State v. Meeks

• Decision Date: 12 July 2001
• Docket Number: No. SC00-799.,SC00-799.
• Citation: 789 So.2d 982
• Parties: STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Timothy MEEKS, Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

789 So.2d 982

STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Timothy MEEKS, Respondent.

No. SC00-799.

Supreme Court of Florida.

July 12, 2001.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, James W. Rogers, Tallahassee Bureau Chief, and Trisha E. Meggs, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, for Petitioner.

Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender, and David P. Gauldin, Assistant Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, Tallahassee, FL, for Respondent.

LEWIS, J.

We have for review Meeks v. State, 754 So.2d 101 (Fla. 1st DCA 2000), wherein the district court of appeal certified the following question as being one of great public importance:

CAN A CIRCUIT COURT RE-SENTENCE A YOUTHFUL OFFENDER FOR A SUBSTANTIVE VIOLATION UNDER SECTION 958.14, FLORIDA STATUTES, WHEN THE ACTS UPON WHICH THE VIOLATION IS BASED DO NOT CONSTITUTE A SEPARATE CRIMINAL OFFENSE?

Id. at 104. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.

FACTS

In 1992, Timothy Meeks entered a plea of nolo contendere to a charge of attempted armed robbery with a firearm in exchange for a youthful offender sentence of four years in prison, followed by two years of probation. Meeks served his prison term, and was placed on probation following his release. In September 1996, a probation violation affidavit was filed, alleging that Meeks had violated several conditions, including an arrest for trespass after warning. On November 7, 1996, Meeks admitted the probation violation pursuant to a plea agreement with the State. The trial court revoked his probation, and sentenced him to two years of community control. In January 1997, a violation report was filed alleging that Meeks violated community control by failing to remain confined to his residence on four occasions.¹ During a May 1997 hearing, Meeks was found guilty of the alleged violation. The judge revoked Meeks' community control and resentenced him to ten years in prison.

Meeks appealed his sentence, arguing that it violated the statutory limit for youthful offender sentences because it exceeded the six-year maximum which could be imposed for technical violations pursuant to section 958.14, Florida Statutes (1995). The First District Court of Appeal agreed that failing to remain in his home was a "technical" and not a "substantive" violation of community control, as those terms are used in the statute. See Meeks, 754 So.2d at 104

. Accordingly, the court remanded for resentencing. It nevertheless certified the previously quoted question as one of great public importance. For purposes of clarifying the scope of our opinion, we rephrase the question to read as follows:

WHAT CONSTITUTES A "SUBSTANTIVE VIOLATION" OF PROBATION/COMMUNITY CONTROL AS THE TERMS ARE USED IN SECTION 958.14, FLORIDA STATUTES (1995)?

ANALYSIS

Section 958.14, Florida Statutes, addresses the sanctions which may be imposed upon a youthful offender who violates probation or community control and provides in pertinent part:

A violation or alleged violation of probation or the terms of a community control program shall subject the youthful offender to the provisions of s. 948.06(1). However, no youthful offender shall be committed to the custody of the [D]epartment [of Corrections] for a substantive violation for a period longer than the maximum sentence of the offense for which he or she was found guilty, with credit for time served while incarcerated, or for a technical or nonsubstantive violation for a period longer than 6 years or for a period longer than the maximum sentence for the offense for which he or she was found guilty, whichever is less, with credit for time served while incarcerated.

§ 958.14, Fla. Stat. (1995)(emphasis supplied).

As previously noted, the district court below concluded that a substantive violation "require[s] more than a mere breach of a condition of probation or community control, which is a by-product of the original offense. A separate act that constitutes a violation becomes a substantive one when it involves the commission of a separate criminal offense." Meeks, 754 So.2d at 103. The State, conversely, echoes the dissent below by suggesting that although commission of a new criminal offense would be a substantive violation of probation/community control, the category of violations which are "substantive" is not strictly limited to the commission of new criminal offenses. Specifically, the dissent below notes that because "confinement of the community controllee to his or her residence is the very essence of community control status," failure to remain so confined cannot constitute a "technical" violation. See id. at 106 (Miner, J., dissenting).

Numerous Florida cases have recognized the distinction between substantive versus technical/nonsubstantive violations set forth in the statute at issue here. See, e.g., Wilkey v. State, 712 So.2d 847 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998)

(remanding for an evidentiary hearing in a postconviction proceeding where youthful offender challenged length of sentence imposed after probation violation because record did not reveal whether violation was substantive or technical); see also Quiles v. State, 777 So.2d 992 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000); Escutary v. State, 753 So.2d 650 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000); Johnson v. State, 736 So.2d 708 (Fla. 2d DCA 1999); Robinson v. State, 702 So.2d 1346 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997); Hill v. State, 692 So.2d 277 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997); Johnson v. State, 678 So.2d 934 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996); Dunbar v. State, 664 So.2d 1093 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995); Reeves v. State, 605 So.2d 562 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992). While no Florida decision until Meeks had undertaken the task of specifically defining "substantive" or "technical/nonsubstantive," we do gain some insight through an analysis of how specific violations have been classified by various courts.

In so doing, one observation is obvious: violations which are based on the commission of a new criminal offense are consistently classified as "substantive" violations. See, e.g., Escutary, 753 So.2d at 651

(holding that youthful offender could be sentenced in excess of six year cap where probation violation was substantive in that he committed several criminal offenses); Robinson, 702 So.2d at 1347 ("Committing a new criminal offense is a substantive violation of probation."); Hill, 692 So.2d at 278 (finding that a youthful offender who drove with a suspended license could be sentenced to more than six years because his violation of probation was substantive); Johnson, 678 So.2d at 935 (concluding that a youthful offender found guilty of grand theft, burglary, possession of burglary tools and resisting arrest had committed a substantive violation of his probation which authorized the court to sentence him beyond the six year cap); Reeves, 605 So.2d at 563 ("In this case, there is no dispute that defendant's having resisted arrest without violence constituted such a substantive violation."). The cases do not mention, however, whether the "substantive" classification is exclusively comprised of violations premised on the commission of a new criminal offense. That is, while it is clear that a defendant who violates probation by committing a new offense is deemed to have committed a substantive violation, it is not clear that a transgression other than the commission of a new criminal act must also be classified as a "substantive" violation.

With respect to technical violations, the category has been held to encompass several transgressions. For example, in Dunbar, the court held that a youthful offender who failed to pay the costs of supervision, failed to report, and neglected to seek a GED had committed technical violations which subjected him to a maximum sentence of six years. See 664 So.2d at 1094. Similarly, in Dunsford v. State, 757 So.2d 580, 580 (Fla. 1st DCA 2000), the district court determined that a failure to timely file an accurate monthly report and to notify a probation officer of a change of residence were technical violations. See also Dixon v. State, 546 So.2d 1194, 1195 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989)

(analyzing pre 1990 version of the statute, which did not include the distinction of substantive versus technical violations, but nevertheless making a distinction by classifying failure to report to probation officer as a technical violation and armed robbery charges as substantive violations).

Some insight may also be gained from other cases which, although not necessarily dealing with the youthful offender scheme, have undertaken to make a distinction between technical and nonsubstantive violations.² For instance, in Floyd v. Parole & Probation Commission, 509 So.2d 919, 922 n. 1 (Fla.1987), Justice Barkett, in the course of a dissent,³ noted a distinction between substantive and technical violations. Specifically, she suggested that technical violations would include: change of residence without advising supervisors, failure to submit monthly reports, and willfully failing to pay costs of supervision. See id. However, she indicated only the commission of a separate crime while on probation or parole as a substantive violation. See id. Similarly, in Berry v. State, 484 So.2d 86, 87 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986), the district court reasoned: "The technical violations consisted of defendant's alleged failure to file truthful, written monthly reports, failure to pay various supervision and court costs, and his change of residence without notifying his probation officer. The substantive violations consisted of his alleged commission of four robberies and two attempted first-degree murders."

It should also be noted that since the issuance of Meeks by the First District, the Second District Court of Appeal, in Swilley v. State, 781 So.2d 458 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001), has cited to Meeks with approval, at least in dicta. Specifically, Swilley notes that other district courts have only included separate criminal offenses under the category of substantive violations, as used in the Youthful Offender Act. See id. at 460 (citing Meeks, 754 So.2d at 103 (1st DCA); Robinson...