State v. Cahoon
| Decision Date | 06 July 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 17324,17324 |
| Citation | 116 Idaho 399,775 P.2d 1241 |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Earl Leroy CAHOON, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
Dan J. Rude, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, for defendant-appellant.
Jim Jones, Atty. Gen. and Lynn E. Thomas, Sol. Gen. (argued), for plaintiff-respondent.
In the early morning hours of August 10, 1986, police officers stopped the Cahoons' car apparently because they were suspicious that Mrs. Cahoon was driving under the influence. After the stop, Mr. Cahoon engaged in an altercation with the officers and was arrested. He was charged on an Idaho Uniform Traffic Citation form with "resisting, obstructing and delaying an officer" in violation of I.C. § 18-705 on the 10th day of August, 1986, at 1:10 a.m. Mr. Cahoon was subsequently found guilty in a jury trial. Six days after the trial, on the date that had been set for sentencing, Cahoon's attorney filed a motion to dismiss the charge. He claimed that the citation was insufficient to charge the offense and that the court therefore lacked jurisdiction. The magistrate granted the motion. The State appealed to the district court which reversed the magistrate. The district judge held that the citation adequately charged the offense and that the defendant had not alleged or shown that he was prejudiced by the form of the charge in the citation. Cahoon appeals the district court decision.
In essence, this case presents an issue of notice, that being whether the citation given to Mr. Cahoon adequately apprised him of the charges so that he could prepare a defense. Idaho Code § 18-705 reads:
Every person who willfully resists, delays or obstructs any public officer, in the discharge, or attempt to discharge, of any duty of his office or who knowingly gives a false report to any peace officer, when no other punishment is prescribed, is punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), and imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one (1) year.
Cahoon asserts that the officer's inscription of the date, time, the words "resisting, obstructing and delaying an officer" and the number of the applicable code section (I.C. § 18-705) on the preprinted Uniform Citation Form was not sufficient and failed to charge an offense, because it (1) did not set forth all of the elements of the offense, and (2) did not set forth the facts upon which the charge was based. Cahoon made no motion for dismissal or objection to the citation until after he had gone to trial and had been found guilty by the jury. The misdemeanor was not charged in a formal complaint, but only in the uniform citation prepared by the police officer.
Idaho Criminal Rule 12(b) provides in part:
The following must be raised prior to trial:
* * * * * *
(2) Defenses and objections based on defects in the complaint, indictment or information (other than it fails to show jurisdiction of the court or to charge an offense which objection shall be noticed by the court at any time during the pendency of the proceedings); ...
This provision would appear to allow counsel to keep silent about a document's failure "to charge an offense" until after trial. However, Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12(b)(2) is essentially identical to Idaho's rule and the federal courts have consistently held that an indictment not challenged before trial would be upheld unless it is so defective that it does not, by any fair or reasonable construction, charge an offense for which the defendant is convicted.
The reasons for this rule were discussed in United States v. Pheaster, 544 F.2d 353, 360, 361 (9th Cir.1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1099, 97 S.Ct. 1118, 51 L.Ed.2d 546 (1977):
A challenge to the sufficiency of an indictment is not a game in which the lawyer with the sharpest eye or the cleverest argument can gain reversal for his client. " 'Convictions are no longer reversed because of minor and technical deficiencies which did not prejudice the accused.' " ...
....
Failure of an indictment to state an offense is, of course, a fundamental defect which can be raised at any time. [Citations omitted.] However, the very limited resources of our judicial system require that such challenges be made at the earliest possible moment in order to avoid needless waste. Consequently, although such defects are never waived, indictments which are tardily challenged are liberally construed in favor of validity. For example, this Court held that when an...
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State v. Rankin
...construed in favor of validity.’ " State v. Jones , 140 Idaho 755, 759, 101 P.3d 699, 703 (2004) (quoting State v. Cahoon , 116 Idaho 399, 400, 775 P.2d 1241, 1242 (1989) ). Applying our own plain error rule in cases in which the defendant failed to object to a defective indictment at trial......
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Fenstermaker v. State
...the liberal standard of review applied to challenges to informations made for the first time on appeal. See State v. Cahoon, 116 Idaho 399, 400, 775 P.2d 1241, 1242 (1989); State v. Leach, 126 Idaho 977, 895 P.2d 578 (Ct.App.1995).7 See Laws of Territory of Idaho, Crimes and Punishments, § ......
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State v. Mayer
...defendant will not provide a basis to set the conviction aside." Halbesleben, 139 Idaho at 168,75 P.3d at 222; State v. Cahoon, 116 Idaho 399, 400, 775 P.2d 1241, 1242 (1989); State v. Robran, 119 Idaho 285, 287, 805 P.2d 491, 493 (Ct.App.1991). Thus, if the challenge is tardy, the charging......
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State v. Lampien
...by any fair or reasonable construction, charge an offense for which the defendant is convicted.'" Id. (quoting State v. Cahoon, 116 Idaho 399, 400, 775 P.2d 1241, 1242 (1989)). Additionally, a "reviewing court has considerable leeway to imply the necessary allegations from the language of t......