State v. Magnuson

• Decision Date: 29 February 2000
• Docket Number: No. 98-1105-CR.,98-1105-CR.
• Citation: 2000 WI 19,606 N.W.2d 536,233 Wis.2d 40
• Parties: STATE of Wisconsin, Plaintiff-Respondent-Petitioner, v. Paul E. MAGNUSON, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

233 Wis.2d 40

2000 WI 19

606 N.W.2d 536

STATE of Wisconsin, Plaintiff-Respondent-Petitioner, v. Paul E. MAGNUSON, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 98-1105-CR.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Oral argument January 7, 2000.

Decided February 29, 2000.

For the plaintiff-respondent-petitioner the cause was argued by Lara M. Herman, assistant attorney general, with whom on the briefs was James E. Doyle, attorney general.

For the defendant-appellant, there was a brief and oral argument by Keith A. Findley, Madison.

¶ 1. ANN WALSH BRADLEY, J.

The petitioner, the State of Wisconsin, seeks review of an unpublished decision of the court of appeals that reversed a circuit court order denying the defendant's request for sentence credit.¹ The State contends that the defendant is not entitled to sentence credit since he was not in custody while released on bond to home detention with electronic monitoring. We determine that an offender's status constitutes custody for sentence credit purposes when the offender is subject to an escape charge for leaving that status. Because we conclude that the defendant here was not in custody, we reverse the court of appeals.

¶ 2. The relevant facts are not in dispute. The defendant, Paul E. Magnuson, was charged with eight counts of securities fraud on January 17, 1996. Bail was set at $12,000 per count, for a total of $96,000. Unable to post bail, Magnuson remained in jail.

¶ 3. Trial preparation in this securities fraud case required Magnuson's examination of thousands of pages of documents and computer records. However, institutional rules that prohibited access to more than two to four inches of documents per visit rendered such preparation difficult. As a result, Magnuson's attorney filed a motion requesting bail modification and reduction.

¶ 4. The circuit court modified bail to a $10,000 signature bond on each count and required that others co-sign the bond. As part of the bond, the court ordered Magnuson to reside with either his pastor, John Clark, or his other co-signers. He chose to reside with Pastor Clark.

¶ 5. The court imposed additional conditions of release on bond. Magnuson was subject to a nightly curfew that confined him to the Clark residence between the hours of 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. A subsequent modification extended the hours to 9:30 p.m. on Tuesdays to allow him to participate in substance abuse counseling and to 11:00 p.m. on other days, provided that he was attending church activities. This home detention as a condition of bond was not pursuant to an order from the sheriff or the Department of Corrections under Wis. Stat. § 302.425 (1997-98).²

¶ 6. Magnuson was formally supervised by a bail monitoring program and was required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet to ensure his presence within the Clark home during his curfew hours. The electronic bracelet sent signals to monitoring officials every 16 seconds and allowed Magnuson a roaming range of 75 feet from the monitor installed in the home. Officials from the Division of Intensive Sanctions (DIS) were responsible for detecting any violations of the monitoring, although Magnuson was not formally placed within the DIS program.

¶ 7. As a participant in the bail monitoring program, Magnuson was obligated to contact bail monitoring authorities every morning and submit to urinalysis as directed. The authorities also required face-to-face contact at least once a week. Other conditions of bond required Magnuson to: 1) participate in drug and alcohol treatment; 2) surrender his passport; 3) remain in Dane County during non-curfew hours; 4) avoid contact with named victims; 5) refrain from possessing or consuming any alcohol or drugs; 6) make all scheduled court appearances; and 7) refrain from involvement in further criminal activity.

¶ 8. The circuit court released Magnuson on bond to the care of Pastor Clark on June 12, 1996. He subsequently pled no contest to three of the original eight counts of securities fraud. Magnuson remained under Clark's care until December 11, 1996, when the pastor notified bail monitoring authorities that he disapproved of Magnuson's behavior. However, Pastor Clark reported no violations of the signature bond. Magnuson was ordered back into custody the following day and cash bail was set at $25,000 on each of the three counts. Unable to post bail, he remained in jail.

¶ 9. The circuit court later sentenced Magnuson to an aggregate term of eight years imprisonment, followed by seven years probation, and granted 229 days of sentence credit for the time he spent in jail. Magnuson subsequently filed a post-conviction motion seeking sentence modification and credit for the six months he resided with Pastor Clark as a condition of his bond. The court denied the motion, concluding that this home detention with electronic monitoring as a condition of bond did not constitute custody for sentence credit purposes.

¶ 10. Magnuson appealed the denial of additional sentence credit, and the court of appeals reversed. In an unpublished opinion, the court repeatedly expressed disfavor with State v. Collett, 207 Wis. 2d 319, 558 N.W.2d 642 (Ct. App. 1996), which adopted a case-by-case analysis to determine whether a defendant is in custody for purposes of sentence credit. State v. Magnuson, No. 98-1105-CR, unpublished slip op., 5-7 (Ct. App. Feb. 18, 1999). Noting that it was nevertheless constrained to follow precedent and to apply the Collett test, the court of appeals concluded that the bond conditions to which Magnuson was subject were restrictive enough to constitute the "functional equivalent of confinement." Id. at 6.

[1]

¶ 11. This case presents two issues. The first issue addresses the definition of custody for purposes of sentence credit under Wis. Stat. § 973.155. The second issue requires an analysis of whether Magnuson's bond conditions satisfied the definition of custody, thereby entitling him to sentence credit. Statutory interpretation and the application of a statute to particular facts present questions of law that we review independently of the determinations rendered by the circuit court and the court of appeals. Kierstyn v. Racine Unified Sch. Dist., 228 Wis. 2d 81, 88, 596 N.W.2d 417 (1999); Meyer v. School Dist. of Colby, 226 Wis. 2d 704, 708, 595 N.W.2d 339 (1999).

[2]

¶ 12. We begin our analysis of the first issue with an examination of Wis. Stat. § 973.155. This statute governs sentence credit and states in relevant part:

(1)(a) A convicted offender shall be given credit toward the service of his or her sentence for all days spent in custody in connection with the course of conduct for which sentence was imposed. As used in this subsection, "actual days spent in custody" includes, without limitation by enumeration, confinement related to an offense for which the offender is ultimately sentenced, or for any other sentence arising out of the same course of conduct, which occurs:

1. While the offender is awaiting trial;

2. While the offender is being tried; and

3. While the offender is awaiting imposition of sentence after trial.

¶ 13. Our initial step in statutory interpretation focuses on the plain language of the statute to discern the legislative intent. Beard v. Lee Enterprises, Inc., 225 Wis. 2d 1, 10, 591 N.W.2d 156 (1999). Here, the plain language of Wisconsin Stat. § 973.155(1)(a) does not explicitly define custody. However, numerous cases have interpreted the sentence credit statute and concluded that the plain meaning of custody under the statute corresponds to the definition of custody contained in the escape statute, Wis. Stat. § 946.42.

¶ 14. In State v. Gilbert, 115 Wis. 2d 371, 378-79, 340 N.W.2d 511 (1983), this court first encountered the issue of determining what constituted custody for sentence credit purposes and defined custody by reference to the escape statute. Section 946.42(1)(a)³ defines custody to include:

[W]ithout limitation actual custody of an institution, including a secured correctional facility, as defined in s. 938.02(15m) . . . a secure detention facility, as defined in s. 938.02(16) . . . or of a peace officer or institution guard and constructive custody of prisoners . . . temporarily outside the institution whether for the purpose of work, school, medical care, a leave granted under s. 303.068, a temporary leave or furlough granted to a juvenile or otherwise.

¶ 15. The Gilbert court also referenced the dictionary definition of custody, but courts thereafter have settled on the statutory definition, consistently referring to the escape statute for guidance. See e.g., State v. Cobb, 135 Wis. 2d 181, 184-85, 400 N.W.2d 9 (Ct. App. 1986)

; State v. Pettis, 149 Wis. 2d 207, 209-11, 441 N.W.2d 247 (Ct. App. 1989); State v. Sevelin, 204 Wis. 2d 127, 135, 554 N.W.2d 521 (Ct. App. 1996). The statute aptly incorporates the dictionary definition and is not inconsistent with it. Pettis, 149 Wis. 2d at 210.

¶ 16. Although Gilbert intended to provide clear guidelines for determining custody in the context of sentence credit, the court in State v. Collett nevertheless employed the same statutory definition of custody found in Wis. Stat. § 946.42(1)(a) to set forth the requirement of a case-by-case analysis. 207 Wis. 2d 319, 324-25, 558 N.W.2d 642 (Ct. App. 1996). Looking to the statute, the court determined that the enumerated examples of custody were "not exhaustive but only illustrative." Id. at 324.

¶ 17. At issue in Collett were the restrictions placed on a Department of Intensive Sanctions (DIS) participant and whether those restrictions constituted custody, thereby entitling the participant to sentence credit for time spent in the DIS program. Characterizing the Gilbert rule as "impractical," the Collett court embarked upon uncharted waters and established a new test to determine custody for purposes of sentence credit.

¶ 18. This test requires circuit courts to evaluate the specific restrictions on an offender's freedom and to...