State v. Leach
| Decision Date | 09 March 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 25898.,25898. |
| Citation | 20 P.3d 709,135 Idaho 525 |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Rae Ann LEACH, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Idaho Court of Appeals |
Beer & Cain, Boise; Lynn, Scott, Hackney Jackson, Boise, for appellant. J. Gardiner Hackney, Jr. argued.
Hon. Alan G. Lance, Attorney General; Kenneth K. Jorgensen, Deputy Attorney General, Boise, for respondent. Kenneth K. Jorgensen argued.
Rae Ann Leach was convicted of aggravated battery for having attacked a child with a knife during a period of psychosis. The district court imposed a unified fifteen-year sentence with a one-year minimum term, but suspended the sentence and placed Leach on probation, subject to stringent terms of supervision. The court subsequently found Leach to have violated one of the probation terms and therefore revoked probation and ordered execution of the previously suspended sentence. Leach appeals, contending that the term of probation that she was found to have violated was too ambiguous to permit enforcement, and alternatively, that there was insufficient evidence to support the finding that she violated the term or that any such violation was intentional. Leach also asserts that her sentence is unlawful.
In September 1995, Rae Ann Leach was indicted for aggravated battery, Idaho Code §§ 18-903 and 18-907(a), stemming from an incident where Leach, in a psychotic episode, cut the throat of a child. Leach pleaded guilty to the charge.1 Evidence presented during the sentencing hearing showed that Leach suffers from schizoaffectic disorder with psychotic hallucinations, but that her illness is well controlled by medication and therapy. The district court imposed a unified fifteen-year sentence with a one-year minimum term, but suspended the sentence and placed Leach on probation. The conditions of probation included a requirement of continued psychiatric treatment and a requirement that Leach be in the company of a responsible adult twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. In order to comply with the latter term, Leach retained the services of an adult supervisor, Sheri Russell, for day supervision, and Leach's husband fulfilled that role during the evening and at night.
In July 1999, Leach's treating psychiatrist, Dr. Jerelyn Jones, directed that Leach be hospitalized because of a deterioration of Leach's mental stability. A few days later, a motion for a bench warrant for probation violations was filed alleging that Leach had violated her probation terms by failing to submit a truthful monthly report and supply required information about her medical status to her probation officer. This motion was later modified to include an allegation that on several occasions Leach had violated the probation term requiring that she be in the company of a responsible adult at all times.
At the hearing on the alleged violations, Dr. Jones testified that before Leach was arrested for the violations, she had experienced an increase in the number of auditory hallucinations urging her to commit acts of violence. Leach asked Dr. Jones to not report this fact to her probation officer, but Dr. Jones did so because she was concerned that Leach would need more supervision. Several other witnesses testified about lapses in Leach's adherence to the twenty-four-hour supervision requirement. According to this evidence, Leach had regularly attended water aerobics classes at the YMCA. She was usually accompanied by Russell, but on three occasions, Russell was in the women's locker room lounge watching television while Leach was in the swimming pool attending the class. The pool was not visible from the women's locker room, which was located on a floor above the pool. In addition, there was testimony from a neighbor that Leach had been walking alone on the street near her house.
At the conclusion of the hearing, the district court found that Leach violated the conditions of her probation on four occasions when she was not in the company of a responsible adult—three times at the YMCA swimming pool and once on the street. The other alleged violations were found not to be supported by the evidence. As a consequence of the established violations, the district court revoked Leach's probation and ordered execution of the original sentence. The court also denied Leach's subsequent motion to reconsider the sentence.
On appeal, Leach asserts that the term of her probation requiring supervision was too vague and ambiguous to be enforceable and that the evidence does not support a finding that Leach violated this term. In addition, Leach contends that even if a violation occurred, the district court abused its discretion in revoking Leach's probation because any such violation was unintentional or inadvertent. Leach also argues that her sentence constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and/or violates I.C. § 19-2523(1) and (2) and should have been modified upon her post-revocation motion.
Probation revocation proceedings ordinarily present three potential issues for the trial court's consideration:
First, was a condition of probation actually violated? Ordinarily, this is a question of fact. Second, does the violation justify revoking the probation? This is a question addressed to the judge's sound discretion. Third, and finally, if probation is revoked, what prison sentence should be ordered? Specifically, if a prison sentence previously has been pronounced but suspended, should that sentence be ordered into execution or should the court order a reduced sentence as authorized by I.C.R. 35? This question, too, is one of discretion.
State v. Adams, 115 Idaho 1053, 1054, 772 P.2d 260, 261 (Ct.App.1989). A trial court's finding of a probation violation will be upheld on appeal if there is substantial evidence in the record to support the finding. State v. Chavez, 134 Idaho 308, 312, 1 P.3d 809, 813 (Ct.App.2000); State v. Jones, 129 Idaho 471, 475, 926 P.2d 1318, 1322 (Ct.App.1996); State v. Lafferty, 125 Idaho 378, 381, 870 P.2d 1337, 1340 (Ct.App.1994). In deciding whether revocation of probation is the appropriate response to a violation, the court considers whether the probation is achieving the goal of rehabilitation and whether continued probation is consistent with the protection of society. State v. Jones, 123 Idaho 315, 318, 847 P.2d 1176, 1179 (Ct.App.1993); State v. Hass, 114 Idaho 554, 558, 758 P.2d 713, 717 (Ct.App.1988). If a knowing and intentional probation violation has been proved, a district court's decision to revoke probation will be reviewed for an abuse of discretion. I.C. § 20-222; State v. Corder, 115 Idaho 1137, 1138, 772 P.2d 1231, 1232 (Ct.App.1989). However, if a probationer's violation of a probation condition was not willful, or was beyond the probationer's control, a court may not revoke probation and order imprisonment without first considering alternative methods to address the violation. See Bearden v. Georgia, 461 U.S. 660, 672-73, 103 S.Ct. 2064, 76 L.Ed.2d 221 (1983); Lafferty, 125 Idaho at 382-83, 870 P.2d at 1341-42. Only if the trial court determines that alternatives to imprisonment are not adequate in a particular situation to meet the state's legitimate interest in punishment, deterrence, or the protection of society, may the court imprison a probationer who has made sufficient, genuine efforts to obey the terms of the probation order. Id.
Leach first contends that the condition of probation requiring that she have constant adult supervision was invalid and unenforceable because it was ambiguous. This term of her probation agreement provided:
During the period of the defendant's probation she shall be in the company of a responsible adult 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The defendant shall provide her probation officer with whatever information the probation officer deems necessary to monitor compliance with this condition.
Leach asserts that what is meant by "in the company of a responsible adult" is vague and ambiguous and did not give her adequate notice of the conduct that was required or forbidden. However, Leach did not raise this challenge to the probation condition before the district court. At no point during the hearings below did Leach question the validity of this probation term or contend that it was misleading or impermissibly vague. A challenge to the validity of a probation term that was not raised before the district court will not be considered on appeal. State v. Russell, 122 Idaho 488, 490, 835 P.2d 1299, 1301 (1992); State v. Breeden, 129 Idaho 813, 816, 932 P.2d 936, 939 (Ct. App.1997). Therefore, we will not consider this newly framed issue as to whether the probation term was unenforceable due to a lack of clarity.
Leach next asserts that there was insufficient evidence to support the finding that she violated the probation term or that any such violation was willful. Leach asserts that the evidence that Russell was in the YMCA women's lounge watching television while Leach was downstairs in the swimming pool does not prove a probation violation. This is so, she asserts, because while in the swimming pool she was at all times in the company of fifteen to twenty other adults in the water aerobics class, all of whom were aware that Leach was on probation and was subject to the supervision requirement. Leach contends that the presence of these other adults satisfied the probation term, or at least she believed that it did, so that her violation was not willful or intentional.
We find virtually no support in the record for this contention that the probation term could be satisfied by the presence of any responsible adult or that Leach herself so interpreted it. The adult supervision requirement was initially imposed as a condition of Leach's release on bail before she pleaded guilty. At that time, the court directed Leach to notify the prosecutor's office of the name, address...
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