State v. Cooper, 116738

On Feb. 16, 2016, Bradley Cooper pled no contest to two counts of possession of a controlled substance (severity level 5 felonies), possession of drug paraphernalia (class A misdemeanor), interference with law enforcement (class A misdemeanor), and an improper lane change (infraction).
Plea agreement: State would recommend concurrent sentences and probation rather than the presumptive prison term; Cooper moved for a dispositional departure to probation citing acceptance of responsibility and reduced recidivism risk.
At sentencing (Apr. 29, 2016) the district court followed the plea agreement, imposed concurrent terms producing a controlling 20-month imprisonment term but granted a dispositional departure to probation for 12 months as requested in Cooper’s motion.
Cooper’s appointed counsel filed a notice of appeal claiming the district court erred in sentencing, but Cooper did not specify the alleged error or assert the sentence was illegal.
The State agreed summary disposition was appropriate and argued Cooper could not challenge his presumptive sentence on direct appeal; the appellate court analyzed whether it had jurisdiction to review a plea-approved departure.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether an appellate court may review a departure sentence that resulted from a plea agreement the sentencing court approved on the record	Cooper appealed the sentence generally (claimed error) but did not identify illegality; he acknowledged limits under K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-6820(c)(2)	State: appellate review is barred for presumptive sentences and for sentences resulting from plea agreements approved on the record	The court held K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 21-6820(c)(2) is a more specific provision that divests appellate jurisdiction to review a departure sentence when the sentence resulted from an agreement between the State and defendant and was approved on the record; appeal dismissed

State v. Looney, 299 Kan. 903, 327 P.3d 425 (Kan. 2014) (discussed appellate jurisdiction to review departure sentences and distinction between plea-negotiated durational departures and non-plea dispositional departures)
State v. Nguyen, 304 Kan. 420, 372 P.3d 1142 (Kan. 2016) (noting statutory interpretation of sentencing statutes is a question of law with unlimited appellate review)