State v. Doggett, 03-0248.

Citation687 N.W.2d 97
Decision Date01 September 2004
Docket NumberNo. 03-0248.,03-0248.
PartiesSTATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Roger Anthony DOGGETT, Appellant.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Iowa

Linda Del Gallo, State Appellate Defender, and Martha J. Lucey, Assistant State Appellate Defender, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Mary E. Tabor, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

STREIT, Justice.

While on the lam for ditching court, Roger Doggett took police on a fast and furious car chase around the Des Moines metro area. He pled guilty to felony eluding, but now claims his trial counsel should not have allowed him to do so because there was not a factual basis for the charge. We agree. We conclude Doggett's trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective, and reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I. Facts and Prior Proceedings

Packin' nearly 3000 quarters, Roger Doggett and his girlfriend, Shelly Boysel, swaggered into Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino shortly after midnight on November 14, 2002. They left Boysel's six-year-old daughter in the car.

Suspicious, an off-duty police officer hired by the casino asked Doggett and Boysel for identification. Boysel showed the officer her ID, and told him she wanted to cash in the loot. Boysel said she had won the quarters at the casino the night before.

Doggett, who had failed to appear for his trial on a burglary charge ten days earlier, did not hand over his ID. Instead, he went back to the car. The officer followed him, and, as he approached, Doggett sped off.

After discovering there was a warrant out for Doggett's arrest for failure to appear, Altoona police gave chase. Lights flashing and sirens blaring, they followed Doggett west towards Des Moines. Speeds soon reached one hundred miles per hour.

In the midst of the chase, Doggett's vehicle failed him: a front tire fell off. Undeterred, Doggett drove on the rim of the wheel. Sparks flying as steel ground into the pavement, Doggett nonetheless managed to pass two semitrucks while driving on the shoulder at ninety miles per hour.

The sparks eventually caused Doggett's car to catch fire. It came to a halt, and Doggett was arrested. Meanwhile, an officer rescued Boysel's little girl from the back seat. Moments later the area in which she was sitting burst into flames. After the fire was put out, officers found an assortment of burglar's tools in the car.

Doggett was charged with a host of crimes, including eluding and child endangerment. See Iowa Code §§ 321.279(3), 726.6(1)(a) (2001). The eluding charge was enhanced to a felony because Doggett had failed to appear for trial on an unrelated burglary charge. See id. §§ 321.279(3), 702.13, 811.2.

Doggett pled guilty to felony eluding, child endangerment, failure to appear, and burglary. He also pled guilty to two counts of theft in the second degree in another case. In exchange, the county attorney agreed to dismiss one count of theft in the third degree and a charge of possession of burglary tools. He also agreed not to file charges in five other cases, which involved the thefts of two pickup trucks, two SUVs, and a Volvo.1 Doggett agreed, however, to make restitution to the victims in those cases, and also promised not to appeal the judgment and twelve-year term of incarceration which would be imposed against him. The court accepted the parties' bargain, and Doggett went to prison.

Doggett appealed. As a threshold matter, Doggett claimed any purported waiver of his right to appeal was invalid because the trial court did not conduct a colloquy with him; it thus did not ascertain whether his waiver was knowing, voluntary, and intelligent. Doggett further argued his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to challenge the felony eluding charge. Doggett claimed the charge lacked a factual basis because he was not "participating in a public offense" when he took police on the chase.

The court of appeals affirmed. First, the court ruled the trial court did not conduct an adequate colloquy with Doggett concerning waiver of his right to appeal. See State v. Loye, 670 N.W.2d 141, 148-49 (Iowa 2003)

(colloquy should show waiver of right to appeal was knowing, voluntary, and intelligent); State v. Hinners, 471 N.W.2d 841, 844-45 (Iowa 1991) (same). Second, the court held Doggett's trial counsel was not ineffective because Doggett was, in fact, "participating in a public offense" at the time of the car chase. Relying, in part, upon our decision in State v. Francois, 577 N.W.2d 417 (Iowa 1998), the court concluded failure to appear for trial was a so-called "continuing offense."

Doggett sought further review. Doggett claims the district court erred in determining he was participating in a public offense by virtue of failing to appear for trial ten days before the car chase. Neither Doggett nor the State challenges the court of appeals' ruling that Doggett did not sufficiently waive his right to appeal. Although we retain the discretion to consider all issues raised in the initial appeal, in this case we let the court of appeals' decision on waiver stand and, in the exercise of our discretion, decide to only consider Doggett's ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim. See State v. Powell, 684 N.W.2d 235, 237-38 (Iowa 2004) (citations omitted) (acknowledging but declining to exercise discretion to consider all issues on appeal); see also Bokhoven v. Klinker, 474 N.W.2d 553, 557 (Iowa 1991) ("[W]e may review any or all of the issues initially raised on appeal ... whether or not they are specifically brought to our attention in the applications for further review.")

II. Standard of Review

Review of a lack-of-a-factual-basis challenge to a guilty plea is usually on error. See State v. Keene, 629 N.W.2d 360, 363 (Iowa 2001)

. When, as in the present case, the defendant's claim is raised in the ineffective-assistance-of-counsel context, our review is de novo. Id.

An ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim falls within an exception to the general rule that a party must preserve error in the district court. See State v. Spies, 672 N.W.2d 792, 798 (Iowa 2003),

cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 124 S.Ct. 2820, 159 L.Ed.2d 253 (2004); see also Earnest v. State, 508 N.W.2d 630, 632 (Iowa 1993) (attorneys not expected to object to their own representation). Although ordinarily preserved for post-conviction relief, we will consider the merits of such a claim on direct appeal if the record is adequate. State v. Liddell, 672 N.W.2d 805, 809 (Iowa 2003). We deem the record sufficient in this case.

III. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

To prove ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must show by a preponderance of the evidence (1) trial counsel failed to perform an essential duty and (2) prejudice resulted. State v. Dalton, 674 N.W.2d 111, 119 (Iowa 2004).

To meet the first element ..., counsel's performance is measured against the standard of a reasonably competent practitioner with the presumption that the attorney performed his duties in a competent manner. In order to satisfy the prejudice element, the defendant must show that "there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the results of the proceeding would have been different."

Id. (quoting State v. Begey, 672 N.W.2d 747, 749 (Iowa 2003) (citations omitted)). Failure to prove either element is fatal to an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim. See id.

The fighting issue in this case is whether Doggett's trial counsel failed to perform an essential duty. Doggett claims his trial counsel did not perform an essential duty when he allowed him to plead guilty to a charge for which no factual basis existed. In support of his argument, Doggett points to Iowa's eluding statute, which states in relevant part:

3. The driver of a motor vehicle commits a class "D" felony if the driver willfully fails to bring the motor vehicle to a stop or otherwise eludes or attempts to elude a marked official law enforcement vehicle that is driven by a uniformed peace officer after being given a visual and audible signal as provided in this section, and in doing so exceeds the speed limit by twenty-five miles per hour or more, and if any of the following occurs:
a. The driver is participating in a public offense, as defined in section 702.13, that is a felony.

Iowa Code § 321.279(3)(a). Section 702.13, in turn, defines "participating in a public offense" as follows:

A person is "participating in a public offense," during part or the entire period commencing with the first act done directly toward the commission of the offense and for the purpose of committing that offense, and terminating when the person has been arrested or has withdrawn from the scene of the intended crime and has eluded pursuers, if any there be. A person is "participating in a public offense" during this period whether the person is successful or unsuccessful in committing the offense.

Id. § 702.13 (emphasis in original). Doggett claims the crime of failure to appear is not a so-called "continuing offense" for statute-of-limitations purposes, and therefore he was not "participating in a public offense" when he eluded officers. The court of appeals agreed with the State and ruled failure to appear is a "continuing offense," and therefore Doggett was "participating in a public offense" at the time of the car chase. As a consequence, the court ruled Doggett's trial counsel was not ineffective because a factual basis did exist for felony eluding.

We disagree. Throughout the appellate process, the parties have equated the continuing offense doctrine, which finds its genesis in state statute of limitations and federal sentencing cases, with the "participation in a public offense" language of Iowa Code section 702.13. For this reason, it appears, the court of appeals assumed that if failure to appear for trial is a "continuing offense," then Powell was "participating in a public offense" at the time of the...

To continue reading

Request your trial
48 cases
  • State v. Becker
    • United States
    • Iowa Supreme Court
    • July 20, 2012
    ...on all three issues. On further review, “we retain the discretion to consider all issues raised in the initial appeal.” State v. Doggett, 687 N.W.2d 97, 99 (Iowa 2004). In exercising that discretion, we are allowed to let the court of appeals' decision on any particular issue stand as the f......
  • Mellott v. State
    • United States
    • Wyoming Supreme Court
    • February 28, 2019
    ...his client to plead guilty to charges that lacked a factual basis under the correct interpretation of a statute. See State v. Doggett , 687 N.W.2d 97, 102 (Iowa 2004) (holding that defense counsel performed deficiently by advising defendant to plead guilty to a charge when the plain meaning......
  • State v. Lane
    • United States
    • Iowa Supreme Court
    • January 19, 2007
    ...claim falls within an exception to the general rule that a party must preserve error in the district court." State v. Doggett, 687 N.W.2d 97, 100 (Iowa 2004). In addition, these claims are normally preserved for postconviction relief, but "we will consider the merits of such a claim on dire......
  • State v. Hearn
    • United States
    • Iowa Supreme Court
    • May 13, 2011
    ...previous case law under section 702.13 is inconsistent with this approach. We previously interpreted section 702.13 in State v. Doggett, 687 N.W.2d 97, 101 (Iowa 2004), where we held a defendant was not “participating in a public offense.” In Doggett, the defendant's public offense was fail......
  • 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