State v. Irving
| Decision Date | 07 March 1974 |
| Citation | 520 P.2d 354,98 Or.Adv.Sh. 1302,268 Or. 204 |
| Parties | STATE of Oregon, Petitioner, v. Nathaniel IRVING, Respondent. |
| Court | Oregon Supreme Court |
John W. Burgess, Asst. Atty. Gen., Salem, argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the brief were Lee Johnson, Atty. Gen., and John W. Osburn, Sol. Gen., Salem.
J. Marvin Kuhn, Deputy Public Defender, Salem, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief was Gary D. Babcock, Public Defender, Salem.
Defendant was indicted for the crime of fraudulent sale of imitation drugs. This offense is defined by ORS 167.232:
'(1) A person commits the crime of fraudulent sale of imitation drugs if he sells any compound, substance or other matter, not a narcotic or dangerous drug, to a peace officer of his agent by falsely representing it to be a narcotic or dangerous drug.
'(2) Fraudulent sale of imitation drugs is a Class B misdemeanor.'
Defendant demurred to the indictment. The trial court, apparently believing that the statute's proscription of such sales only if made to 'a peace officer' rendered it indefinite and unrelated to the evil it sought to prevent (general fraud), sustained the demurrer on the ground that it violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Art. I, § 20 of the Oregon Constitution. The Court of Appeals found the statute both sufficiently definite and rationally related to a perceived evil (waste of police resources) to be constitutional. However, in remanding the case, the court deemed it advisable to consider defendant's contention that, properly construed, ORS 167.232 is not violated unless the person selling the imitation drugs knows that the purchaser is a police officer. The court adopted this construction. State v. Irving, Or.App., 514 P.2d 909 (1973). The state, contending that this interpretation is erroneous, filed a petition for review which we granted.
The Court of Appeals correctly held that ORS 167.232 does not violate any constitutional provision. However, we disagree with the court's subsequent interpretation of the statute. The court reached its conclusion by a literal reading of ORS 167.232 in conjunction with ORS 161.095(2). The latter statute provides that:
'Except as provided in ORS 161.105, a person is not guilty of an offense unless he acts with a culpable mental state with respect to each material element of the offense that necessarily requires a culpable mental state.'
The court then noted that one of the material elements of the crime under ORS 167.232 is the sale of limitation drugs to a peace officer. The court concluded that since ORS 161.095(2) requires proof of a 'culpable mental state with respect to each material element of the offense,' the state must prove that a person charged with the violation of ORS 167.232 knew that he was making a sale to a peace officer.
If the two statutes are read together literally, there seems to be no escape from the conclusion reached by the Court of Appeals. It is clear from the legislative history of ORS 167.232, however, that the legislature did not intend that the statute was to be limited to those cases in which the seller knew that the purchaser was a peace officer. This being the case, there is nothing to compel us to read into ORS 167.232 another statute which was clearly not intended to apply. As we said in Fox v. Galloway, 174 Or. 339, 347, 148 P.2d 922, 925 (1944):
'When * * *...
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Johnson v. Star Machinery Co.
...E.g., Peters et al. v. McKay et al., 195 Or. 412, 439, 238 P.2d 225, 246 P.2d 585 (1952), and most recently in State v. Irving, 268 Or. 204, 206, 520 P.2d 354 (1974). In this context it would not be an unreasonable extension of the often quoted statement '* * * a thing may be within the let......
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State v. Engen
...content and application of that phrase, as well as with related concepts in an associated statute, ORS 161.105(1). In State v. Irving, 268 Or. 204, 520 P.2d 354 (1974), rev'g 14 Or.App. 671, 514 P.2d 909 (1973), the defendant was charged with fraudulent sale of imitation drugs under former ......
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State v. Andrews
...(court assumed, without deciding, that the Oregon Criminal Code applied to Portland city ordinances). 3. See, e.g., State v. Irving, 268 Or. 204, 207, 520 P.2d 354 (1974) (in prosecution for fraudulent sale of imitation drugs under former ORS 167.232 (1971), state was not required to prove ......
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State v. Rainoldi
...that the statute defining the offense imposes liability without fault. The court considered a similar proposition in State v. Irving, 268 Or. 204, 520 P.2d 354 (1974). At issue in that case was the extent to which former ORS 167.232 (1971), repealed by Or. Laws 1977, ch. 745, § 54, which pr......