In re Bridger

Citation2017 VT 79
Decision Date25 August 2017
Docket NumberNo. 2016-142,2016-142
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Vermont
PartiesIn re Anthony Bridger

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P. 40 as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions by email at: JUD.Reporter@vermont.gov or by mail at: Vermont Supreme Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801, of any errors in order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press.

On Appeal from Superior Court, Rutland Unit, Civil Division

Mary Miles Teachout, J.

Matthew F. Valerio, Defender General, and Jill Paul Martin, Appellate Defender, Montpelier, for Petitioner-Appellant.

Rosemary M. Kennedy, Rutland County State's Attorney, Rutland, for Respondent-Appellee.

PRESENT: Reiber, C.J., Dooley, Skoglund, Robinson and Eaton, JJ.

¶ 1. SKOGLUND, J. Petitioner Anthony Bridger appeals the trial court's order granting summary judgment to the State on his petition for post-conviction relief (PCR). He argues that his guilty-plea colloquy did not satisfy Vermont Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(f). We agree and so reverse and remand.

¶ 2. The record indicates the following. In July 2009, petitioner was charged in three counties—Bennington, Windham, and Rutland—with committing numerous burglaries. Petitioner pled guilty in the Bennington and Windham cases before the Bennington Criminal Division in September 2009. These cases were then transferred to the Rutland Criminal Division for purposes of joining the pending Rutland matter and for sentencing. In February 2010, petitioner pled guilty before the Rutland Criminal Division to sixteen counts of burglary in the Rutland docket pursuant to a plea agreement. The remaining Rutland charges—nine counts of grand larceny and eight counts of petit larceny—were dismissed. In addition to an oral Rule 11 colloquy, petitioner signed a written waiver of his rights; he also signed restitution orders. At the sentencing hearing, the State noted that petitioner had cooperated with police and provided them with a full and complete confession. The court sentenced petitioner to six-to-twenty-years on the Rutland charges, and eighteen-months-to-five-years on the transferred Bennington dockets, to be served concurrently with the Rutland counts.

¶ 3. In August 2015, petitioner filed a PCR petition, challenging the sufficiency of the Rutland Criminal Division's plea colloquy under Rule 11(f).1 Rule 11(f) provides that "[n]otwithstanding the acceptance of a plea of guilty, the court should not enter a judgment upon such plea without making such inquiry as shall satisfy it that there is a factual basis for the plea." Petitioner argued that he was entitled to summary judgment because he did not admit to any facts, and the court's colloquy on this point was "unlawfully sparse." The State opposed the motion and filed a cross-motion for summary judgment in its favor.

¶ 4. The PCR court granted summary judgment to the State, relying on the following record from the change-of-plea hearing. At the hearing, the sentencing court discussed each burglary charge with petitioner, including the elements of the charges, the dates of the alleged crimes, the names of the victims, and the maximum penalty for each charge. The court described the rights that petitioner would be giving up by pleading guilty. Petitioner indicated that he understood the information provided to him by the court. The colloquy also included the following exchange:

THE COURT: Do you agree that the affidavit of the [Vermont State Police] troopers that were—the affidavit—numerous affidavits, provide a factual basis to establish each of the essential elements of each of the charges?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes.
THE COURT: The Court will find that there is a factual basis.

The affidavits, which are part of the trial court record, recite, among other things, the victims' complaints to police and petitioner's confession to committing over twenty burglaries, including those charged. The affidavits set out petitioner's detailed description to police of various facts related to the burglaries, including the layout of the homes and the items that were stolen.

¶ 5. Based on this record, the PCR court concluded that the sentencing court did not violate Rule 11(f). In its analysis, the PCR court first noted that, to satisfy Rule 11(f) under this Court's precedent, the record must "affirmatively show sufficient facts to satisfy each element of an offense;" the sentencing court must directly inquire into the factual basis of the plea; and the defendant must "admit to and possess an understanding of the facts as they relate to the law for all elements of the charge or charges to which the defendant has pleaded." In re Bridger, 475-8-15 Rdcv, slip op. at 2 (Vt. Sup. Ct. Mar. 31, 2016) (quoting In re Stocks, 2014 VT 27, ¶¶ 14, 21, 196 Vt. 160, 94 A.3d 1143). The PCR court then stated that, under State v. Cleary and State v. Morrissette, "substantial compliance" with Rule 11(f) was sufficient and that a colloquy with a defendant who stipulates to the factual basis of the plea substantially complies with Rule 11(f). State v. Cleary, 2003 VT 9, ¶¶ 15, 29, 175 Vt. 142, 824 A.2d 509 ("When Rule 11 violations are alleged, we require only substantial compliance with the requirements of the rule." (citing State v. Morrissette, 170 Vt. 569, 571, 743 A.2d 1091, 1092-93 (1999) (mem.), overruled by In re Manosh, 2014 VT 95, ¶ 23, 197 Vt. 424, 108 A.3d 212)).

¶ 6. Here, the sentencing court asked petitioner if he "agree[d] that the . . . affidavits provide a factual basis to establish each of the essential elements of each of the charges," andpetitioner answered "yes." The PCR court rejected petitioner's contention that his "yes" should be interpreted as something less than an admission of the truth of the facts set forth in those affidavits. The PCR court observed, moreover, that the burglary charges were not factually complex offenses that required a careful clarification as to what specific facts satisfied specific necessary elements of each offense.

¶ 7. The PCR court rejected petitioner's assertion that this case was like Stocks, where the petitioner acknowledged only that he "understood" the State's allegations reflected in the charges against him, but never affirmed that they were true. 2014 VT 27, ¶ 18. Here, petitioner agreed that the affidavits provided a factual basis for each element of each of the charges. The sentencing court had fully advised petitioner of the elements of the offense and reminded him of the name of each of his victims. The PCR court concluded that there was substantial compliance with Rule 11(f) and that the sentencing court had made sufficient inquiry into the factual basis for the plea. The PCR court thus granted summary judgment to the State. This appeal followed.

¶ 8. Petitioner argues, as he did below, that the sentencing court violated Rule 11(f) because he did not explicitly admit to any facts during the colloquy, including any facts contained in the troopers' affidavits. He cites Stocks and contends that although he admitted to understanding the factual elements of the charged offenses and admitted that the troopers' affidavits provided a factual basis for those charges, he did not admit to any of the facts stated in the affidavits. Petitioner further asserts that the sentencing court erred in relying on affidavits to establish the factual basis. Citing State v. Yates, 169 Vt. 20, 27, 726 A.2d 483, 488 (1999), petitioner maintains that an affidavit may provide facts to support a guilty plea only if the defendant subsequently admits to those same facts in the plea colloquy.2

¶ 9. To prevail on his PCR petition, petitioner needed to show "by a preponderance of the evidence that one or more fundamental errors rendered his conviction defective." In re Brown, 2015 VT 107, ¶ 9, 200 Vt. 116, 129 A.3d 102 (recognizing that "PCR is a limited remedy" and that petitioner "bears the burden of proving that fundamental errors rendered his conviction defective" (quotation omitted)). We review the trial court's summary judgment decision de novo using the same standard as the trial court. In re Manosh, 2014 VT 95, ¶ 8. Summary judgment is appropriate "where there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." In re Brown, 2015 VT 107, ¶ 9; see V.R.C.P. 56(a). We conclude that the PCR court erred when it granted summary judgment in favor of the State and enter summary judgment in petitioner's favor.

¶ 10. At the outset, and in light of the increasing number of Rule 11(f) cases being appealed to this Court, we review this Court's application of Rule 11(f), and clarify precisely what the Rule requires.

¶ 11. Over thirty years ago, this Court explained, "[T]he requirement of [Rule] 11(f) involves an understanding by the defendant that the conduct admitted violates the law as explained to him by the court. Absent this, no matter how perfectly the other parts of Rule 11 have been observed, we cannot find a voluntary plea." In re Dunham, 144 Vt. 444, 451, 479 A.2d 144, 148 (1984). Thus, from the beginning, this Court's Rule 11(f) jurisprudence has rested on two interrelated suppositions: that the Rule 11(f) inquiry is inextricably connected to the voluntariness of the defendant's plea and that, to demonstrate that voluntariness, "[t]here must be an adequate factual basis for all elements of the charge developed on the record." See id. at 450, 479 A.2d at 148. Further, we have consistently concluded that an "adequate factual basis" sufficient to demonstrate voluntariness must consist of some recitation on the record of the facts underlying thecharge3 and some admission by the defendant to those facts. See, e.g., Yates, 169 Vt. at 27, 726 A.2d at 488 ("[A]n affidavit may be a source of facts to support the plea, but that the defendant must subsequently admit to these facts in the plea...

To continue reading

Request your trial
33 cases
  • In re Barber
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Vermont
    • August 10, 2018
    ...C.J., Skoglund, Robinson, Eaton and Carroll, JJ. EATON, J.¶ 1. This case raises the question of whether this Court's decision in In re Bridger, 2017 VT 79, ––– Vt. ––––, 176 A.3d 489 , regarding the requirements of Vermont Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(f) is retroactive to cases already fi......
  • In re Fitzgerald
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Vermont
    • February 28, 2020
    ...court's judgment." In re Combs, 2011 VT 75, ¶ 9, 190 Vt. 559, 27 A.3d 318 (mem.). Issues of law, however, are reviewed de novo. In re Bridger, 2017 VT 79, ¶ 9, 205 Vt. 380, 176 A.3d 489. ¶ 31. The basis for petitioner's PCR petition is that trial counsel's assistance was ineffective. "Vermo......
  • In re M.V.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Vermont
    • July 8, 2022
    ...that Criminal Rule 11(f) requires the defendant to "personally admit[ ] to facts relating to the elements of the offense." In re Bridger, 2017 VT 79, ¶ 22, 205 Vt. 380, 176 A.3d 489. By ensuring the defendant's personal admission, "the court exposes the defendant's understanding of the fact......
  • In re Fitzgerald
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Vermont
    • February 28, 2020
    ...court's judgment." In re Combs, 2011 VT 75, ¶ 9, 190 Vt. 559, 27 A.3d 318 (mem.) Issues of law, however, are reviewed de novo. In re Bridger, 2017 VT 79, ¶ 9, 205 Vt. 380, 176 A.3d 489. ¶ 31. The basis for petitioner's PCR petition is that trial counsel's assistance was ineffective. "Vermon......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT