State v. Laperreri

• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: ALTENBERND
• Citation: State v. Laperreri, 710 So.2d 119 (Fla. App. 1998)
• Decision Date: 15 April 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-02894,97-02894
• Parties: 23 Fla. L. Weekly D985 STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Paul LAPERRERI, Appellee.

Page 119

710 So.2d 119

23 Fla. L. Weekly D985

STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Paul LAPERRERI, Appellee.

No. 97-02894.

District Court of Appeal of Florida Second District.

April 15, 1998.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Erica M. Raffel, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellant.

James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Tosha Cohen, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellee.

ALTENBERND, Acting Chief Judge.

The State appeals Paul Laperreri's sentence of 5 years' probation for possession of cocaine. We reverse because the trial court failed to include points for offenses in Mr. Laperreri's prior record that were greater than 10 years old. Because the State did not consent to the plea agreement between Mr. Laperreri and the trial court, the sentence cannot be affirmed as a downward departure based on uncoerced plea agreement.

On June 13, 1994, the police arrested Mr. Laperreri for possession of cocaine, which was found in the car he was driving. After the denial of his motion to suppress, he signed a plea form, agreeing to a term of 5 years' probation that could be terminated after 2 1/2 years if he successfully complied with the drug offender conditions. The State never signed the form or formally agreed to this plea.

At the change-of-plea hearing on January 30, 1997, the State argued that the trial court must include points on the scoresheet for Mr. Laperreri's offenses occurring prior to 1984. ¹ The eight older offenses were serious felonies, including attempted kidnapping, robbery, aggravated battery, burglary, and escape. Without these offenses, the scoresheet totaled 28.2 sentencing points, and probation was a proper sentence. If points are included for these offenses, then the score rises to 73.8 points, and the imposition of probation was a substantial downward departure.

The trial court announced that it had never been its policy to add points to a scoresheet for offenses older than 10 years. Accordingly, it accepted the smaller score and sentenced Mr. Laperreri to probation pursuant to the plea agreement. We note that the scoresheet has been stamped, "legitimate uncoerced plea bargain," but the trial court did not announce a downward departure sentence, the scoresheet is not signed by the judge, and it is not clear who may have placed this stamp on the scoresheet.

The trial court's announced policy is a misinterpretation of Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.702(d)(8)(A), which states:

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