plea that results from the court's impermissible participation in plea negotiations. State v. Anyanwu, 681 N.W.2d 411, 414-15 (Minn.App.2004); State v. Vahabi 529 N.W.2d 359, 360-61 (Minn.App.1995). Impermissible participation includes such things as the court's direct involvement in the negotiations, its imposition of a plea agreement, or its promise to impose a particular sentence. Vahabi 529 N.W.2d at 361.

Anderson contends that during an in-chambers conference between the district court judge and trial counsel, the judge committed the court to impose a sentence of only four months of work release without imprisonment in exchange for Anderson's guilty plea. This promise induced her to plead guilty, she argues, rendering her plea involuntary. But there is no record of this or any other sentencing promise. Anderson argues that we should credit her assertion that the court made the promise despite the lack of any record of it because neither the prosecutor nor the district court judge expressly denied it. The absence of the judge's or counsel's express denial, however, does not constitute agreement with Anderson's allegation. More important, by denying Anderson's postsentencing plea-withdrawal motion, which was also based on the ground that the court had promised Anderson a sentence of only four months in the work-release program, the same district court judge necessarily rejected Anderson's underlying factual assertion. The implicit finding that the district court made no sentencing promise is challenged on appeal only by Anderson's assertion. This provides an insufficient basis for this court to disregard the district court's implicit determination that it made no such sentencing promise. Cf. Metro. Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n v. Adams, 356 N.W.2d 415, 421 (Minn.App.1984) (declining to assume facts not found by the district court), review denied (Minn. Jan. 2, 1984).

Anderson argues that controlling caselaw should prevent us from being influenced by the lack of any record that the district court judge promised her the four-month nonimprisonment sentence, citing Vahabi 529 N.W.2d 359. But in Vahabi the district court's involvement in the plea negotiations could be inferred from the record. Although the record in that case did not disclose all that had been said before guilty pleas were entered, it reflected that the prosecutor objected at least twice to the trial court's offer to defer sentencing and to treat felony theft charges as petty misdemeanors. On those facts, this court determined that the record established that the district court promised a particular sentence in advance of the plea. Vahabi 529 N.W.2d at 361.

But we distinguish this case from Vahabi because the record here does not demonstrate even indirectly that the district court improperly induced a plea agreement or promised the sentence that Anderson claims. For example, it includes no objection by the state to the court's alleged promise of a four-month sentence. And the terms of the written plea petition state only that Anderson would plead guilty to one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct in exchange for the state's dismissal of the other three counts. There is also no evidence of other agreed-upon terms or promises regarding the plea agreement. No one during the plea hearing mentioned the possibility of a four-month sentence of any kind, let alone a sentence that would avoid imprisonment. Anderson testified that no one had made any promises to induce her plea, and this concession may be accepted to negate claims of unfulfilled promises. See State v. Trott, 338 N.W.2d 248, 252 (Minn. 1983) (affirming finding of no promise when defendant's claim that he was promised probation by defense counsel was negated by the plea petition, by his statements made when he entered his plea, and by his counsel's testimony). Anderson's plea petition reflected her understanding that she could be incarcerated up to 15 years, not that she faced only four months' restriction outside of prison. Anderson points to nothing in the record to prove or imply that the district court improperly induced the plea by a promise or was otherwise impermissibly involved in negotiations.

On this record, we hold that Anderson's guilty plea is not invalid by virtue of the district court's alleged improper involvement in the plea negotiations. We turn to Anderson's constitutional argument.

II

Anderson contends alternatively that she was denied effective assistance of counsel regarding her guilty plea. That the criminally accused "shall enjoy the right ... to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense" is a federal and state constitutional right. U.S. Const, amend VI; Minn. Const, art. I, § 6. And it is well settled that having appointed counsel present at a proceeding is not sufficient to satisfy the constitutional right to counsel. Rather, "the right to counsel is the right to the effective assistance of counsel." Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 686, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2063, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).

To establish a claim that she received constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel, Anderson must meet both prongs of the Strickland test: she must show that her attorney's representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness and that but for the substandard representation the result would have been different. Strickland 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. at 2064; Hathaway v. State, 741 N.W.2d 875, 879 (Minn.2007). Anderson has the burden of proof and must rebut...