Oregon Appellate Ct - Jan 11, 2017

Revision as of 15:40, January 13, 2017

Appeal and Review - Declining to Exercise Discretion to Review for Plain Error when Error Could Have Been Fixed in the Trial Court

The court rejects defendant's claim that the trial court entered a judgment that entered two separate convictions for stalking. Below, the trial court agreed that the two counts merged. The prosecutor prepared a judgment that indicated that Count 5 should merge with Count 4. Defense counsel and the trial court reviewed the judgment before it was entered and the trial court indicated that if the judgment was erroneous, it would enter an amended judgment. Assuming without expressly deciding that the judgment was erroneous, the court declines to exercise its discretion to review the error. Defense counsel had an opportunity to review and object to the judgment, either at the time it was entered or afterwards. Additionally, the trial court register does not reflect that a separate conviction was ever entered. And finally, the court admonishes that these kinds of errors can be corrected in the trial court "in a way that would consume less time and resources from the parties and the courts", via a motion to modify or correct the judgment under ORS 138.083, because the error in this case was clerical. The court, in a footnote, makes a pitch for trial courts to use the Uniform Criminal Judgment to avoid such confusion in future cases.

State v. Chesnut, 283 Or App 347 (2017) (Duncan, P.J.)

DHS v. M.L.M., 283 Or App 353 (2017) (Flynn, J.)

DHS v. S.J.M., 283 Or App 367 (2017) (DeHoog, J.)

State v. Civil, 283 Or App 395 (2017) (Haselton, S.J.)

Per Curiam - Juvenile Dependency - No Evidence that Mother Continued to Have Domestically Violent Relationships

The court reverses and remands for an entry of judgment in this juvenile dependency case because DHS failed to prove one of the grounds of jurisdiction (although it proved other bases). Specifically, DHS alleged that the child was endangered because domestic violence in mother's home created a harmful environment. The evidence, however, established that mother's violent relationship had ended long before the dependency hearing and there was no evidence that mother continued to engage in domestically violent relationships.

DHS v. S.P.R., 283 Or App 419 (2017) (per curiam)