AUDREY YOUNG, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1999-07-21
No. 98-1760
KLEIN and TAYLOR, JJ., concur.
739 So. 2d 1179 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1999) Caution
Cited by 7 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

Audrey Young challenges the revocation of her probation and five-day jail sentence for grand theft, arguing the trial court lacked jurisdiction because the probation violation warrant was delivered after her probationary period expired. The appellate court held that Young's failure to file monthly probation reports did not constitute "absconding" and therefore did not toll the probationary period, so the court lacked jurisdiction to revoke probation.


Holding

The court held that Young did not abscond from supervision by merely failing to file monthly reports, and therefore the probationary period was not tolled. Because the warrant was delivered after the probationary term ended, the trial court lacked jurisdiction to revoke the already-terminated probation.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court loses jurisdiction to revoke probation when the probationary period expires before a warrant for violation is delivered to the sheriff.

[2] Failure to file monthly reports or pay restitution constitutes a violation of probation, but not necessarily absconding from supervision.

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Key Quotes

“The situations are different because a probationer remains under supervisory restraint after an affidavit of violation is filed and an affidavit can be amended to include subsequent violation allegations. One who absconds from supervision is no longer under the controlling arm of the state.”

Establishes the distinction between failing to meet probation conditions and absconding from supervision

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Facts & Procedural History

Young was arrested for grand theft and on April 18, 1994, the trial court withheld adjudication and placed her on probation for eighteen months. In Oc…

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Opinion of the Court
WARNER, C.J.

WARNER, C.J.

Appellant challenges the trial court’s order revoking her probation and sentencing her to five days in jail for grand theft, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction. Although the probationary period had expired when the warrant charging appellant with a probation violation was delivered to the sheriffs office, the trial court determined that the appellant had absconded by failing to file monthly reports, thus tolling the period. We hold that failure to follow the terms of probation did not constitute an absconding by appellant and thus reverse the order of the trial court.

Appellant was arrested for grand theft. On April 18, 1994, the trial court withheld adjudication and placed her on probation for eighteen months. She was also ordered to pay restitution and court costs. On October 12, 1995, appellant’s probation officer prepared an affidavit of violation of probation. The next day, on October 13, 1995, the court issued a warrant for appellant’s arrest for violating the conditions of her probation; namely, for failure to submit monthly reports during August and September of 1995 and for failure to pay restitution and costs. Unfortunately, the sheriffs department did not receive the warrant until October 19, 1995, one day after appellant’s probation period had terminated.

Several years later, on April 2, 1998, the affidavit was filed and served on appellant. At the hearing on the violation the state acknowledged that the warrant was delivered to the sheriff beyond the probationary period, thus terminating the court’s jurisdiction, see State v. Boyd, 717 So. 2d 524, 526 (Fla.), rev. dismissed, 719 So. 2d 286 (Fla.1998), but argued that the period was tolled where the probationer absconds from supervision. See Gordon v. State, 649 So. 2d 326, 328 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995). The state, relying on Ware v. State, 474 So. 2d 332, 333 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985), asserted that appellant had “absconded” when she failed to report to her probation officer and that as a consequence the period of probation was tolled in September of 1995.

In Ware, the court found that the probationer had absconded from supervision when he changed his place of employment and residence without permission. Appellant’s case is distinguishable. At the revocation hearing, Young testified that she did not change her residence and that her probation officer could have found her there had she looked.

Notwithstanding the decision in Ware, the supreme court stated in Francois v. State, 695 So. 2d 695, 697 (Fla.1997), that failure to meet conditions of probation does not toll the probationary period. The court noted that failing to meet probation conditions is not the same as absconding. See id. at 697. “The situations are different because a probationer remains under supervisory restraint after an affidavit of violation is filed and an affidavit can be amended to include subsequent violation allegations. One who absconds from supervision is no longer under the controlling arm of the state.” Id.

The failure to file monthly reports is simply a violation of a condition of probation. In this case, appellant continued to be under the “controlling arm of the state” as is demonstrated by the fact that the state arrested her based upon the affidavit of violation. Appellant was not hiding, nor had she departed from the jurisdiction of the state. She simply failed to make a report. Had her probation officer visited appellant at her listed address, she would have been able to find her, and an affidavit of violation could have been served on her at any time at that location. We hold that appellant had not absconded from supervision by failing to file her monthly reports. Therefore, the probationary term was not tolled, and the affidavit of violation was filed past the end of the term. The court had no jurisdiction to revoke the already terminated probation.

Reversed with directions to vacate the order of probation violation and sentence.

KLEIN and TAYLOR, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Williams v. State, 202 So. 3d 917 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016)
    …overrule the case law recognizing that when a probationer absconds from supervision, the probationary period is tolled until the probationer is once more placed under probationary supervision. ' We distinguish the instant case from Young v. State, 739 So. 2d 1179 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999), and Langley v. State, 839 So. 2d 826 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003). In each of those cases, we concluded that a defendant had not absconded from supervision by simply failing to file a monthly report. See Young, 739 So. 2d at 1180 (“[The…
  • Langley v. State, 839 So. 2d 826 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003)
    …910 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996) (finding that only a valid order of revocation terminates probation). We reject the state’s argument that the mere failure to file reports, without more, requires the court to toll the period of probation. See Young v. State, 739 So. 2d 1179, 1180 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999) (holding that failure to file reports is mere violation of probation, not equivalent to absconding, and thus does not toll the period of probation). REVERSED. GUNTHER and HAZOURI, JJ., concur. . § 948.06, Fla. Stat. (199…
  • Powers v. State, 260 So. 3d 318 (Fla. 4th DCA 2018)
    …probation could not have been tolled by the State’s filing of its affidavit of violation of probation in 2000. 5 The parties also appear to agree that tolling did not exist at the time for anything other than absconsion. See Young v. State, 739 So. 2d 1179, 1180 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999) (allowing for tolling during absconsion). However, although the affidavit of violation of probation made no allegation of absconsion, the State suggests Appellant’s probation could have still been tolled based on absco…

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