State v. Fritz

• Decision Date: 12 June 2002
• Docket Number: No. 2001-369-C.A.,2001-369-C.A.
• Citation: 801 A.2d 679
• Parties: STATE v. David FRITZ.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

801 A.2d 679

STATE v. David FRITZ.

No. 2001-369-C.A.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

June 12, 2002.

Present WILLIAMS, C.J., LEDERBERG, BOURCIER, FLANDERS, and GOLDBERG, JJ.

Aaron L. Wesiman, for plaintiff.

Thomas L Mirza, Rumford, for defendant.

OPINION

LEDERBERG, J.

The State of Rhode Island (state) has appealed a Family Court judgment that dismissed a criminal information entered against the defendant, David Fritz, for non-payment of child support. The state argued that the justice erred in ruling that the defendant's voluntary termination of his parental rights ended his responsibility for child support payments. It is our opinion that the termination of parental rights does not ipso facto extinguish a parent's child support obligations. Therefore, we sustain the state's appeal with respect to the Family Court's interpretation of the statutes on termination of child support. In addition, we vacate the dismissal of the criminal information and remand for further proceedings on whether the defendant willfully withheld child support in violation of a criminal statute and whether he was selectively prosecuted for the alleged violation.

Facts and Procedural History

The defendant fathered two children while married to Lorraine Fritz (Lorraine). In their final judgment of divorce entered in January 1994, Lorraine was awarded sole custody of the children, and defendant was ordered to pay $147.50 per week in child support. At that point, defendant owed an arrearage of $1,800 in child support. Lorraine obtained medical coverage forthe children through Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The defendant's parental rights to his two children were terminated by the Family Court with defendant's consent on November 25, 1994, in accordance with a petition that had been filed by the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF).¹ Although the children remained in the custody of their mother, the Family Court appointed DCYF as guardian of the children "for all purposes as to [defendant's] rights."

Because the original child support order never was vacated, the Rhode Island office of Child Support Enforcement (CSE), a subdivision of the Department of Administration's Division of Taxation, never received notice of the termination of defendant's parental rights and continued to assess the same weekly child support sums against defendant. At the time of the parental rights termination, defendant had accrued, depending on the calculation, either $7,660 or $9,303 in child support arrearage, and in December 1994, a body attachment was issued after defendant failed to appear for a hearing on CSE's contempt motion for outstanding child support.

In 1997, CSE forwarded defendant's name to the office of the Attorney General, along with the names of approximately 1,235 others alleged to have outstanding body attachments and arrearages of more than $30,000, in violation of G.L. 1956 § 11-2-1.1. A felony complaint wasissued against defendant in December 1997, but it was not filed in the Family Court until May 25, 2000, on which date defendant was arrested.

The state filed an information against defendant in August 2000 on the ground that he had accrued a child support arrearage of more than $75,000, thereby violating the provisions of § 11-2-1.1. The defendant was incarcerated on these charges from May 25, 2000, until October 5, 2000, when he was released on personal recognizance in the amount of $10,000 pending verification that his parental rights had been terminated. Although he was held on felony charges, it appears that he was denied the assistance of counsel during most of this period of incarceration. ²

The defendant filed a motion to dismiss the information, claiming that his obligation to pay child support ended once his parental rights had been terminated, and he asserted that on the date that his parental rights were terminated, his arrearage totaled no more than $9,303 by the state's highest estimate. The Family Court justice dismissed the information and ruled that defendant's arrearage could not accrue beyond the date of termination of parental rights. Under the justice's calculation of arrearage, the state had failed to present a prima facie criminal complaint for failure to pay child support pursuant to § 11-2-1.1. The state appealed.

Standard of Review

In evaluating the trial justice's finding that defendant's parental support payments were discharged pursuant to statutory authority, we turn to the relevant provisions of the General Laws. As the final arbiter on issues of statutory construction, this Court reviews de novo questions of statutory interpretation. Rhode Island Depositors Economic Protection Corp. v.Bowen Court Associates, 763 A.2d 1005, 1007 (R.I.2001) (citing City of East Providence v. Public Utilities Commission, 566 A.2d 1305, 1307 (R.I.1989)); State v. Powers, 644 A.2d 828, 830 (R.I.1994). In so doing, we adopt the plain meaning of the language in a legislative enactment. Powers, 644 A.2d at 830. If we discern a statutory ambiguity, this Court establishes and effectuates the legislative intent behind the enactment. Id.

When addressing a motion to dismiss a criminal information, a Family Court justice is required to examine the information and any attached exhibits to determine whether the state has satisfied its burden to establish probable cause to believe that the offense charged was committed and that the defendant committed it. State v. Aponte, 649 A.2d 219, 222 (R.I.1994) (per curiam); see G.L. 1956 § 12-12-1.7;³ Super.R.Crim.P. 9.1.⁴ This Court reviews a decision to grant a criminal defendant's motion to dismiss by examining whether the justice's findings are supported by the evidence or whether, in making those findings, the justice misconceived or overlooked material evidence. State v. Ouimette, 415 A.2d 1052, 1053 (R.I.1980) (citing Wolf v. Wolf, 114 R.I. 375, 376, 333 A.2d 138, 139 (1975)). We allot great weight to the justice's findings and will not set them aside unless those findings are clearly erroneous or fail to achieve justice between the parties. Id.

Post-Termination Support Obligations

The criminal statute under which defendant was charged, § 11-2-1.1(b)(1), provides:

"Every person who is obligated to pay child support pursuant to an order or decree established by or registered with the family court pursuant to chapter 11.1 of title 15, who has incurred arrearage of past-due child support in the amount of thirty thousand dollars ($30,000), and having the means to do so, who willfully fails to pay one or more installments of child support in an amount previously set by the court, according to the terms previously set by the court, is guilty of a felony for each similar instance of failure to make subsequent payments. Upon conviction that person shall be punished by imprisonment for no more than five (5) years." (Emphasis added.)

Whether defendant had incurred an arrearage of more than $30,000, thereby sufficient to invoke the provisions of this criminal statute, depends upon whether his child support obligations continued to accrue after his parental rights were terminated in November 1994. The defendant did not seek relief from the arrearage that accrued before the termination, nor did he ever seek an order terminating his ongoing child support responsibilities. Thus, the issue in this case is whether the termination of defendant's parental rights automatically brought his continuing child support obligations to an end.

In determining that a parent's obligation to support ceases at the point when that person's parental rights have been terminated, the trial justice relied on § 15-7-7 and G.L. 1956 § 15-7.2-2. Section 15-7-7, which is entitled "Termination of parental rights," provides in pertinent part:

"The court shall, upon a petition filed by a governmental child placement agency or licensed child placement agency after notice to the parent and a hearing on the petition, terminate any and all legal rights of the parent to the child, including the right to notice of any subsequent adoption proceedings involving the child, if the court finds as a fact by clear and convincing evidence that [any of several enumerated conditions have occurred]." Section 15-7-7(a). (Emphasis added.)⁵

Termination may be granted if "[t]he parent has willfully neglected to provide proper care and maintenance for the child for a period of at least one year where financially able to do so." Section 15-7-7(a)(1). The trial justice also relied on § 15-7.2-2 of the Passive Voluntary Adoption Mutual Consent Registry Act, which is intended to provide a registry in which birth parents, adult adoptees, and surviving relative s thereof may register identifying information for release to each other. Section 15-7.2-2 is entitled "Policy" and provides in pertinent part:

"It is the policy of this state that adoption is based upon the legal termination of parental rights and responsibilities of birth parents and the creation of the legal relationship of parents and child between an adoptee and the adoptive parents." (Emphases added.)

In contrast, the termination of parental rights statute, § 15-7-7, is included in the title, Domestic Relations, in the chapter entitled, "Adoption of Children." Significantly, the termination of parental rights statute does not require that a child be placed for adoption.

The purpose of the termination of parental rights under §§ 15-7-5, 15-7-6, and 15-7-7, is "to provide children who are in need with permanent and safe placement," In re Kyle S., 692 A.2d 329, 332 (R.I.1997), and in certain cases, "to allow the state to make the children available for adoption," In re John, 605 A.2d 486, 487 (R.I.1992). Here, the children were not adopted, but remained in the custody of the ir mother. An involuntary termination petition was filed by DCYF to which defendant subsequently consented.

In granting defendant's motion to dismiss the...