Jermell Dionte Moore v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.), 45A03-1704-CR-879

Moore pled guilty to Level 5 felony robbery and was sentenced to three years: two years in community corrections and one year on probation.
Moore absconded from the Lake County community corrections work program for about three months after placement.
Lake County community corrections denied Moore earned credit time for leaving the program; Moore signed a waiver of a hearing on that administrative credit-time decision and did not pursue administrative appeals.
The State filed a petition to expel/revoke Moore’s community corrections placement; at the revocation hearing Moore did not dispute the violation.
When defense counsel asked whether Moore wanted to explain himself, the trial court cut off allocution, saying it did not want to hear it. The court revoked community corrections and ordered Moore to serve the three-year sentence in the DOC.
On appeal, Moore argued (1) denial of due process in the credit-time proceeding and (2) denial of the right to allocution at the revocation hearing.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Moore was denied due process by waiver of a hearing and denial of counsel in the community corrections credit-time proceeding	Moore: community corrections denied him due process by allowing waiver without counsel and denying earned credit time	State: Moore signed waiver, did not exhaust administrative remedies (statutory appeal existed); any challenge is waived	Court: Moore failed to exhaust administrative remedies and did not prove a due process violation in this judicial proceeding; claim rejected
Whether Moore was denied the right to allocution at the revocation hearing	Moore: trial court prevented him from explaining his view, effectively denying allocution	State: court acted within discretion (implied) given facts and defense counsel’s representations	Court: Reversed — trial court improperly preempted allocution; Vicory requires that a defendant be allowed to speak if requested (or effectively requests)

Cox v. State, 706 N.E.2d 547 (Ind. 1999) (treats community corrections revocation like probation revocation; placement is discretionary)
Neff v. State, 888 N.E.2d 1249 (Ind. 2008) (offender must exhaust administrative remedies when community corrections errs in credit-time decisions)
Vicory v. State, 802 N.E.2d 426 (Ind. 2004) (defendant in probation-revocation proceeding has right to allocution when they request to speak)
Ross v. State, 676 N.E.2d 339 (Ind. 1997) (explains purpose and scope of allocution in Indiana sentencing and revocation contexts)