Brennan v. State

• Decision Date: 06 October 1992
• Docket Number: No. 19754,19754
• Parties: Kenneth BRENNAN, Petitioner-Appellant, v. STATE of Idaho, Respondent.
• Court: Idaho Court of Appeals

Page 441

841 P.2d 441

122 Idaho 911

Kenneth BRENNAN, Petitioner-Appellant, v. STATE of Idaho, Respondent.

No. 19754.

Court of Appeals of Idaho.

Oct. 6, 1992.

[122 Idaho 912] Kenneth Brennan, pro se.

Larry J. EchoHawk, Atty. Gen., Robert R. Gates, Deputy Atty. Gen., Boise, for respondent.

Before WALTERS, C.J., SWANSTROM, J., and BECKER, J., pro tem.

PER CURIAM

This is an appeal from a district court's order affirming a magistrate's dismissal of Kenneth Brennan's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We affirm.

The relevant facts and procedural history of this case are as follows. In January, 1988, Brennan was sentenced by the District Court of the Second Judicial District for Nez Perce County, to two concurrent sentences of fifteen years for convictions on two counts of attempted robbery. Each of the sentences required incarceration for a minimum period of seven years. After sentencing, Brennan was committed to the custody of the Board of Correction and was transferred from the Nez Perce County jail to the state prison in Boise.

On March 2, 1988, Brennan appealed his conviction, asserting that his fifth amendment rights had been violated during a police interrogation at the time of his arrest. On January 8, 1990, this Court vacated Brennan's judgment of conviction and remanded the case to the district court for a more particularized finding as to whether Brennan's fifth amendment rights were violated. We also held that, should Brennan be reconvicted on remand, his convictions should be for conspiracy to commit robbery rather than attempted robbery. State v. Brennan, 117 Idaho 123, 785 P.2d 687 (Ct.App.1990).

After his judgment and sentences were vacated, Brennan remained at the state prison for over a year, while awaiting further proceedings on remand, rather than being transported back to the county jail in Nez Perce County. During this time, Brennan was the subject of approximately five disciplinary proceedings at the prison. Brennan was found guilty of the alleged offenses in each proceeding, and the resulting disciplinary offense reports (DOR's) became a part of Brennan's institutional record.

In January, 1991, just over a year after his conviction and sentence had been vacated, Brennan filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the magistrate division of the Fourth Judicial District, in Ada County, asserting that he was being confined illegally because he was being held in the custody of the Board of Correction without any conviction or sentence in effect. In his prayer for relief Brennan requested a declaratory judgment in his favor and an order for his immediate release from custody. On March 1, 1991, the magistrate issued an order to supplement the petition, noting that since Brennan filed his petition, the Second District court had conducted further proceedings on remand, had reconvicted Brennan and had scheduled a resentencing hearing for March 13. The magistrate's order required Brennan to supplement his petition by March 23, stating the outcome of the resentencing hearing and indicating what, if any, effect the resentencing had on his petition for habeas corpus relief. At the resentencing hearing, the Second District court gave Brennan the same sentences as imposed after his original convictions, as well as credit for time served.

On April 9, 1991, Brennan filed his amended and supplemented petition for writ of habeas corpus. Brennan continued to assert that after his conviction and sentences were vacated by this Court his confinement under the custody of the Board of Correction was illegal, and that under I.C. § 20-604 he should have been transferred back to the county jail within the jurisdiction of the Second District court, where his case had been remanded. However, inasmuch as he was now confined pursuant to a valid judgment of conviction and sentence, Brennan no longer sought release from confinement; rather, he asked the court to order expungement from his prison record of the DOR's he had received during the allegedly illegal period of confinement. Brennan insisted that, because his confinement in the state prison system between January 8, 1990, and March 13, 1991, was in violation of I.C. § 20-604, ¹ the Board of Correction lacked authority to hold disciplinary proceedings against him during that time, and therefore his institutional record should be expunged of the DOR's he received as a result of those proceedings. Brennan argued that under I.C. § 20-604 presentence detainees have a liberty interest in being held in county jails rather than in the state prison system. He maintained that he was deprived of that liberty interest in violation of the due process protections of the state and federal constitutions, and that he was harmed by this alleged deprivation because, had he been transported to the county jail as he claims he was entitled, his prison file would not contain the DOR's which he received at the state prison. Finally, Brennan alleged that the DOR's continued to harm him by impairing his classification within the prison system and by reducing his chances for parole.

On April 17, 1991, the magistrate dismissed Brennan's petition, concluding that even if Brennan had been confined illegally, expungement of the DOR's he received during the illegal period of confinement would not be an appropriate remedy. Brennan appealed the dismissal of his petition to the district court, which affirmed the magistrate's ruling, reasoning that it would be anomalous to say that Brennan should receive full credit for the time he spent in confinement during the pendency of his case on remand, but that he should not be held accountable for the institutional offenses he committed during that time.

Brennan has appealed from the district court's affirmance of the magistrate's dismissal and for the reasons set forth below, we also affirm.

ISSUES ON APPEAL

Brennan's arguments raise two primary issues on appeal: (1) whether the Board of Correction had authority to conduct disciplinary proceedings against Brennan, an inmate within the Board's custody, although Brennan was not under sentence at the time; and (2) whether the Idaho statutes governing the state prison and county jails entitle presentence detainees to be held in county jails as opposed to state prison facilities, and, if they do, what the appropriate remedy is for a deprivation of that right.

STANDARD OF REVIEW ON APPEAL

We note, preliminarily, that when we review the appellate decision of a district court, our task is to independently examine the trial record to determine whether the findings made by the magistrate are supported by substantial evidence and whether the magistrate correctly applied the law to the facts as found. Sivak v. Ada County, 118 Idaho 193, 195, 795 P.2d 898, 900 (Ct.App.1990); Knopp v. Nelson, 116 Idaho 343, 344, 775 P.2d 657, 658 (Ct.App.1989). The question before us is whether the magistrate abused his discretion in dismissing Brennan's petition for writ of habeas corpus. Whether to issue a writ of habeas corpus is a matter within the discretion of the court. Johnson v. State, 85 Idaho 123, 127, 376 P.2d 704, 706 (1962). When appealing from the denial of a petition for writ of habeas corpus, the petitioner has the burden of establishing error. Hernandez v. State, 100 Idaho 581, 602 P.2d 539 (1979). When we review an exercise of discretion in a habeas corpus proceeding, we conduct a multi-tiered inquiry to determine: (1) whether the lower court rightly perceived the issue as one of discretion; (2) whether the court acted within the outer boundaries of such discretion and consistently with any legal standards applicable to specific choices; and (3) whether the court reached its decision by an exercise of reason. Sivak v. Ada County, 115 Idaho 762, 763, 769 P.2d 1134, 1135 (Ct.App.1989).

ANALYSIS

1. The Board of Correction's Authority over Brennan. Brennan asserts that although he was in the custody of the Board of Correction during the allegedly illegal period of confinement, the Board lacked authority to subject him to its rules and disciplinary procedures because, as a presentence detainee, he should have been transported back to the custody of the county jail under the jurisdiction of the Second Judicial District. In Sivak v. State, 112 Idaho 127, 730 P.2d 1047 (Ct.App.1986), we addressed a situation where the inmate's sentence had been vacated but he remained incarcerated at the penitentiary pending resentencing in the district court. We said:

In light of I.C. § 20-101, it would appear improper for the board of correction to obtain custody and hold any offender at one of its institutions where the offender has not been both convicted and sentenced in respect to some charge.

Sivak, 112 Idaho at 128, 730 P.2d at 1048. We footnoted this language, by stating:

This broad observation should be subject to the possibility of special arrangements made between the board of correction and other agencies, for example where, by court order or by contract with another department, the board obtains temporary custody of an individual for diagnosis, evaluation, treatment or similar matters.

Sivak, 112 Idaho at 128 n. 5, 730 P.2d at 1048 n. 5. After his conviction and sentences were vacated, Brennan was no longer under sentence, and it does not appear from the record that any special arrangements between the Board of Correction and the county jail were made for the Board to retain temporary custody of Brennan pending the outcome of his case on remand. Therefore, according to our statements in Sivak, it was improper for the Board of Correction to retain custody of and hold Brennan at one of its institutions after Brennan's conviction and sentences were vacated. Consequently, Brennan should have been transferred back to a county jail in the Second Judicial District within a reasonable time.

However, even though Brennan should have been transported to the county jail it does not follow that the Board of...