Wiegmann v. State, 1432

• Decision Date: 01 September 1996
• Docket Number: No. 1432,1432
• Citation: 118 Md.App. 317,702 A.2d 928
• Parties: Kevin Joseph WIEGMANN v. STATE of Maryland. ,
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 317

118 Md.App. 317

702 A.2d 928

Kevin Joseph WIEGMANN v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 1432, Sept. Term, 1996.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

Dec. 1, 1997.

Claudia A. Cortese, Asst. Public Defender (Stephen E. Harris, Public Defender, on the brief), Baltimore, for appellant.

Kathryn Grill Graeff, Asst. Atty. Gen., J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., Baltimore (Marna McLendon, State's Atty. for Howard County, Ellicott City, on the brief), for appellee.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J., HOLLANDER, J., and JOHN J. BISHOP, Judge (retired), Specially Assigned.

HOLLANDER, Judge.

This criminal case arises from a courtroom brawl that erupted during domestic proceedings before a circuit court master. We must determine whether the authority of a domestic master to conduct and regulate court proceedings includes the power to authorize the arrest of a litigant, pending judicial review of the master's recommendation of a finding of contempt and immediate incarceration.

Kevin Joseph Wiegmann, appellant, appeared without counsel before a circuit court master for a contempt hearing in connection with his failure to pay court-ordered child support. At the conclusion of the hearing, the master opined that appellant was in contempt and that immediate incarceration was warranted. Consequently, two sheriff's deputies who were stationed in the courtroom attempted to handcuff appellant. A scuffle ensued that culminated in criminal charges against appellant for resisting arrest and assault and battery. Thereafter, a jury in the Circuit Court for Howard County acquitted appellant of resisting arrest, but convicted him of battery. The court sentenced appellant to ninety days of incarceration, with all but ten days suspended, followed by fifteen months of probation.

Appellant timely lodged his appeal and presents three questions for our review, which we have reordered:

I. Did the trial court erroneously restrict defense counsel's ability to present a defense?

II. Did the trial court err in its instructions to the jury?

III. Was the evidence sufficient to support appellant's conviction?

We answer the first two question in the affirmative. Accordingly, for the reasons that follow, we shall vacate appellant's battery conviction and remand for further proceedings.

Factual Summary

The events that spawned the criminal charges occurred on September 21, 1995, when appellant appeared at a hearing before Howard County Circuit Court Master Elaine Patrick (the "master's hearing") with respect to his child support obligation. ¹ A redacted version of the transcript from the master's hearing was admitted as an exhibit at the criminal trial. ² It indicates the following, in pertinent part:

[MASTER PATRICK]: Based on the evidence I've heard today, it is quite clear to me that the defendant is in contempt.

* * * *

So I am going to hold you in contempt. I'm going to sentence you to forty-five (45) days' incarceration. I'm going to set a purge figure of Thirty-Five Hundred Dollars ($3,500.00), Mr. Wiegmann. That means, if you pay the thirty-five hundred dollars, you do not have to serve the time. That's the difference between civil and criminal contempt.

In light of your claim to live in Georgia, I am going to recommend that the incarceration be immediate from the courtroom, and that an immediate Order be entered. I'm going to enter a judgment for the arrears, which is Fourteen Thousand, Nine Hundred and Ninety-Three Dollars and Sixty-Five Cents ($14,993.65). Payments through the Department of Social Services, secured by a wage lien. Future service by first-class mail.

Mr. Wiegmann: Your Honor?

The Master: Yes, Mr. Wiegmann?

Mr. Wiegmann: Ah, I want to, like to file my exceptions now.

The Master: Mr. Wiegmann, you can file those prior to your exceptions. I'm going to recommend that an immediate order be entered, so we can--

Mr. Wiegmann: Also, a motion for stay of sentence pending the outcome of the exceptions hearing. And a request for filing fees and costs be paid by the State for my transcripts and other related fees, since I was not--, Public Defender's--. (To the Deputy ) Hold on a second. Hold on a second. Get, get away from me until I'm done.

The Master: Excuse me, Mr. Wiegmann. This is not up to you at this point.

The Deputy: Put your hands behind your back.

The Master: Cooperate with the deputies, Mr. Wiegmann.

(Emphasis added).

The State also called Master Patrick as a witness. She explained that after she announced her findings, appellant approached the bench to file handwritten exceptions and a motion to stay the sentence. ³ The master planned "to pass them along to the Judge" so that the court could consider the pleadings in its evaluation of her recommendation. As appellant was speaking to the Master Patrick, she observed that

the deputies were standing, and [appellant] said--he was saying stop, or back up or something. I didn't understand that because they were just--in my recollection they were just standing there. And then I had his paper, the deputy stepped forward, and then he started saying get away from me, get away from me. I said Mr. Wiegmann, it's not up to you at this point.

When the master saw appellant's "arm going up," she left the courtroom to find another deputy, out of concern that there might be an "incident."

Master Patrick explained that she recommended immediate incarceration because she did not want appellant, who resided in Georgia, to avoid a jail sentence by flight. Her "concern" about flight was fueled by her belief that appellant had "failed to appear for a prior hearing," he was in her court on a "cash only bond," and appellant might not "hang around" if she gave him a surrender date.

Nevertheless, the master recognized that she had no express authority to detain appellant. Indeed, she knew that only a circuit court judge could have incarcerated Wiegmann. The master believed, however, that Maryland Rules 2-541 and S74A ⁴ did not require her to give appellant "an opportunity to make it out the door if what I'm recommending is an immediate incarceration." Thus, she steadfastly maintained that she was entitled to detain appellant, pending the circuit court's consideration of her recommendation, because a contempt order may be entered at any time and because "the proceeding isn't actually complete until the Judge has an opportunity to rule" on the recommendation for immediate incarceration. Consequently, she thought that "in that moment between making the recommendation for immediate incarceration ... and getting the file down to the Judge and making sure that the hearing proceeds on the recommendation ... in appropriate instances someone may need to be detained in order to insure the ... orderly action on the recommendation."

The master acknowledged, however, that appellant never made any statements about fleeing. She also conceded that appellant appeared for the hearing even though, based on his own experience, "he understood that one potential outcome of a contempt finding could be incarceration." ⁵ Nor did the master ever ask appellant to "have a seat" and wait while she referred the matter to a judge. Moreover, in the particular segment of time that is especially relevant here--when appellant was at the bench filing exceptions--there is absolutely no indication in the record of any attempt by appellant to flee the courtroom.

During direct examination, the prosecutor asked the master what she meant when she said it "is not up to you at this point." The master responded:

I meant that I was going--I wanted the deputies to detain [appellant] because I was going to ... try to get a hearing arranged that day on my recommendation for immediate incarceration, and I was going to have him detained while that process was going forward so we could get it resolved that day.... That's what I meant by that, that I wanted the deputies to detain [appellant] pending disposition on my recommendation for immediate incarceration.

Master Patrick never specifically instructed the deputies to detain appellant, but she admitted that she intended "to communicate to ... [the deputies] to please escort [appellant] out the back door and hold him until [she] had an opportunity to make arrangements with the Judge to hear the remainder of the proceeding." ⁶ The master agreed that, when the deputies sought to detain appellant, they were doing just what she wanted them to do, so that she could arrange for a judge to review her recommendations.

Although the master had not anticipated that the deputies would seek to handcuff appellant, she acknowledged that she expected appellant to comply. Moreover, the master conceded that appellant was not free to leave of his own accord. To the contrary, the master agreed that appellant's "freedom[ ] was taken from him by State authority." Master Patrick explained that, when she recommends immediate incarceration, "[t]hose gets [sic] done the same day [by the judge] one way or the other."

Two sheriff's deputies, Corporal James Horan and Deputy Andre Lingham, were assigned to Master Patrick's courtroom on the day of the incident. Corporal Horan, who testified for the State, recounted that the events in the courtroom unfolded rapidly and simultaneously.

Notwithstanding his fourteen years in the Sheriff's office, Horan testified that he did not know the legal distinction between a master and a judge, the extent of a master's authority, or the difference between a master's recommendation and a judge's order. As a deputy sheriff, Horan stated that he is "the law enforcement arm of the court," and his duties include courtroom security. He explained that "when a Judge or a Master advises that somebody is going to be taken into immediate custody from the courtroom that is directing that the subject is going to be taken into custody, to our lockup and then to the Detention Center." Moreover, in his "mind," the master had ordered appellant taken into custody, and the master is "the...