STATE OF NEBRASKA, APPELLEE, V. BRENT L. NELSON, APPELLANT.
No. S-22-082.
NEBRASKA Supreme Court
February 10, 2023
313 Neb. 464
N.W.2d ____
Judgments: Speedy Trial: Appeal and Error. Generally, a trial court‘s determination as to whether charges should be dismissed on speedy trial grounds is a factual question which will be affirmed on appeal unless clearly erroneous. - Statutes. Statutory interpretation is a question of law.
- ____. The application of a statute to undisputed facts is a question of law.
- Judgments: Appeal and Error. On questions of law, an appellate court is obligated to reach a conclusion independent of the determination reached by the court below.
- Speedy Trial: Statutes. The statutory right to a speedy trial is set forth in
Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 29-1207 and29-1208 (Reissue 2016). - Speedy Trial. To calculate the time for speedy trial purposes, a court must exclude the day the information was filed, count forward 6 months, back up 1 day, and then add any time excluded under
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4) (Reissue 2016) to determine the last day the defendant can be tried. - Speedy Trial: Proof. The State bears the burden to show, by a preponderance of the evidence, the applicability of one or more of the excluded time periods under
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4) (Reissue 2016). - Speedy Trial: Pretrial Procedure. As a matter of law,
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4)(a) (Reissue 2016) dictates the exclusion of all time between the filing of a defendant‘s pretrial motion and the final disposition of such motion, regardless of the reason for the delay of its disposition. - Speedy Trial: Appeal and Error. Factual determinations pertaining to the exceptions listed in
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4)(a) through (f)(Reissue 2016) must be supported by specific findings, which appellate courts review for clear error. - Speedy Trial. The proper interpretation of
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4) (Reissue 2016) and its application to the undisputed historical facts of a case are questions of law. - Judgments: Appeal and Error. A correct result will not be set aside merely because the lower court applied the wrong reasoning in reaching that result.
- Speedy Trial: Pretrial Procedure. The plain terms of
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4)(a) (Reissue 2016) dictate the exclusion of all time between the filing of a defendant‘s pretrial motion and the final disposition of such motion, regardless of the promptness or reasonableness of the delay of disposition. - ____: ____. The period excludable under
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4)(a) (Reissue 2016) for a defendant‘s pretrial motion commences on the day immediately after the filing of a defendant‘s pretrial motion and ends at final disposition, which occurs on the date the motion is granted or denied. - Speedy Trial: Legislature: Intent: Words and Phrases. If the Legislature had intended to limit the scope of
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4)(a) (Reissue 2016), it would have inserted limiting phrases such as “reasonable period of delay” in§ 29-1207(4)(e) and “good cause” in§ 29-1207(4)(f) . - Speedy Trial: Pretrial Procedure. There is no exception to the mandate of
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4)(a) (Reissue 2016) for delays in hearing a defendant‘s pretrial motions due to continuances granted to the State. - Speedy Trial. The power of the trial court to rule on a motion for discharge is not bound in any way by its prior interlocutory rulings.
- Judgments: Final Orders. A court‘s judgment is not final until no further action of the court is required to dispose of the cause pending, and when the cause is retained for further action, it is interlocutory and nonappealable.
- Judgments: Judges. The proposition that a successor judge should respect a decision made by a predecessor judge on the same case is a matter of policy rather than a limit on the successor judge‘s power.
- Judgments: Judges: Pretrial Procedure. The important consideration when dealing with a trial court ruling that conflicts with an earlier interlocutory ruling by a judge in the same case is that the ultimate ruling be legally correct.
- Judgments: Final Orders. A trial court is not precluded from changing its interlocutory rulings so as to arrive at the correct legal outcome in a later ruling or final judgment.
Speedy Trial: Appeal and Error. Specific findings of those facts necessary to facilitate appellate review of the trial court‘s ultimate speedy trial calculation for a motion to discharge are required, and findings of fact concerning irrelevant interlocutory rulings do not facilitate such review. - Speedy Trial: Time: Appeal and Error. A trial court must make specific findings of fact in order to facilitate appellate review of all determinations of excludable periods under
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4) (Reissue 2016), including the date and nature of the proceedings, circumstances, or rulings which initiated and concluded each excludable period; the number of days composing each excludable period; and the number of days remaining in which the defendant may be brought to trial after taking into consideration all excludable periods. - Speedy Trial: Judgments: Appeal and Error. A trial court must make specific findings of the excludable periods under
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4)(a) (Reissue 2016) because a trial court‘s determination of whether charges should be dismissed on speedy trial grounds is a factual question, and an appellate court cannot review whether the trial court‘s determination was erroneous without specific findings of fact.
Appeal from the District Court for Adams County: TERRI S. HARDER, Judge. Affirmed.
T. Charles James, of Langvardt, Valle & James, P.C., L.L.O., for appellant.
Douglas J. Peterson, Attorney General, and Stacy M. Foust for appellee.
HEAVICAN, C.J., MILLER-LERMAN, CASSEL, STACY, FUNKE, PAPIK, and FREUDENBERG, JJ.
FREUDENBERG, J.
INTRODUCTION
In a criminal case, the district court denied the defendant‘s motion for absolute discharge upon determining that a 42-day continuance granted at the request of the State was excluded from the speedy trial calculation under
BACKGROUND
The State filed a criminal complaint against Brent L. Nelson in the county court for Adams County, charging him with his fourth offense of driving while under the influence of alcohol. A preliminary hearing was held, and the matter was bound over to the district court. On December 23, 2020, the State filed an information against Nelson, charging him with the same offense. The district court scheduled a jury trial to begin on March 22, 2021.
On March 9, 2021, Nelson moved to suppress evidence law enforcement obtained during the traffic stop, which had led to Nelson‘s arrest. The district court scheduled a hearing on the motion to suppress for April 15.
On April 15, 2021, the State filed a motion to continue the hearing on the motion to suppress. In support of its motion, the State asserted that it had requested the preparation of a transcript of the preliminary hearing held in the county court. However, the State was informed on April 12 that the preliminary hearing transcript had mistakenly been delivered to Nelson‘s counsel. The State needed to prepare a second transcript for itself because Nelson‘s counsel refused to return the original transcript. The State claimed it required the transcript of police officer Cale Neelly‘s testimony at the preliminary hearing to prepare for Neelly‘s testimony at the suppression hearing.
The district court held a hearing on the State‘s motion to continue. No evidence was presented at the hearing. The court granted the State‘s motion but concluded: “Speedy trial will start running as of today, 4/15/21, until May 27, ‘21. Then that‘s the date of the hearing. Speedy trial will then stop running on that date until the Court issues an Order on that Motion to Suppress.” The court then asked the prosecutor to
At the suppression hearing, held on May 27, 2021, the State called Neelly to testify. The State did not explicitly reference Neelly‘s preliminary hearing testimony, but Nelson‘s counsel referred to the transcript during the hearing.
The district court overruled Nelson‘s motion to suppress in a written order on September 2, 2021. The court scheduled a jury trial, without seeking input from the parties, for November 8. On November 8, Nelson filed a motion for absolute discharge on the ground that he had been denied his right to a speedy trial. The district court held a hearing on Nelson‘s motion for discharge before a new judge.
The parties stipulated that the original judge had counted the April 15 to May 27, 2021, continuance against the State for the speedy trial calculation. The court then received into evidence certified copies of the complete record and the preliminary hearing testimony. The State also offered an affidavit sworn by the prosecutor. The court reserved ruling on Nelson‘s objection to the affidavit. The affidavit stated the State‘s grounds for good cause for the continuance, namely that it could not prepare for the April 15 hearing despite reasonable diligence because of the county court‘s mistaken delivery of the preliminary hearing transcript to defense counsel. Paragraph 17 of the prosecutor‘s affidavit admitted that the district court, at the time of the original hearing on the relevant motion to continue, “found that the State had not presented evidence to establish good cause for said continuance, and therefore the period of delay from April 15, 2021 to May 27, 2021 would be included in speedy trial calculations.”
Without objection, the State called the clerk magistrate to testify at the motion to discharge hearing. His testimony was consistent with the State‘s claims that it had requested a copy of the preliminary hearing transcript over a month before the April 15, 2021, hearing; that the county court had mistakenly delivered the copy to defense counsel instead of to the
In a January 31, 2022, order, the district court received the prosecutor‘s affidavit into evidence and denied Nelson‘s motion for discharge. In doing so, the court found that the hearing on the motion to discharge was the proper time to receive evidence regarding whether time should be excluded from the speedy trial calculations. The court ruled that the State had met its burden to show that the 42-day continuance period should be excluded from the speedy trial calculation under
Nelson appeals.
ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR
Nelson assigns that the district court erred by (1) failing to consider and make specific findings on the record addressing the court‘s previous ruling on speedy trial, (2) allowing the State to present evidence regarding its motion for continuance in light of the parties’ stipulation concerning the court‘s previous ruling, (3) receiving the prosecutor‘s affidavit and the preliminary hearing transcript over Nelson‘s objections, (4) setting a trial date outside the speedy trial time without Nelson‘s consent, and (5) adopting the State‘s speedy trial calculation and excluding the 42-day continuance period.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
[1] Generally, a trial court‘s determination as to whether charges should be dismissed on speedy trial grounds is a
[2] Statutory interpretation is a question of law.2
[3] The application of a statute to undisputed facts is a question of law.3
[4] On questions of law, an appellate court is obligated to reach a conclusion independent of the determination reached by the court below.4
ANALYSIS
[5-7] This case involves Nelson‘s statutory right to a speedy trial, which is separate from his constitutional right to a speedy trial.5 The statutory right to a speedy trial is set forth in
[8] Nelson argues that the speedy trial clock ran during the State‘s continuance because the State‘s grounds for seeking the continuance were insufficient to satisfy
[9-11] Factual determinations pertaining to the exceptions listed in
[12,13] Section 29-1207(4)(a) excludes, in relevant part, “the time from filing until final disposition of pretrial motions of the defendant, including motions to suppress evidence.” We have consistently held that the plain terms of
[14] As we noted in State v. Lafler,14 “conspicuously absent from
Despite our repeated recognition that the plain language of
The parties direct us to two decisions by the Nebraska Court of Appeals, State v. Carrera22 and State v. Fioramonti,23 which might suggest an exception to
[16] That the district court allegedly failed to “consider [and] make specific findings”27 about the original judge‘s oral ruling has no bearing on our determination that as a matter of law, the entirety of the delay in deciding Nelson‘s motion to suppress was excludable under
[17] A court‘s judgment is not final until “no further action of the court is required to dispose of the cause pending,” and “when the cause is retained for further action, it
Here, the original judge‘s oral ruling had no preclusive effect. It was interlocutory, not final, because further action by the court was required to dispose of the case. Therefore, the original judge‘s ruling did not preclude the district court from later deciding that the State‘s continuance should be excluded from the speedy trial calculation.
[18-20] While there is some authority for the proposition that a successor judge should respect a decision made by a predecessor judge on the same case,32 doing so is a matter of policy rather than a limit on the successor judge‘s power.33 As we have explained, “[t]he important consideration is that the ultimate ruling be legally correct.”34 A trial court is not precluded from changing its interlocutory rulings so as to arrive at the correct legal outcome in a later ruling or final judgment.
[21] Nelson argues that even if a trial court is not bound by its prior rulings, our decision in State v. Williams35 requires
[22,23] In Williams, we said that a trial court must make specific findings “in order to facilitate appellate review of all determinations of excludable periods under
the date and nature of the proceedings, circumstances, or rulings which initiated and concluded each excludable period; the number of days composing each excludable period; and the number of days remaining in which the defendant may be brought to trial after taking into consideration all excludable periods.37
We require these findings because, without specific findings of the periods of delay included or excluded from the speedy trial calculation, we cannot conduct a proper review.38 A trial court‘s determination of whether charges should be dismissed on speedy trial grounds is a factual question, which will be affirmed on appeal unless clearly erroneous, and we cannot review whether the trial court‘s determination was erroneous without specific findings of fact.39 Thus, Williams only requires a trial court to make specific findings of those facts necessary for an appellate court to review whether the trial court‘s speedy trial calculation was clearly erroneous.
The district court complied with Williams in its order denying Nelson‘s motion for discharge. It noted that on March 9, 2021, Nelson filed a motion to suppress, and that on April 15, the court granted the State‘s motion to continue a hearing
The parties do not dispute that if the State‘s continuance is excluded, then the 6-month speedy trial period had not run when Nelson filed his motion for discharge. The State filed an information against Nelson on December 23, 2020, meaning the original last day for the State to bring Nelson to trial was June 22, 2021. Adding the 177 days to June 22 resulted in a trial deadline of December 16. Nelson filed his motion for discharge on November 8, before this deadline had passed. Thus, the district court properly denied Nelson‘s motion for discharge.
Because the State‘s continuance was automatically excluded under
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court‘s order denying Nelson‘s motion for absolute discharge.
AFFIRMED.
