Brunsvold v. State

• Decision Date: 23 November 1993
• Docket Number: No. 93-15,93-15
• Citation: 864 P.2d 34
• Parties: Steven BRUNSVOLD, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Page 34

864 P.2d 34

Steven BRUNSVOLD, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).

No. 93-15.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

Nov. 23, 1993.

Wyoming Public Defender Program, Leonard D. Munker, State Public Defender, Gerald M. Gallivan, Director, Wyoming Defender Aid Program, Thomas A. Thompson Student Director, and Aaron Phillips, Student Intern, for appellant.

Joseph B. Meyer, Atty. Gen., Sylvia Lee Hackl, Deputy Atty. Gen., Barbara Boyer, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., and Mary Beth Wolff, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Before MACY, C.J., and THOMAS, CARDINE, GOLDEN and TAYLOR, JJ.

THOMAS, Justice.

In this case, we address and resolve the question whether a district court in a criminal case has jurisdiction to order repayment to the defendant of payments made into the Crime Victims Compensation Fund or to adjust the terms of probation after the defendant has been discharged. The appellant, Steven Brunsvold (Brunsvold), during his probation, filed a motion seeking return of money improperly paid to the Crime Victims Compensation Fund, relying upon the decisions of this court in Dreiman v. State, 825 P.2d 758 (Wyo.1992), and Seaton v. State, 811 P.2d 276 (Wyo.1991). After presenting his motion for refund of the money paid, Brunsvold succeeded in obtaining a discharge from his probation from another district judge. Subsequent to Brunsvold's discharge, the original judge ordered refund of the moneys paid and, when the administrator of the Crime Victims Compensation Fund did not refund the money, Brunsvold sought a contempt citation. The district court then rescinded its earlier order requiring repayment of the funds, and Brunsvold appeals from that determination. We hold the trial court was without jurisdiction to afford the relief sought by Brunsvold.

In his Brief of Appellant, Brunsvold states this to be the issue:

1. Whether the District Court erred by failing to order the refund of payments to the Victim's Compensation Fund in excess of those permitted under Wyoming statutes and this Court's decisions in Seaton and Dreiman.

In its brief, the State of Wyoming sets forth the issue in this way:

A. Whether the district court properly denied appellant's motion for return of monies paid into the crime victim's compensation fund.

While the parties have presented cogent arguments in their briefs with respect to these issues, we conclude that the issue upon which the case must be resolved is that of jurisdiction, i.e.:

Whether a trial court in Wyoming has jurisdiction in a criminal proceeding after the defendant has been discharged from probation.

In March, 1990, Brunsvold was convicted in the district court on two counts of aiding and abetting delivery of a controlled substance pursuant to his pleas of guilty. Following a pre-sentence investigation and the appropriate report to the court, Brunsvold was sentenced to a term of not less than one and one-half, nor more than two and one-half, years on each count with the proviso that the sentences be served concurrently. The district court then suspended the execution of the sentence and placed Brunsvold on probation for two years. The trial court ordered Brunsvold to pay restitution to the Department of Criminal Investigation in the amount of $140; to reimburse the Wyoming Public Defender's office in the amount of $164.25 for the services of his state-appointed attorney; and to pay $136.88 to the district attorney's office for the costs of prosecution. In addition, Brunsvold was ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution to the Crime Victims Compensation Fund, with $50 of that amount to be paid within ten days. The remaining balance of the restitution was to be paid during the term of Brunsvold's probation according to a payment plan to be promulgated by the Department of Probation and Parole.

On July 12, 1990, Brunsvold petitioned the district court to extend the term of his probation to five years in order to reduce the amount of his monthly restitution payments. The court granted this motion on July 20, 1990. On April 22, 1991, a petition was filed by the district attorney for revocation of Brunsvold's probation. At the hearing on that petition, Brunsvold admitted he had consumed alcohol during the holidays, and he had smoked a joint of marijuana during December, 1990. After the hearing, the district court signed an order, entered on May 21, 1991, revoking Brunsvold's probation and then reinstating him on probation for a period of five years beginning May 15, 1990. On April 17, 1992, a second petition for revocation of Brunsvold's probation was filed. The district court, as it had before, revoked probation and reinstated Brunsvold on probation commencing May 1, 1992. On this occasion, the district court required Brunsvold be admitted to the resident treatment program of Community Alternatives of Cheyenne for a term of six months.

Brunsvold then took the initiative by filing a motion for return of money paid improperly to the Crime Victims Compensation Fund on the obligation for restitution in the amount of $5,000. Brunsvold based this contention on the court's decision in Dreiman. He asserted periodic payments he had made into the Crime Victims Compensation Fund were made pursuant to an order that had failed to require payment within ten days as the statute requires and, consequently, those payments were ordered without authority in the law. Subsequently, on August 24, 1992, Brunsvold filed a motion seeking discharge from probation on the ground his probation had been extended to five years only because he was not able to pay the restitution imposed within the original two-year probationary term.

The response from the district attorney's office was another petition for revocation of Brunsvold's probation, filed on September 25, 1992. Prior to any further proceeding with respect to revocation, another district judge discharged Brunsvold from probation by an order entered on September 28, 1992. Only two days later, the district judge who had been handling the Brunsvold case entered an order requiring refund to Brunsvold of the payments he previously had made to the Crime Victims Compensation Fund. That refund was not made, and Brunsvold sought relief on October 15, 1992 by a motion for a contempt hearing urging the court to issue an order to show cause why the State had failed to make the ordered reimbursement. On the same day, Brunsvold filed a petition for a writ of mandamus to require refund of the moneys paid from the administrator of the Crime Victims Compensation Fund. The court did enter an order to show cause and, after a hearing on October 23, 1992, the district judge rescinded the earlier order for refund from the Crime Victims Compensation Fund. Brunsvold appealed from this latter order.

The question of the subject matter jurisdiction of the district court may be raised by this court on its own motion. We have done that because, in our judgment,...