Woods v. State
| Decision Date | 07 September 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 2D06-4274.,2D06-4274. |
| Citation | 987 So.2d 669 |
| Parties | Joseph Javaun WOODS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Timothy J. Ferreri, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.
Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and William I. Munsey, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
Joseph Javaun Woods appeals an order that the trial court apparently intended to serve as a judgment and sentence for direct criminal contempt. We reverse the order for three reasons. First, the order is not a sufficient judgment with a recital of facts. Second, the trial court failed to provide Mr. Woods the right to appointed counsel before conducting a cursory hearing and sentencing Mr. Woods to 179 days in jail. Finally, the trial court did not prove that Mr. Woods' utterance of the single word "shit" in apparent frustration while he was leaving a closed-circuit courtroom facility inside the county jail was an act that constituted direct criminal contempt. On remand, assuming that a videotape of this event still exists and that the delays caused by the trial court's numerous errors have not unduly prejudiced Mr. Woods' ability to answer to these charges, the trial court may reconsider the charge of direct criminal contempt after appointing counsel to represent Mr. Woods. It may only adjudicate Mr. Woods guilty of this offense, however, if it can establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Woods' conduct fell within the narrow range of conduct constituting direct criminal contempt.
In June 2005, Mr. Woods was arrested for possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor, and for the possession of marijuana with intent to sell, a felony. He was declared indigent and received appointed counsel. In January 2006, Mr. Woods entered into a negotiated plea with the State in which the State dropped the felony charge and Mr. Woods pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge in exchange for a term of probation. It appears that this offense was Mr. Woods' first and only conviction.
In August 2006, while on probation, Mr. Woods was arrested and charged with fleeing to elude a law enforcement officer, driving on a suspended license, carrying a concealed firearm, and felon in possession of a firearm. The facts and circumstances surrounding that arrest are not in the record on appeal.
Mr. Woods appeared for a first appearance hearing on August 20, 2006, by way of closed-circuit television. The physical layout of this closed-circuit proceeding is not well described in the record. It is clear, however, that Mr. Woods was in a room with closed-circuit television equipment at the Polk County Jail with the bailiff, and Judge J. Dale Durrance was presiding in the video courtroom at the Polk County Courthouse. The transcript of the first appearance hearing, including the entire "trial" in which Mr. Woods was found guilty of direct criminal contempt and sentenced to 179 days in jail, follows:
The above matter came on for a First Appearance Hearing on August 20, 2006, at the Polk County Courthouse, Bartow, Polk County, Florida before the Honorable J. Dale Durrance, Circuit Judge. Appearances were unknown esquire, for the State and unknown esquire, for the Defense.
THEREUPON, the following proceedings were had and taken:
Following this hearing the trial court entered a form order entitled "Order Following (Remote) First Appearance Hearing." In addition to noting the four charges for which the court found probable cause and set no bond, the court clerk hand-wrote the following: "5) Contempt of Court—No Bond—See Snapout." On a line for comments, the court clerk added: "▵ hollard [sic] `shit' on leaving Ct.Rm— Ct held OTSC hearing on him— ▵ held in contempt adj'd—sentenced to 179 days county jail." Judge Durrance then signed this form, and we are now called upon to review it as a judgment and sentence of direct criminal contempt.
We begin with two preliminary comments. The first concerns the Tenth Judicial Circuit's continuing practice of using "snap-out" or form orders despite continued criticism leveled against this practice. The second concerns the circuit court's acknowledged practice of denying bond in all cases in which a new offense is alleged to also be a violation of probation.
There has been a long-standing practice in the Tenth Judicial Circuit of entering final orders in criminal cases on "snap-out" forms. This case is only the most recent in a series of cases in which such forms have been used improperly.1 The use of such forms is particularly inappropriate when the form is used for a purpose other than the one for which it was created. Here the court used a standard form intended to record the results of first appearance hearings to act as a judgment and sentence on a new and distinct criminal charge.2 If this court had the power to do so, it would order the Tenth Judicial Circuit to cease and desist in the use of this type of form final order. See, e.g., Heath v. State, 840 So.2d 307 (Fla. 2d DCA 2003) (). The power to regulate this matter of procedure, however, lies with the supreme court. In this case, we simply reverse yet another misused form that may have provided an economic benefit to the circuit court, but only at the expense of an individual's legal rights.
Second, this case is an example of the Tenth Judicial Circuit's apparently regular practice of denying bond to anyone who could be subject to a violation of probation, whether felony probation or misdemeanor probation. The legal authority to do this is not entirely obvious to this court. Other courts within this district do not seem to share this interpretation of the law. This practice is questionable for several reasons.
It appears from our record that at the time of the first appearance hearing, Mr. Woods had not been charged with violating his probation. The court was thus considering the propriety of pretrial detention or release in the context of the new charges. Article I, section 14, of the Florida Constitution provides:
Pretrial release and detention.—Unless charged with a capital offense or an offense punishable by life imprisonment and the proof of guilt is evident or the presumption is great, every person charged with a crime or violation of municipal or county ordinance shall be entitled to pretrial release on reasonable conditions. If no conditions of release can reasonably protect the community from risk of physical harm to persons, assure the presence of the accused at trial, or assure the integrity of the judicial process, the accused may be detained.
Section 907.041(4), Florida Statutes (2006), sets forth circumstances in which a court can require pretrial detention, and ...
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...or omission calculated to hinder the orderly functions of the court.” Davila, 100 So.3d at 264 (emphasis added). See also Woods v. State, 987 So.2d 669, 677 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007) (“[A]n intent beyond mere rudeness was required before the court could adjudicate Mr. Woods guilty of direct crimin......
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...to counsel in a direct criminal contempt proceeding. Al–Hakim v. State, 53 So.3d 1171, 1174 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011) ; Woods v. State, 987 So.2d 669, 674 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007). The Fourth District agrees. See Hayes v. State, 592 So.2d 327, 329 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992). However, the First District holds o......
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...omission calculated to hinder the orderly functions of the court." Davila, 100 So. 3d at 264 (emphasis added). See also Woods v. State, 987 So. 2d 669, 677 (Fla. 2d DCA 2007) ("[A]n intent beyond mere rudeness was required before the court could adjudicate Mr. Woods guilty of direct crimina......
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