State v. MaestasState v. Maestas
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- Before:
- Chavez
{1} Defendant, a municipal judge, was convicted of five felony counts of official acts prohibited in violation of the New Mexico Governmental Conduct Act,
I. FACTS
{3} Both the State and Defendant interpret the pertinent facts of this case differently. What is undisputed is that Defendant, while a municipal court judge, on several occasions accepted sexual favors from a female who was a criminal defendant in his court. At trial, Defendant contended that the sexual encounters were entirely consensual, but that the woman and her boyfriend concocted a scheme to set up Defendant so that she could bring a civil rights lawsuit against the municipality where Defendant served as a municipal judge. Defendant asserted that the scheme involved the woman seducing Defendant, then claiming that Defendant coerced her into sex. Defendant argued that as part of the alleged scheme, the woman secretly tape recorded one of the sexual encounters.
{4} In contrast, the State argued that the woman was forced into performing sexual favors so that Defendant would lower her traffic fines, keep her out of jail, and not separate her from her children. The woman testified that after she appeared in Defendant’s courtroom regarding traffic citations, Defendant requested her to engage in sexual acts with him in exchange for Defendant lowering her fines and keeping her from serving up to ninety days in jail. The woman further testified that she initially denied Defendant’s requests, but that Defendant then threatened her that if she did not comply, he would not lower her fines, which would result in her going to jail, losing her job, and not being able to see her children. She also testified that she believed Defendant had the power to take her children away from her because Defendant was a judge. The State contended that Defendant did not reduce the woman’s fines and refused to sentence her, causing her case to be rescheduled fourteen times, so that Defendant could continue to coerce her into performing additional sexual acts. The woman testified that she eventually grew tired of Defendant not following through on his promise to reduce her fines, so she decided to tape record a sexual encounter with Defendant. An investigation into the audiotapes resulted in three more women coming forward with similar allegations against Defendant, although Defendant was acquitted of all of the latter charges.
II. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
{5} Defendant was charged with committing forty-four different crimes, including criminal sexual penetration (CSP) during the commission of a felony, CSP with the use of force or coercion, criminal sexual contact, extortion, violating official acts prohibited, and stalking. The predicate felonies for the charges of CSP during the commission of a felony were extortion and violating official acts prohibited under the Governmental Conduct Act. CSP during the commission of a felony is one of six categories of CSP in the second degree enumerated in the CSP statute.
{6} Defendant appealed his convictions to the New Mexico Court of Appeals, arguing three grounds for reversal: (1) the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury that coercion was an essential element of criminal sexual penetration during the commission of a felony, State v. Maestas, 2005-NMCA-062, ¶ 13, 137 N.M. 477, 112 P.3d 1134; (2) the trial court erred in admitting certain expert witness testimony, id. ¶ 29; (3) the trial court erred in excluding evidence that Defendant’s accuser operated a house of prostitution, id. ¶ 34. The Court of Appeals affirmed Defendant’s convictions, holding that coercion is not an essential element of criminal sexual penetration during the commission of a felony. Id. ¶26. Additionally, the court held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion either in admitting the State expert’s testimony or in excluding the evidence of Defendant’s accuser’s alleged prostitution. Id. ¶¶ 33, 37.
{7} We granted Defendant’s petition for certiorari on all three issues. After the parties filed their briefs, the State filed a supplemental brief alerting this Court that the Governmental Conduct Act, under which Defendant was convicted, appeared to expressly exclude judges from prosecution under the Act. See
III. FUNDAMENTAL ERROR ANALYSIS
{8} The doctrine of fundamental error is applied only under extraordinary circumstances to prevent the miscarriage of justice. Barber, 2004-NMSC-019, ¶ 8, 135 N.M. 621, 92 P.3d 633. The doctrine applies if the circumstances “implicate a fundamental unfairness within the system that would undermine judicial integrity if left unchecked.” State v. Cunningham, 2000-NMSC-009, ¶ 21, 128 N.M. 711, 998 P.2d 176. For exam-pie, if a defendant appears indisputably innocent of the crimes for which he was charged, or where it would shock the conscience to permit the conviction to stand, the convictions may be reversed under a fundamental error analysis. Id. ¶ 13.
{9} It is fundamental error to convict a defendant of a crime that does not exist. State v. Johnson, 103 N.M. 364, 371, 707 P.2d 1174, 1181 (Ct.App.1985). The question in this case is whether Defendant could lawfully be convicted of violating
{10}
{11} The legislature defined “public officer or employee” as “any person who has been elected to, appointed to or hired for any state
{12} Despite the express exclusion of judges in the Act, the State urges us to look beyond the plain meaning of the language, arguing that the Act is ambiguous. The State contends that the ambiguity arises out of the Act’s express exclusion of judges and legislators in the general definition of public officer, but inclusion of only legislators within the section of the statute that addresses official acts prohibited. The State theorizes that a legislative oversight resulted in the legislature mistakenly omitting judges when it included legislators in
{13} As to any alleged ambiguity, we disagree with the State that the Governmental Conduct Act is unclear with respect to its application to judges. The statute clearly defines a “public officer or employee” and expressly excludes “judges” from that definition.
{14} Unless ambiguity exists, this Court must adhere to the plain meaning of the language. Davis, 2003-NMSC-022, ¶ 6, 134 N.M. 172, 74 P.3d 1064. Our role is to construe statutes as written and we should not second guess the legislature’s policy decisions. See State ex rel. Helman v. Gallegos, 117 N.M. 346, 352, 871 P.2d 1352, 1358 (1994); State v. Ortega, 112 N.M. 554, 564, 817 P.2d 1196, 1206 (1991). We adhere to the principle that “ ‘[a] statute must be read and given effect as it is written by the Legislature, not as the court may think it should be or would have been written if the Legislature had envisaged all the problems and complications which might arise in the course of its administration.’ ” Gallegos, 117 N.M. at 352, 871 P.2d at 1358 (quoting Perea v. Baca, 94 N.M. 624, 627, 614 P.2d 541, 544 (1980)).
{15} Interpreting the Governmental Conduct Act to apply to judges would require us to add language to
{16} Although we look to the plain meaning of a statute in determining legislative intent, we agree with the State that we must exercise caution in applying the plain meaning rule. See Gallegos, 117 N.M. at 353, 871 P.2d at 1359. If adherence to the plain meaning of a statute would lead to absurdity, we must reject that meaning and construe the statute according to the obvious intent of the legislature. Nance, 77 N.M. at 46, 419 P.2d at 247. The State contends that exempting judges from the Governmental Conduct Act would result in absurdity contrary to legislative intent because it would insulate judges from punishment for abuse of power to obtain sex from defendants and urges us to construe
{17} In determining whether the legislature intended to exclude judges from
{18} Additionally, when the previous version of official acts prohibited (originally titled “Gifts or loans-Request and acceptance”) was first enacted, it specifically applied to legislators, but not judges.
1
NMSA 1953, § 5-12-3(A) (1967) (repealed 1993). Furthermore, when the legislature repealed the prior version of official acts prohibited in 1993 and enacted the current version, which included criminal penalties, the legislature again included legislators, but did not add judges to the statute’s reach. 1993 N.M. Laws, ch. 46, § 28, at 297-98 (codified at
{19} In addition to statutory history, we also consider the context in which the Governmental Conduct Act was enacted to help us determine legislative intent and whether it would be absurd to adhere to the plain language of the Act. See State v. Cleve, 1999-NMSC-017, ¶ 8, 127 N.M. 240, 980 P.2d 23. We find it significant that the Governmental Conduct Act was enacted the same year that the Judicial Standards Commission was created. The legislation proposing a constitutional amendment for the creation of the Judicial Standards Commission was introduced during the 1967 legislative session, the same legislative session in which the legislature passed the Governmental Conduct Act. See 1967 N.M. Laws 1622-24. On November 7,1967, New Mexico voters approved the constitutional amendment creating the Judicial Standards Commission. See
{20} In addition, when the legislature was contemplating the Governmental Conduct Act, another statute existed for prosecuting judges who accepted or solicited valuable items in exchange for the performance of an official act. See
{21} We presume that the legislature was aware of
{22} The legislative history of the Governmental Conduct Act and the statutory context in which the Act was enacted support a conclusion that the legislature intended to exclude judges from its application. Additionally, our case law demonstrates that we diverge from the plain meaning of a statute to avoid an absurd result only when it is clear that the legislature did not intend such a result. See, e.g., Compton v. Lytle, 2003-NMSC-031, 134 N.M. 586, 81 P.3d 39; County of Los Alamos, 108 N.M. 633, 776 P.2d 1252. Although we give effect to legislative intent by construing statutes to avoid absurd results, Compton, 2003-NMSC-031, ¶ 20, 134 N.M. 586, 81 P.3d 39, “‘[w]e must assume the legislature chose [its] words advisedly to express its meaning unless the contrary [intent] clearly appears.’ ” Varoz v. N.M. Bd. of Podiatry, 104 N.M. 454, 456, 722 P.2d 1176, 1178 (1986) (quoting Weiland v. Vigil, 90 N.M. 148, 151, 560 P.2d 939, 942 (Ct.App.1977)); see also Crooks v. Harrelson, 282 U.S. 55, 60, 51 S.Ct. 49, 75 L.Ed. 156 (1930) (“[T]here must be something to make plain the intent of Congress that the letter of the statute is not to prevail.”).
{23} In Compton, we diverged from the plain language of
{24} In this case, it is not clear that the legislature intended to include judges in
{25} We are not aware of the legislature’s reasoning in choosing to exclude judges from the Governmental Conduct Act. Some may find it difficult to see why the legislature chose to do so. However, unless unconstitutional, it is not the role of this Court to question the wisdom, policy or justness of legislation enacted by our legislature. U.S. Xpress, Inc., 2006-NMSC-017, ¶ 11, 139 N.M. 589, 136 P.3d 999. In Cleve, we emphasized that
[a] policy decision of this nature should not be second-guessed by the judiciary. The decision to extend the scope of an existing statute to reflect changing values is a matter for the Legislature, and ... we presume that the Legislature continues to intend that the statute apply according to its original meaning.
1999-NMSC-017, ¶ 15, 127 N.M. 240, 980 P.2d 23. If the failure to include judges in
{26} In light of the legislature’s decision to exclude judges from prosecution under the Governmental Conduct Act, we are compelled to overturn Defendant’s convictions. Although the crime of official acts prohibited exists with respect to some classes of defendants, it is nonexistent with respect to judges. We hold that just as a conviction for a nonexistent crime constitutes fundamental error, a conviction for a crime that does not exist as to a particular defendant is also fundamental error. See Johnson, 103 N.M. at 371, 707 P.2d at 1181 (holding that a conviction for a nonexistent crime constitutes fundamental error). Therefore, we conclude that it was fundamental error to convict Defendant of official acts prohibited under the
IV. CONCLUSION
{27} We hold that Defendant’s five convictions for official acts prohibited must be reversed due to fundamental error. As a result, Defendant’s five convictions for criminal sexual penetration committed during the commission of official acts prohibited must also be reversed.
{28} IT IS SO ORDERED.
WE CONCUR: RICHARD C. BOSSON, Chief Justice, PAMELA B. MINZNER, PATRICIO M. SERNA, and PETRA JIMENEZ MAES, Justices.
Notes
. In relevant part, Section 5-12-3 prevented employees and legislators from requesting or receiving gifts or loans if it “tend[ed] to influence him in the discharge of his official acts.” NMSA 1953, § 5-12-3(A)(1)(1967) (repealed 1993).
. Under the New Mexico Constitution, this Court possesses the authority to regulate the conduct of the judiciary and to discipline, remove or retire judges. See