DAVID N. BRUSHINGHAM, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1984-12-12
No. 83-2398
ANSTEAD, C.J., and DELL, J., concur.
460 So. 2d 523 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1984) Negative Treatment
Cited by 10 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

A Florida appellate court affirmed the revocation of probation and sentencing where the defendant agreed to probation conditioned on making restitution payments within a set timeframe and waived the right to challenge the probation violation based on inability to pay. The court held that such plea bargain agreements are enforceable and do not violate public policy.


Holding

The court held that such plea bargain agreements are legal and enforceable as they do not violate public policy. The court also held that the trial court record clearly demonstrated that the defendant knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily entered into the agreement after the trial judge carefully explained the terms and the waiver of constitutional protections.


Headnotes

[1] A defendant may legally waive the right to have the state prove financial ability to make restitution as a condition for revoking probation based on non-payment.

[2] A plea agreement requiring restitution within a set period, with a waiver of the state's burden to prove financial ability to pay, is enforceable and not void as against…

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Key Quotes

“a person charged with a crime can legally enter into a plea bargain agreement with the state that he receive probation rather than be imprisoned on conditions that he make restitution within a set period of time and that he waive his right to be imprisoned for failure to pay a debt if he fails to make restitution as he has agreed, whether or not the state can prove his financial ability to make restitution”

Establishes the enforceability of restitution waiver provisions in plea bargains as not contrary to public policy

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Facts & Procedural History

Brushingham entered into a plea agreement for probation that required him to make restitution payments within six months and included a waiver of his …

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Opinion of the Court
GEIGER, DWIGHT L„ Associate Judge.

GEIGER, DWIGHT L„ Associate Judge.

This is an appeal from an order revoking probation and subsequent sentence.

Appellant raises two points. He first contends that the trial court erred in finding that he knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily entered into a guilty plea based on a plea agreement for probation. The agreement included appellant’s making restitution payments within a six month period as a condition of probation and provided that appellant waived the requirement that the state establish his financial ability to make restitution in order to prove violation of probation for failure to make restitution payments. Appellant further contends that such an agreement is unenforceable as against public policy, and thus that even if he failed to make the agreed restitution, it was error to revoke his probation. Appellant does not contest that the required restitution was not made, nor does he contend that failure to make restitution was not a sufficient reason to revoke his probation.

We deal with the second point first and note that this court has already spoken to a similar issue in the case of Doherty v. State, 448 So. 2d 624 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984). Based on the reasoning of Doherty we conclude that a person charged with a crime can legally enter into a plea bargain agreement with the state that he receive probation rather than be imprisoned on conditions that he make restitution within a set period of time and that he waive his right to be imprisoned for failure to pay a debt if he fails to make restitution as he has agreed, whether or not the state can prove his financial ability to make restitution. Such an agreement is not void as against public policy and is enforceable.

We next deal with whether appellant sufficiently understood and legally entered into the agreement. In this case the record clearly supports the trial court’s conclusion of a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary entry of guilty plea and waiver by defendant of his right against imprisonment for failure to pay restitution. At the time appellant was placed on probation, the trial judge carefully talked with him and explained to him what would be expected of him concerning payment of restitution and the time period within which restitution payments were to be made. The trial judge also specifically explained to appellant that he-was waiving his constitutional right against imprisonment for failure to pay a debt in agreeing to the special provision that the state would not be required to prove an ability to pay restitution in order to prove a violation of probation.

The record shows that he understood. The trial judge explained this a second time when appellant pleaded guilty to violation of probation and agreed to the same waiver if the court would reinstate his probation and extend the time for payment of the restitution.

The trial court granted appellant’s request and reinstated probation and extended the time for making restitution payments an additional year. It was only after this additional period of time had passed and appellant had not made the agreed payments that the probation was revoked.

Clearly the condition to pay restitution was not court imposed without agreement by appellant. The trial judge assured himself that appellant knew what he was doing when he made the agreement and gave appellant more than a reasonable opportunity to comply with his self-imposed duty. The appellant cannot now legally complain of the consequences of his failure to uphold his end of the bargain.

No error is demonstrated. The order of revocation of probation and sentence appealed are AFFIRMED.

ANSTEAD, C.J., and DELL, J., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Hamrick v. State, 519 So. 2d 81 (Fla. 3d DCA 1988)
    …ation, we follow State v. Dye, 715 S.W. 2d 36 (Tenn. 1986), which squarely so holds. See also Duke, 10 Kan.App.2d at 395-96, 699 P. 2d at 578-79; State v. Walding, i'll S.W. 2d 251 (Tenn.Cr.App.1971). We therefore disagree with Brushingham v. State, 460 So. 2d 523 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984),3 upon which the trial court understandably relied below. We find the Brushingham holding that the constitutional prohibition against imprisonment for debt may be waived as a condition of probation thoroughly unpersuasive. For t…
  • Dirico v. State, 728 So. 2d 763 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999)
    …te by showing he did not have the ability to perform. ... This was not a court imposed condition; it was agreed upon by the appellant, who requested the court to accept it. Id. at 626. Later that same year, this court decided Brushingham v. State, 460 So. 2d 523 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984). In that case, Brushingham had entered into a plea agreement which provided that he would be sentenced to probation. The agreement further provided that Brushingham would make restitution payments to the victim within a six-month…
    1 / 2
  • Costello v. State, 567 So. 2d 1032 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990)
    …to support a conclusion that appellant ought not be believed. Secondly, the state concedes that there was no evidence to support the finding that at the time of the order of probation there was a waiver, within the purview of Brushingham v. State, 460 So. 2d 523 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984), of the inability-to-pay defense. That finding must therefore also fall. On the latter point, the state’s reliance on Doherty v. State, 448 So. 2d 624 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984), in support of its apparent contention that there was an…

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