Meyer v. Jones

• Decision Date: 02 February 1988
• Docket Number: No. 16640,16640
• Citation: 106 N.M. 708,1988 NMSC 11,749 P.2d 93
• Parties: Kenneth L. MEYER, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Honorable George JONES, Judge of the Metropolitan Court, Respondent-Appellant.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Page 93

749 P.2d 93

106 N.M. 708

Kenneth L. MEYER, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Honorable George JONES, Judge of the Metropolitan Court Respondent-Appellant.

No. 16640.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

Feb. 2, 1988.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 18, 1988.

[106 N.M. 709] Hal Stratton, Atty. Gen., Tony Tupler, Tracy Hughes, Asst. Attys. Gen., Santa Fe, for appellant.

Kenneth S. McDaniel, Albuquerque, for appellee.

OPINION

WALTERS, Justice.

Kenneth L. Meyer, charged in the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court with a first offense of driving while under the influence of an intoxicating liquor, demanded a jury trial. The respondent, Judge Jones, denied the request for a jury trial, and defendant petitioned the district court for an alternative writ of mandamus to compel a trial by jury or to prohibit the lower court from proceeding to trial before the petition could be heard. The district court ultimately granted a permanent writ, requiring that defendant be allowed a jury trial. Judge Jones appealed; we granted a stay of proceedings pending our disposition of the matter.

Pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 66-8-102(D) (Cum.Supp.1986), the penalty for a first conviction of driving while intoxicated (DWI) is confinement of at least thirty but not more than ninety days, or a fine of at least $300 but not more than $500, or both a fine and imprisonment. In addition, a first-offense DWI conviction may carry a probationary sentence exceeding ninety days but no longer than three years if any part of the confinement or fine is suspended. Id. With respect to criminal actions, if the penalty does not exceed ninety days' imprisonment or is a fine or forfeiture of a license, the metropolitan court statutes provide that the action shall be tried by the judge without a jury. NMSA 1978, Sec. 34-8A-5(B)(1) (Repl.Pamp.1981).

The district court found, however, that Section 34-8A-2 governed in its provision that for all purposes of state law a metropolitan court is a magistrate court, and that under NMSA 1978, Section 35-8-1, the right to trial by jury exists for all criminal actions (with the exception of contempt) over which the magistrate court has jurisdiction. It therefore concluded that Meyer was entitled to a jury trial, and that Section 34-8A-5(B)(1) unconstitutionally violated the equal protection clauses of the state and federal constitutions in that it denied metropolitan court defendants the same right to trial by a jury for petty misdemeanors as was granted to defendants in magistrate courts elsewhere in the state. The district court further specifically held that because a sentence for conviction of a first-offense DWI could deprive a defendant of his liberty for more than six months through the imposition of a probationary period of up to three years, the New Mexico and United States Constitutions guaranteed the right to a jury trial for all state statute DWI charges in all state courts.

In Vallejos v. Barnhart, 102 N.M. 438, 439, 697 P.2d 121, 122 (1985), we entertained an appeal which claimed, inter alia, Section 34-8A-5(B) violated the defendants' right to equal protection because the statute denied the defendants the right to a trial by jury in the Metropolitan Court of Bernalillo County when defendants charged with the same offense could obtain jury trials in magistrate courts elsewhere in the state. Without reaching the equal protection issue, we held there that the defendants were entitled to a trial by jury because they faced an aggregate term of imprisonment exceeding ninety days. Id. at 440-41, 697 P.2d at 123-24. Because we did not reach the equal protection issue in Vallejos, we discuss it here as a matter of first impression.

We address first, however, the trial court's findings that a potential probation beyond six months under Section 66-8-102(D) automatically triggers a "deprivation of liberty/serious offense" analysis that would require allowance of a jury trial. In Frank v. United States, 395 U.S. 147, 151-52, 89 S.Ct. 1503, 1506-07, 23 L.Ed.2d 162 (1969), the United States Supreme Court declined to characterize a sentence of five years' probation as constituting a "serious offense" which, under Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145, 158-59, 88 S.Ct. 1444, 1452-53, 20 L.Ed.2d 491 (1968), would warrant the right to a jury trial. In so ruling, the Frank court commented: "Probation is, of course, a significant infringement of personal freedom, but it is certainly less onerous a restraint than jail itself." 395 U.S. at 151-52, 89 S.Ct. at 1506-07. Indeed, each time the Supreme Court has discussed the distinction between serious and petty offenses in the right-to-jury-trial context, it has analyzed the authorized penalty as meaning the length of imprisonment. The term of a potential probationary period has never been considered. See, e.g., Muniz v. Hoffman, 422 U.S. 454, 476-77, 95 S.Ct. 2178, 2190-91, 45 L.Ed.2d 319 (1975) (contempt is not always serious offense when fine exceeds $500.00 but no prison term imposed); Taylor v. Hayes, 418 U.S. 488, 496, 94 S.Ct. 2697, 2702, 41 L.Ed.2d 897 (1974) (in absence of legislative authorization of serious penalties for contempt, state may try any contempt without a jury if state determines not to impose sentence longer than six months); Codispoti v. Pennsylvania, 418 U.S. 506, 512, 94 S.Ct. 2687, 2691, 41 L.Ed.2d 912 (1974) (contemnor not entitled to jury trial simply because of strong possibility that he will receive substantial term of imprisonment upon conviction regardless of punishment actually imposed); cf. Baldwin v. New York, 399 U.S. 66, 69, 90 S.Ct. 1886, 1888, 26 L.Ed.2d 437 (1970) (no offense is petty if authorized penalty is more than six months' imprisonment); Duncan, 391 U.S. at 161-62, 88 S.Ct. at 1453-54 (crime that carries possible penalty of two years in prison is serious offense).

Because the defendants in Vallejos faced an aggregate sentence in metropolitan court of confinement in excess of six months for multiple traffic violations, our holding that the defendants were entitled to a jury trial pursuant to Section 34-8A-5(B)(2) accords with the analysis of the period of potential deprivation of liberty as the basis for determining the "petty vs. serious" nature of the offense, and the attendant right to jury trial. We are not persuaded that a potential period of probation of more than six months presents the degree of liberty deprivation that would convert a petty offense to the nature of such a serious offense as would trigger the right to a jury trial.

With regard to petitioner's equal protection claim, it was said in Garcia v. Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education, 95 N.M. 391, 622 P.2d 699 (Ct.App.1980), cert. quashed, 95 N.M. 426, 622 P.2d 1046 (1981), that the standard for review of an equal protection claim is the same under both the federal and state constitutions. It is pointed out in the recent case of Farley v. Engelken, 241 Kan. 663, 740 P.2d 1058 (1987), that the United States Supreme Court has recognized and applied three varying standards (or "levels of scrutiny") in assessing equal protection claims. Cf. Torres v. Village of Capitan, 92 N.M. 64, 69, 582 P.2d 1277, 1282 (1978) ("The Supreme Court of the United States has adopted two different tests * * * to statutes attacked on the basis of the equal protection clause").

McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 425-26, 81 S.Ct. 1101, 1105, 6 L.Ed.2d 393 (1961), applied the least strict scrutiny: the reasonable basis test ("The constitutional safeguard is offended only if the classification rests on grounds wholly irrelevant to the achievement of the State's objective * * *. A statutory discrimination will not be set aside if any state of facts reasonably may be conceived to justify it").

At the next step, applicable to "quasi-suspect" classifications, the "heightened" or "middle-level" scrutiny ( Farley, 241 Kan. at 669, 740 P.2d at 1062-63), the State must show a greater justification for classification, and it must demonstrate a direct relationship between the classification and furtherance of a legislative purpose. See Crowe by and through Crowe v. Wigglesworth, 623 F.Supp. 699, 703 (D.Kan.1985), and Supreme Court cases cited therein and in Farley, 241 Kan. at 669, 740 P.2d at 1063.

The most stringent analysis is termed "strict scrutiny" and it is applied when the challenged legislation affects the exercise of a fundamental right expressly or implicitly guaranteed by the constitution and concerns suspect classifications such as race, ancestry, and alienage. Farley, 241 Kan. at 669-70, 740 P.2d at 1063. Such an approach strips the statute of any presumption of constitutionality, and requires the state to establish the compelling governmental interest which necessarily justifies the classification. Crowe, 623 F.Supp. at 702.

We have already discussed the non-applicability of any claim to a constitutional right to jury trial for a petty offense. Consequently, neither the heightened nor strict scrutiny tests are to be applied, because the classification is not suspect and there is no fundamental right of jury trial that is affected.

Meyer disputes any contention that the statutory discrimination here is rendered permissible on the basis of a geographical distinction. The Supreme Court has said that the equal protection clause protects "equality between persons as such, rather than between areas," and that, under the equal protection clause, "territorial uniformity is not a constitutional prerequisite." McGowan, 366 U.S. at 427, 81 S.Ct. at 1106; Missouri v. Lewis, 101 U.S. (11 Otto) 22, 30-31, 25 L.Ed. 989 (1879). Even though this case concerns treatment of the same issue in different political subdivisions of the state differently, i.e., a legislative grant of jury trial to all New Mexico residents in all magistrate courts outside Bernalillo County for violation of a state statute, but denial of a jury trial in magistrate court in Bernalillo County (Section 34-8A-5(B)(1))...