January v. Porter
| Decision Date | 17 April 1969 |
| Docket Number | 40720,Nos. 40696,s. 40696 |
| Citation | 453 P.2d 876,75 Wn.2d 768 |
| Court | Washington Supreme Court |
| Parties | Julius Eugene JANUARY, Respondent, v. Jack D. PORTER, Sheriff of King County, Washington; W. R. Conte, Director of the Department of Institutions; and Bruce Johnson, Chairman, Washington State Board ofPrison Terms and Paroles, Petitioners, The Honorable Frank D. James, Judge of the Superior Court for King County, Washington, Respondent. Fred EUBANKS, Respondent, v. Jack D. PORTER, Sheriff of King County, Washington; W. R. Conte, Director of the Department of Institutions; and Bruce Johnson, Chairman, Washington State Board of Prison Terms and Paroles, Petitioners, The Honorable Frank D. James, Judge of the Superior Court for King County, Washington, Respondent. |
The Honorable Frank D. James, Judge of the Superior Court
for King County, Washington, Respondent.
Fred EUBANKS, Respondent,
v.
Jack D. PORTER, Sheriff of King County, Washington; W. R.
and Paroles, Petitioners,
for King County, Washington, Respondent.
Supreme Court of Washington, En Banc.
April 17, 1969.
Charles O. Carroll, Pros. Atty., C. Nicholas Marshall, Seattle, Slade Gorton, Atty. Gen., Stephen C. Way, Asst. Atty. Gen., Olympia, for petitioners.
Henry Opendack, Seattle, for respondent.
Michael Rosen, Seattle, amicus curiae.
These consolidated petitions for a writ of prohibition present the question of whether a convicted felon held in custody on a parole board order of detention may be released from detention on admission to bail by the superior court. In each case, the King County Sheriff, the Department of Institutions for the State of Washington, and the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles of the State of Washington, as petitioners, do not question the power of the superior court to admit an accused to bail on the charges pending before the court; they do, however, question the power of the court to direct the discharge on bail of a prisoner held in detention on order of the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles as a suspected parole violator.
March 10, 1964, the Superior Court for King County sentenced Julius January to a term of not more than 15 years' confinement for the crime of grand larceny. Shortly thereafter, he was sentenced, April 9, 1964, to not more than 20 years' confinement for the crime of carnal knowledge. The Board of Prison Terms and Paroles fixed his minimum term at 2 1/2 years on each conviction and prescribed that the sentences run consecutively. August 21 1967, the board ordered his release on parole on each judgment and sentence.
About 6 months after his release on parole, respondent January was charged March 7, 1968, in King County, with petit larceny and assault in the second degree and held in jail in lieu of $3,000 bail. The parole board, March 8, 1968, ordered the King County Sheriff to detain him in custody as a suspected parole violator. Then, on April 16, 1968, the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles ordered January's return to the Washington Correction Center for a parole revocation hearing then pending.
But a day earlier, April 15, the charges pending in King County were modified and reduced to misdemeanors and January was then charged in justice court with one count of petit larceny and two counts of assault in the third degree and his bail reduced from $3,000 to $500. He demanded a jury trial. That same day, on petition for habeas corpus, the superior court ordered his release on bail from the order of detention filed by the parole officer with the King County Sheriff. Then the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles reinstated January's parole effective as of April 16, 1968. Later, after trial and jury verdict of guilty of two counts of petit larceny and one count of assault in the third degree, the justice court sentenced January to 6 months' confinement consecutively on each count, but he was released from custody on a $1,500 appeal bond.
June 30, 1968, Seattle police arrested January on suspicion of robbery; his parole officer placed a detainer on him which was later canceled and he was again released. Then, November 12, 1968, he was arrested by Seattle police on suspicion of what the police call 'car prowling' and for attempted burglary. Somehow or other, in a way not made clear in the record but acknowledged to be the fact by all parties, the respondent January at about this time was charged with violation of the Uniform Narcotic Drugs Act and his bail was set at $3,000. Meanwhile, his parole officer ordered his detention as a parole violator, and the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles ordered his parole suspended.
It was this latter formal charge--that of narcotics violation--according to the instant application for a writ of prohibition, that precipitated the present proceedings. Although the superior court had admitted January to bail in the amount of $3,000, the King County Sheriff declined to release him from the confinement directed by the parole officer's order of detention and the board's order of suspension of parole. Accordingly, January brought a petition for habeas corpus in superior court asking that he be released on $3,000 bail as fixed by the court on the narcotic violation charge then pending in superior court, and that the detainer lodged by his parole officer with the King County Sheriff be canceled. After hearing this petition for habeas corpus, the superior court fixed bail on the parole detainer at $50,000 and directed additionally that January, on duly posting it, should be released from the custody imposed by the order of the parole officer and the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles. Whereupon, petitioners joined to bring this application for a writ of prohibition to prevent the superior court from ordering January's release on bail from the custody imposed by virtue of the parole officer's order of detention and the board's order suspending parole.
Raising identical issues is the case of Frederick Anthony Eubanks. January 22, 1965 he was convicted in Superior Court for King County of taking a motor vehicle without the permission of the owner in one count and burglary in the second degree in another count--both felonies. He received a deferred sentence and was set at liberty on probation. Three months later--presumably for violation of the terms of probation--the superior court, April 9, 1965, revoked the probation and deferment and sentenced Eubanks to maximum concurrent sentences of 10 and 15 years. July 10, 1967, the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles released him on parole. May 20, 1968, Seattle police officers arrested him, and he was charged with two counts of robbery with bail fixed at $5,000. His parole officer lodged with the King County Sheriff an order of detention directing the sheriff to detain Eubanks--the order resting on the alleged parole violations involving two robberies and driving a car during revocation of his operator's license.
Pending prosecution of the two robbery counts, the board reinstated Eubanks to parole--and apparently he posted bail for, on August 21, 1968, the Seattle police again arrested him and another individual on suspicion of another robbery.
Five days later, August 26, 1965, a parole officer again filed an order of detention with the Sheriff of King County. Then, it seems, the two robbery charges were reduced to petit larceny in municipal court, and September 11, 1968, Eubanks was released on his personal recognizance on the petit larceny, but was held in custody on the parole officer's order of detention. Eubanks then brought an application in the superior court for release from the custody of the parole officer's order of detention and the court on habeas corpus ordered his release from both the parole detainer and the petit larceny charge. Thereafter, while Eubanks was at liberty, the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles ordered his parole suspended.
The order of arrest accompanying his suspension of parole could not be soon executed in this state for apparently Eubanks had fled the jurisdiction. He was later arrested, however, in Richmond, California, on the authority of warrants issued out of the Seattle Municipal Court on charges of grand larceny. Returned to Seattle, Eubanks stood trial on two counts of robbery for which he had been arrested April 20, 1968, and was sentenced to 35 years consecutively on each count, the jury returning a special verdict that at the time he committed each crime he was armed with a deadly weapon. He appealed his robbery conviction to this court and bail pending appeal was fixed by the superior court at $15,000, and on the grand larceny charge still pending at $5,000.
November 20, 1968, Eubanks filed a petition for habeas corpus with the superior court asserting that he was unlawfully held under both a parole detention order and an order suspending parole. At the conclusion of the hearing, the learned trial judge granted the application for habeas corpus and directed that bail pending appeal of the two robbery counts be fixed at $15,000, and at $5,000 on the pending grand larceny charge, and that, upon posting such bail, Eubanks be set at liberty on condition further that he appear before the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles at such time as the board should designate for a parole revocation hearing.
The Board of Prison Terms and Paroles, the Director of the Department of Institutions and the Sheriff of King County now bring before us this application for a writ of prohibition to prevent the superior court from releasing both Julius Eugene January and Frederick Anthony Eubanks from custody imposed by reason of and under authority of an order for detention issued by a duly constituted parole officer, and an order suspending parole duly issued by the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles. We think the applications well taken and that the writs should issue.
When one is confined, imprisoned, detained or subject to punishment by another, the courts of this country are never totally without jurisdiction to inquire into the legality of the confinement, imprisonment, detention or punishment. But the validity of the judgment and sentence under which respondent was imprisoned and then paroled is not in issue. The question...
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