State v. Folse
| Docket Number | 21-0972 |
| Decision Date | 07 November 2023 |
| Parties | STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA, Plaintiff Below/Respondent, v. JAY FOLSE, Defendant Below/Petitioner. |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
Submitted: October 11, 2023
Appeal from the Circuit Court of Monongalia County The Honorable Phillip Gaujot, Judge Case No. 21-MAP-12
Jeremy B. Cooper, Esq. Blackwater Law PLLC Aspinwall, Pennsylvania Counsel for Petitioner
Patrick Morrisey, Esq. Attorney General Michael R. Williams Esq. Principal Deputy Solicitor General Mary Beth Niday, Esq. Assistant Attorney General Charleston, West Virginia Counsel for Respondent
SYLLABUS BY THE COURT
1. " ." Syllabus Point 1, State v. Meadows, 231 W.Va. 10 743 S.E.2d 318 (2013).
2. "A statute that is ambiguous must be construed before it can be applied." Syllabus Point 1, Farley v. Buckalew, 186 W.Va. 693, 414 S.E.2d 454 (1992).
3. "The primary object in construing a statute is to ascertain and give effect to the intent of the Legislature." Syllabus Point 1, Smith v. State Workmen's Compensation Commissioner, 159 W.Va. 108, 219 S.E.2d 361 (1975).
Petitioner Jay Folse pled no contest to obstructing an officer in 2019, without counsel, in magistrate court. Later, Mr. Folse attempted to appeal the conviction to the Circuit Court of Monongalia County under West Virginia Code § 50-5-13 (1994). But the circuit court dismissed Mr. Folse's appeal, reasoning that Mr. Folse's no-contest plea in magistrate court resolved the case and barred him from pursuing appellate review in circuit court. On appeal, Mr. Folse contends that the circuit court erroneously dismissed his appeal on the basis that he pled no contest in magistrate court. We agree. Under § 50-5-13(a), "any defendant" may timely appeal a conviction in magistrate court to circuit court, save a class of defendants specified in § 50-5-13(e)-a class to which Mr. Folse does not belong. And § 50-5-13(a) and (b) afford a defendant such as Mr. Folse a trial de novo, to the circuit court, without a jury. For those reasons, we reverse the circuit court's order and remand this case for further proceedings in accord with this Opinion.
On July 31, 2019, a criminal complaint was filed with the Magistrate Court of Monongalia County alleging that Mr. Folse had violated West Virginia Code §§ 61-6-1B (disorderly conduct), 61-5-17(a) (), and 61-3B-4 (trespassing) in the course of attending a meeting of the Board of Governors of West Virginia University. On December 17, 2019, Mr. Folse-then self-represented-entered into a plea agreement in which he agreed to plead no contest to obstructing an officer in exchange for dismissal of the two remaining charges and the State's recommendation of a ninety-day jail sentence (suspended) and two years' unsupervised probation. Mr. Folse entered a no-contest plea that same day. The magistrate accepted the no-contest plea, imposed the State's recommended sentence, and dismissed the disorderly conduct and trespassing charges. Judgement orders reflecting Mr. Folse's no-contest plea and dismissal of the disorderly conduct and trespassing charges were also entered on December 17, 2019.
On January 12, 2021, Mr. Folse (again, self-represented) filed a "Motion for Dismissal Due to Failure to Provide Speedy Trial [Three Term Rule]." According to Mr. Folse, he had filed an appeal of his December 2019 conviction, but had not been tried in the three, ensuing court terms. So, according to Mr. Folse, the magistrate was bound to dismiss the case, with prejudice, under West Virginia Code § 62-3-21 (1959).[1] The State responded that the magistrate court docket did not reflect that Mr. Folse had appealed from the December 2019 conviction, so he had not complied with Rule 20.1 of the West Virginia Rules of Criminal Procedure for Magistrate Courts[2] and his three-term-rule argument was meritless.[3] The magistrate court conducted a hearing on Mr. Folse's motion on or about March 2, 2021, but it is unclear whether the motion was ever ruled on.[4]
On April 6, 2021, Mr. Folse filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in the Circuit Court of Monongalia County. Mr. Folse sought "a writ to compel [the magistrate court] to transfer a criminal appeal to [c]ircuit [c]ourt." In the petition, Mr. Folse represented that Mr. Folse also represented that when he later telephoned the magistrate's office and asked why he had not received notice that his appeal had been docketed, he was told variably that he did not have a right to an appeal because he had signed a plea agreement, a certain staff member would return his call, or to seek legal counsel. The State responded that Mr. Folse had no clear legal right to the relief he sought because the magistrate court's docket did not reflect that Mr. Folse had filed an appeal with that court within twenty days of sentencing for his conviction. Despite that, the State also acknowledged receiving service of a copy of a "Petition for Appeal of Bench Trial" from Mr. Folse, dated January 6, 2020. The court conducted a hearing on Mr. Folse's petition on July 22, 2021. On July 28, 2021, the court granted Mr. Folse's petition and entered an order giving him twenty days from the hearing date to perfect his appeal in magistrate court.
Mr. Folse filed a "Petition for Appeal of Criminal Case" on July 28, 2021, in magistrate court, in which he requested "that there be a trial de novo and reserve[d] the right to a trial by jury."[5] There, Mr. Folse argued that he was entitled to appeal his magistrate court conviction to circuit court despite his no-contest plea and that once in circuit court, he was owed a jury trial under West Virginia Code § 50-5-13(b), discussed in detail, infra.[6]
The case was then sent to circuit court, where, on August 4, 2021, Mr. Folse filed a "motion to dismiss a criminal charge of obstructing an officer." Mr. Folse argued that his 2019 arrest was not supported by probable cause, the obstruction charge violated various constitutional protections, and the case was subject to dismissal under West Virginia Code § 62-3-21. The circuit court docket does not reflect that the State filed a response to Mr. Folse's motion.
Two weeks later, Mr. Folse moved the circuit court to modify the conditions of his bond. The circuit court conducted a hearing on that motion on September 3, 2021. The court went further, though, and denied Mr. Folse's appeal, entirely. The court stated:
I find that this matter came on for hearing on a plea agreement, that the plea agreement was signed by Mr. Folse. Pursuant to that plea agreement, he pled guilty - a no contest plea to obstruction. The other two charges were dismissed. An appeal has - was not timely filed. Therefore, a motion for change of bond conditions and your motion to dismiss is [sic] untimely. This matter has been dismissed based upon a satisfactory plea of no contest. This matter, Case Number 19-M-3409 is hereby dismissed.
On November 1, 2021, the court entered an order memorializing its rulings made during the September 2021 hearing. In that order, the court explained the denial of Mr. Folse's appeal as follows:
We review the circuit court's order denying Mr. Folse's appeal from his conviction in magistrate court for an abuse of discretion, a standard we have detailed numerous times:
Syl. Pt. 2, Walker v. West Virginia Ethics Commission, 201 W.Va. 108, 492 S.E.2d 167 (1997).[7]
Mr Folse contends that the circuit court failed to comply with West Virginia Code § 50-5-13 when it denied his appeal from magistrate court and request for a trial de novo in circuit court.[8] He asks this Court to vacate the circuit court's order of November 2021, to remand the case for a trial de novo to the...
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