Tag: Guilty Plea

When is a guilty plea the product of coercion?

Posted on by Jeff Jaeger

State v. Smith (Nev. Supreme Ct. – Sep. 3, 2015)

Smith pleaded no contest to one count of child abuse resulting in substantial bodily harm. The State argued that the district court abused its discretion when it found that the actions of the Washoe County Department of Social Services (DSS) coerced Smith into pleading no contest. The issue is whether the district court abused its discretion in concluding that those actions amounted to coercion and that Smith’s no-contest plea was therefore involuntary.

Smith’s two-month-old daughter suffered a spiral fracture of her femur on November 30, 2010, purportedly while in Smith’s care. Smith always maintained his innocence of child abuse, but DSS concluded that Smith broke the leg in an act of child abuse and sought and obtained legal custody over the infant. Smith’s wife often had physical custody of their daughter, but at times DSS sought and/or obtained physical custody of the infant and placed her in foster care. As noted in the district court order partially granting Smith’s habeas petition, DSS indicated that it would consent to returning both physical and legal custody to Smith’s wife but that doing so was solely dependent upon Smith’s incarceration. After Smith was sentenced to prison in May 2012, DSS closed the case and returned legal and physical custody of the infant to Smith’s wife.

Smith filed a timely post-conviction petition for a writ of habeas corpus in which he argued that he should be allowed to withdraw his no-contest plea because it was coerced and thus not voluntary. Based on the facts above, the district court concluded that Smith was coerced into pleading no contest and issued an order partially granting the petition, directing the judgment of conviction and sentence be set aside, and concluding that he be allowed to withdraw his no-contest plea. The State appealed.

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What must a court consider before permitting withdrawal of a guilty plea?

Posted on by Jeff Jaeger

Stevenson v. State (Nev. Supreme Ct. – Aug. 13, 2015)

NRS 176.165 allows a defendant who has pleaded guilty, but not been sentenced, to petition the district court to withdraw his plea. The issue is whether a district court must consider the totality of the circumstances to determine whether permitting withdrawal of a guilty plea before sentencing would be fair and just.

Stevenson was charged with numerous offenses relating to his sexual attacks of three women between 2007 and 2009. The evidence against him appeared to be strong, consisting of identifications by the women and a DNA match. The cases were consolidated, and Stevenson chose to represent himself. As trial approached, he attempted to obtain a surveillance video of the Cheetahs gentlemen’s club parking lot where one of the women was sexually assaulted. When it became clear that the State had lost the video, Stevenson moved to dismiss the charges. The district court denied his motion on March 9, 2011. On November 9, shortly before trial was set to begin, Stevenson informed the district court that Cheetahs still had the actual machine that the club had used to record surveillance footage. According to Stevenson, the manager had unplugged the machine when the video had been requested, but it required a password that she did not know and therefore she could not retrieve the recording. Stevenson argued that the video should exist on the machine’s hard drive and he would not be ready for trial until he saw it. The parties decided that a computer technician would attempt to break into the machine and access the video overnight. The next day, without any explanation, Stevenson pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted sexual assault.

On February 21, 2012, before sentencing, Stevenson moved to withdraw his plea on the ground that he had been misled about the existence of the video. According to Stevenson, he had only pleaded guilty because his court-appointed standby counsel told him that the video could not be viewed unless the machine was sent back to the company that made it, which would take several months and could erase the video. But, after he pleaded guilty, Stevenson allegedly learned that the video could be extracted in mere days and there was no risk of damaging it in the process. The district court conducted an evidentiary hearing regarding this claim where Stevenson’s investigator, the computer technician, and Cheetahs’ manager testified. After their testimony, the district court denied Stevenson’s motion pursuant to Crawford v. State, 117 Nev. at 718, 30 P.3d 1123 (2001), finding that his plea was entered into knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently. Stevenson appealed.

Stevenson argued that Crawford’s exclusive focus on whether the plea was knowing, voluntary, and intelligent lacked foundation in NRS 176.165. He pointed out that, before Crawford, the Nevada Supreme Court had interpreted NRS 176.165 to permit the withdrawal of a guilty plea before sentencing for any “fair and just” reason, which included reasons beyond just whether the plea was validly entered.

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Can a guilty plea for a drug offense be used to deny unemployment benefits?

Posted on by Jeff Jaeger

Hohenstein v. State, Emp’t Sec. Div. (Nev. Supreme Ct. – Apr. 2, 2015)

NRS 453.3363 affords certain first-time drug offenders the opportunity to avoid a criminal conviction if the offender pleads guilty, then successfully completes a probationary period. Upon successfully completing probation, the offender is discharged and the charges are dismissed. Addressing the civil consequences of such a plea to the offender who successfully completes probation, NRS 453.3363(4) provides: [D]ischarge and dismissal under this [statute] is without adjudication of guilt and is not a conviction for purposes. . . of employment, civil rights or any statute or regulation or license or questionnaire or for any other public or private purpose.”

The issue is how does this statute apply to a public school teacher who was terminated after pleading guilty but before completing probation, specifically, whether a guilty plea pursuant to NRS453.3363 may be used to deny unemployment benefits to the terminated teacher.

Hohenstein, a teacher for the Washoe County School District (WCSD), was arrested for and pleaded guilty to possessing marijuana in his residence in violation of NRS 453.336. Because this was his first offense, the district court did not enter a judgment of conviction. Instead, it suspended Hohenstein’s sentence and placed him on probation for a period not to exceed 3 years. Per NRS 453.3363(1), if Hohenstein fulfilled the conditions of probation, the criminal proceedings would be dismissed in accordance with NRS 453.3363(3).

On learning of Hohenstein’s arrest the WCSD suspended him and began termination proceedings, during which Hohenstein entered his guilty plea. The WCSD specified its final grounds for terminating Hohenstein, consistent with NRS 391.31297, as: (1) immorality, (2) conviction of a felony or of a crime involving moral turpitude, and (3) any cause which constitutes grounds for revocation of a teaching license.

Hohenstein sought unemployment benefits. After a hearing, the Employment Security Division (ESD) denied Hohenstein benefits on finding that his guilty plea established that the WCSD had terminated Hohenstein for “workplace misconduct,” to wit: he had committed immoral conduct under NRS 391.31297(1)(b), which disqualified him from eligibility for unemployment benefits under NRS 612.385. Hohenstein filed an unsuccessful petition for judicial review, then appealed.

The Nevada Supreme Court determined that the WCSD relied on Hohenstein’s guilty plea as grounds both for terminating him and for establishing that his termination was misconduct-based, making him ineligible for unemployment compensation. The WCSD thus equated Hohenstein’s guilty plea with a felony conviction and persuaded the ESD that Hohenstein’s termination was felony-based.

Upon review of the ESD’s decision, the Nevada Supreme Court adopted the reasoning and interpretation offered in Tate v. Board of Education of Kent County, 485 A.2d 688 (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 1985) and held that, since NRS 453.3363(4) forestalls a final judgment of conviction “for purposes of employment, civil rights or any statute or regulation or license or questionnaire or for any other public or private purpose” if the offender successfully completes probation, the guilty plea may not be used to establish misconduct based grounds for termination for purposes of denying unemployment compensation during the probationary period. The Court reversed the district court’s order denying judicial review and remanded with instructions that the district court remand to the ESD to determine, without considering Hohenstein’s guilty plea, whether the WCSD met its burden to demonstrate that Hohenstein committed disqualifying misconduct under NRS 612.385 for which he was terminated.