STATE OF CONNECTICUT v. JAMES J. CICARELLA
AC 42788
Appellate Court of Connecticut
April 13, 2021
Prescott, Moll and Alexander, Js.
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Syllabus
Convicted, on a conditional plea оf nolo contendere, of the crime of larceny in the first degree, the defendant appealed to this court. He claimed that the trial court improperly denied his motion to dismiss, which alleged that the prosecution had been instituted improperly. Held that, becausе the defendant failed to challenge all of the court‘s independent bases for denying his motion to dismiss, the court was unable to provide the defendant with any practical relief and, therefore, the appeal was moot and the court was without subject matter jurisdiction; accordingly, the appeal was dismissed.
Argued January 19—officially released April 13, 2021
Procedural History
Information charging the defendant with the crime of larceny in the first degree, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of New Haven, geographical area number twenty-three, where the court, Alander, J., denied the defendant‘s motion to dismiss; thеreafter, the defendant was presented to the court, Clifford, J., on a conditional plea of nolo contendere; judgment of conviction in accordance with the plea, from which the defendant appealed to this court. Appeal dismissed.
David V. DeRosa, for the appellant (defendant).
Timothy J. Sugrue, assistant state‘s attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Patrick J. Griffin, state‘s attorney, and Michael R. Denison, assistant state‘s attorney, for the appellee (state).
Opinion
The following facts, as set forth in the trial court‘s memorandum of dеcision, and
Sudock‘s affidavit further alleged that the defendant withdrew funds from these accounts and falsely represented to the victim that the money had bеen used for his medical expenses. The defendant instead used the money to purchase, inter alia, a house in Madison. The defendant was charged with larceny in the first degree, and an arrest warrant was issued on August 1, 2016.
On December 17, 2018, the defendant moved to dismiss the information, arguing that thе prosecution had been instituted improperly. The defendant claimed that “the crime(s) alleged in the warrant submitted by the Madison Police Department and the state‘s long form information were committed in another jurisdiction, Wallingford. Consequently, the defendant was not propеrly under the jurisdiction of the Madison Police Department inasmuch as no crime has been alleged to have been committed in Madison and as a result, the court does not have jurisdiction.” The state countered that larceny constituted a continuing crime and that the subsequеnt involvement of, and the steps taken by, the state‘s attorney‘s office rendered the arrest and prosecution of the defendant proper.
The court, Alander, J., held a hearing on January 8, 2019, and issued a memorandum of decision two days later. In denying the defendant‘s motion to dismiss, the court set forth twо bases for its decision. First, the court, citing State v. Benson, 153 Conn. 209, 218, 214 A.2d 903 (1965), agreed with the state‘s argument that larceny constituted a continuing crime and rejected the defendant‘s efforts to draw a distinction between the theft of physical property and that of money. Second, citing State v. Fleming, 198 Conn. 255, 262–63, 502 A.2d 886, cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1143, 106 S. Ct. 1797, 90 L. Ed. 2d 342 (1986), the court determined thаt “[a]ny investigation by the Madison police of a crime committed outside their municipality does not invalidate the defendant‘s prosecution.”
On January 16, 2019, the defendant entered a conditional plea of nolo contendere to the charge of larceny in the first dеgree, which the court, Clifford, J., accepted. Pursuant to
On appeal, the defendant claims that the court improperly denied his motion to dismiss the information charging him with the crime of larceny in the first degree. In
Absent from the defendant‘s appellate brief, however, is a challenge to the second basis relied on by the trial court in denying the motion to dismiss, namely, that, pursuant to State v. Fleming, supra, 198 Conn. 255, an illegal arrest does not invalidate his prosecution and subsequent conviction. In Fleming, our Supreme Court stated: “The relationship between an illegal arrest and a subsequent prosecution under federal constitutional law is well settled. In an unbroken line of cases dating back to 1886, the federal rule has been that an illegal arrest will not bar a subsequent proseсution or void a resulting conviction.” Id., 259; see also State v. Johnson, 227 Conn. 534, 539–40, 630 A.2d 1059 (1993); State v. Bagnaschi, 180 Conn. App. 835, 857, 184 A.3d 1234, cert. denied, 329 Conn. 912, 186 A.3d 1170 (2018).4 The defendant‘s failure to challenge this independent basis for the denial of his motion to dismiss renders his appeal moot, as we cannot afford him any practical relief.
“Mootness is a question of justiciability that must be determined as a threshоld matter because it implicates [this] court‘s subject matter jurisdiction . . . . The fundamental principles underpinning the mootness doctrine are well settled. We begin with the four part test for justiciability . . . . Because courts are established to resolve actual controversies, befоre a claimed controversy is entitled to a resolution on the merits it must be justiciable. Justiciability requires (1) that there be an actual controversy between or among the parties to the dispute . . . (2) that the interests of the parties be adverse . . . (3) that the matter in controversy be capable of being adjudicated by the judicial power . . . and (4) that the determination of the controversy will result in practical relief to the complainant. . . .
“Where an appellant fails to challenge all bases for a trial court‘s adverse ruling on his claim, even if this court were to agree with the appellant on the issues that he does raise, we still would not be able to provide [him] any relief in light of the binding adverse finding[s] [not raised] with respect to those claims. . . . Therefore, whеn an appellant challenges a trial court‘s adverse ruling, but does not challenge all independent bases for that ruling, the appeal is moot.” (Citations omitted; emphasis omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Lester, 324 Conn. 519, 526–27, 153 A.3d 647 (2017); see also Sobel v. Commissioner of Revenue Services, 333 Conn. 712, 716–17, 218 A.3d 581 (2019); In re Phoenix A., 202 Conn. App. 827, 838–40, 246 A.3d 517 (2021); State v. Carter, 194 Conn. App. 202, 206–208, 220 A.3d 882 (2019); State v. Holley, 174 Conn. App. 488, 503–507, 167 A.3d 1000, cert. denied, 327 Conn. 907, 170 A.3d 3 (2017), cert. denied, U.S. , 138 S. Ct. 1012, 200 L. Ed. 2d 275 (2018).
Here, the defendant failed to challenge the court‘s indеpendent basis for denying his motion to dismiss that, pursuant to State v. Fleming, supra, 198 Conn. 255, an illegal arrest does not invalidate his prosecution and subsequent conviction.5 In his brief, the defendant first argued that the court erred in its finding that the Madison Police Department had the authority to investigate this crime and in its determinatiоn that larceny of money, as opposed to larceny of physical property, is a continuing crime such that each municipality where the money is spent has jurisdiction to arrest the defendant. Second, he contended that, even if the investigation by the Madison Police Department was proper, the correct course of action was to dismiss the case and, “if the [state‘s] attorney in coordination with [the] Wallingford Police Department [commences] a new case and it is within the statute of limitations, then proceed on the new arrest.” Accordingly, as a result of the defendant‘s failure to challenge all of the court‘s bases for denying his motion to dismiss, we cannot afford him any practical relief, rendering this appeal moot and leaving this court without subject matter jurisdiction.
The appeal is dismissed.