Champluvier v. State, 2003-CT-02581-SCT.
| Decision Date | 09 November 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 2003-CT-02581-SCT.,2003-CT-02581-SCT. |
| Citation | 942 So.2d 145 |
| Parties | Deborah CHAMPLUVIER a/k/a Deborah Marie Champluvier v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Deborah Champluvier, pro se.
Office of the Attorney General by Jeffrey A. Klingfuss, attorney for appellee.
EN BANC.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI
¶ 1. Upon being indicted on two counts of embezzlement from a limited liability company pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 97-23-19 (Rev.2000), Deborah Champluvier was tried and found guilty by a DeSoto County jury on November 4, 2003. At a subsequent sentencing hearing, the trial judge sentenced Champluvier to concurrent sentences of five years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with four and one-half years of each sentence suspended, followed by two years of house arrest pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. §§ 47-5-1001, -1015 (Rev.2004). Champluvier appealed her convictions and sentences to this Court, and we assigned this case to the Court of Appeals which affirmed Champluvier's convictions and sentences. Having granted Champluvier's petition for writ of certiorari, we reverse the judgments of the Court of Appeals and the circuit court and render judgment here discharging Champluvier.
¶ 2. The relevant facts of this case are very ably set out in the opinion of the Court of Appeals:
On September 18, 1998, Deborah Champluvier created Perfect Treasures Furniture, L.L.C. in Horn Lake with L.L. Ross. No one ever found a written executed operating agreement for Perfect Treasures On March 22, 1999, Ross had a stroke and later died intestate leaving his half of the business to his heirs on March 25. The State alleged that Champluvier took $6,000 of the $6,202.07 out of the operating account March 23, the day after L.L.'s stroke. Champluvier claimed that the money was to pay her back for a loan to the business.
Thomas Ross became administrator of his father's estate including acting as the liquidating trustee of L.L.'s business interests. The Chancery Court of DeSoto County entered an agreed order granting judicial dissolution, preliminary injunction and other relief on June 11, 1999, that kept a prior temporary restraining order in effect. The order found that Champluvier individually and as a member of Perfect Treasures disposed of numerous assets, inventory and proceeds from Perfect Treasures and, thus, could not carry on the business in conformity with the certificate of formation. The order also stated that Champluvier denied Ross access to the books, records, inventory, and premises to such a point as to constitute pervasive fraud and unfairness toward the membership interest of L.L. Ross.
Furthermore, the order found that Champluvier had misapplied and wasted the assets of Perfect Treasures after L.L.'s death as well as failed to pay the debts and creditors. The order required Champluvier to return all proceeds, cash, and/or checks, accounts, checkbooks, check registers, and/or other banking records or documents to Thomas Ross. Thomas testified that Champluvier never turned any funds over to him after this order that required her to do so. After this order, Champluvier withdrew the remaining $445 dollars from a Perfect Treasures's bank account without turning it over to Thomas Ross even though the order expressly said that, "Defendant is hereby restrained from disposing of any accounts, funds, assets, inventory and/or proceeds of Perfect Treasures."
Thomas's attorney during the estate process, Barry Bridgforth, testified that he never received documentation from Champluvier to show where she loaned the company money as the order required him (sic) to. Bridgforth also testified that the check for $6000 had a date of March 22 on it, but the corresponding ledger book the check came out of had the date March 23. At first Champluvier testified in her deposition that she took the money to purchase used furniture. She never provided information as to the seller of this used furniture. Bridgforth also testified that Champluvier said that part of the money was needed because the landlord would only take cash, yet the ledger showed checks written out to the landlord that month. He also testified about the $445 dollar withdrawal from Perfect Treasure's second account that Champluvier withdrew after the hearing granting the injunction. Bridgforth further testified that Champluvier never gave the money back or tried to give the money back as required by the order. She also filed for bankruptcy to prevent the estate from collecting from her.
Champluvier originally hired Randall Pierce to represent her in this matter. However, she filed her own motions including motions that accused Pierce of forging her signature on documents and conspiring with the prosecution. She also admitted that Bill Cockrell1 helped her with her motions but later down-played the extent that he helped her. Pierce moved to remove himself as counsel due to the allegations but Champluvier filed a motion for the trial court to deny this request. When asked how she could want an attorney who did the things she accused Pierce of she responded, She also felt that the employment contract between the two should require he remain her attorney. The trial court also granted Champluvier's motion to proceed in forma pauperis and appointed Jack R. Jones, III as counsel for her. However, Champluvier soon moved to have the court remove Jones as "ineffective counsel the same as no counsel" since he could not recite the entire Mississippi and United States Constitutions. When the court decided to appoint her new counsel, Clay Vanderburg, she objected to receiving new counsel and argued that Vanderburg could not serve as effective counsel after her five minute interview with him.
She later filed a motion to remove Vanderburg from the case as well that the trial court denied. The trial court urged her to use the assistance of the appointed counsel but noted that she had the right to represent herself if she chose to do so. The trial court retained Vanderburg to assist Champluvier if she chose to during the trial as her standby counsel.
Right before her trial began, Champluvier accused two different witnesses of saying derogatory comments about her close enough for the jury to hear them. The trial judge listened to April Brown and Bobbie Yates describe things they saw or overheard from Thomas Ross or A.C. Leroy Easley. No one in the jury responded that they overheard Easley and the juror who met Ross at a cigarette break said they did not discuss the case. The juror said that all Ross said concerned that his father owned a Furniture Store and that he felt he could remain impartial about the case.
Champluvier called upon her daughter, April Brown, and the store's truck driver George Friday, who both testified that she purchased $4000 worth of used furniture at the time in question. Champluvier argued that she could not act as the agent or servant of the company and also be an owner or member. Further, she argued that she could not embezzle the money because she owned it. However, the jury convicted Champluvier on both counts of embezzlement. The trial judge also caught her lying under oath at her sentence hearing when she described selling all the merchandise in the store for her attorney bills associated with the temporary restraining order. However, the temporary restraining order came after this sale to liquidate all the merchandise in the store. Champluvier then filed her appeal with fourteen issues of error. The brief surpasses the fifty page limit for the body of briefs as given by M.R.A.P. 28(g) by topping out at seventy-five pages. Champluvier also made sure to include every possible person from the Governor of Mississippi to every member of the Mississippi Bar as "Interested Persons".
¶ 3. From the time of her indictment and throughout the course of the various proceedings in this case, Champluvier's conduct was less than civil. Champluvier went through several attorneys, and all three circuit judges in the circuit court district of which DeSoto County is a part, eventually recused themselves. By order entered on August 4, 2003, the Chief Justice of this Court specially appointed Judge Gray Evans to preside and conduct all proceedings in this case. Throughout his involvement in this case, Judge Evans dealt patiently with Champluvier to assure that she was afforded all her rights as guaranteed by our state and federal constitutions, even though Champluvier persistently and obstinately ignored the notions of fundamental decency. In fact, Judge Evans acted with great restraint. Among the actions taken by Judge Evans when Champluvier persisted in representing herself was to advise her of her rights pursuant to URCCC 8.05 concerning pro se defendants. Not surprisingly, Champluvier, proceeding pro se, dug herself a hole before the jury, which promptly convicted her of both counts of embezzlement. Again, at the subsequent sentencing hearing, Judge Evans exercised almost unbelievable restraint, but ultimately (and understandably) held Champluvier in contempt of court for her conduct, and sentenced her to an additional ten days in the DeSoto County Jail. Notwithstanding Champluvier's conduct, Judge Evans imposed a lenient sentence, allowed Champluvier to appeal in forma pauperis, and allowed Champluvier to remain at liberty pending appeal via a $15,000 appeal bond.
¶ 4. Champluvier raised fourteen issues before the Court of Appeals, which thoroughly addressed each issue. Among the issues addressed by the Court of Appeals was the application of Miss.Code Ann. § 97-23-19 (Rev.2000). In its discussion, the Court of Appeals addr...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
FULGHAM v. State of Miss.
...of these nondescript and multitudinous devices is regulated, and “[w]e are not about the business of legislating.” Champluvier v. State, 942 So.2d 145, 154 (Miss.2006). The extremely broad term “electronic devices” can encompass everything from a secondhand toaster to the Hubble Space Teles......
-
Coleman v. State
...person" to all "artificial persons" and organizations made up of private persons. ¶ 15. Earlier this year we decided Champluvier v. State, 942 So.2d 145, 153, 2006 Miss. LEXIS 636, at *26-27 (Miss. Nov. 9, 2006), wherein we held that an agent who stole money from a limited liability company......
-
Bluewater Logistics Llc v. Williford
...v. Morris, 543 So.2d 167 (Miss.1989). 30. Id. at 171. 31. Id. at 169. 32. Id. at 171. 33. Id. 34. See Champluvier v. State, 942 So.2d 145, 155 (Miss.2006) (Randolph, J., dissenting). 35. Miss.Code Ann. § 79–29–303(1) (Rev. 2009). 36. Both LLC operating agreements contained an “Entire Agreem......
-
Wilson v. State
...Montgomery v. State, 891 So.2d 179, 186(¶ 30) (Miss.2004) (citing Medley v. State, 600 So.2d 957, 960 (Miss. 1992)). In Champluvier v. State, 942 So.2d 145, 151(¶ 11) (Miss.2006) (quoting May v. State, 240 Miss. 361, 363, 127 So.2d 423, 425 (1961)), the supreme court restated the elements o......