MATTHEW T. WRIGHT, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 2010-12-01
No. 4D09-2117
GROSS, C.J., and STEVENSON, J„ concur.
47 So. 3d 972 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (2010) Positive Treatment
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

Wright was sentenced to 24 months probation in February 2007, with a concurrent 36-month prison sentence imposed five months later on an unrelated charge. The State filed a violation of probation charge in March 2009, after the probationary period had expired. The court reversed the VOP adjudication, holding that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to consider a violation alleged and charged after probation had terminated by operation of law.


Holding

A probation period that has terminated by operation of law cannot be revoked. The trial court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate the VOP charge because the alleged violation and filing occurred after probation expired in February 2009. The State's argument that the probationary period should be tolled during the defendant's concurrent incarceration on the unrelated charge lacks statutory support and would improperly convert the concurrent sentence into a consecutive one.


Headnotes

[1] A court lacks jurisdiction to consider a violation of probation if the alleged violation and the filing of the formal charge occur after the period of probation has expir…

[2] Upon the termination of the period of probation, the probationer is released and is not liable to sentence for the offense for which probation was allowed.

Previewing 2 of 6 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“upon the termination of the period of probation, the probationer shall be released from probation and is not liable to sentence for the offense for which probation was allowed.”

Establishes the statutory basis for holding that a probation that has ended cannot be revoked

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

In February 2007, Wright was sentenced to 24 months probation. Five months later, a different court imposed a 36-month prison sentence on an unrelated…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
FARMER, J.

FARMER, J.

Defendant was sentenced in February 2007 to 24 months probation. Five months later defendant was sentenced by another court in a different circuit on an existing unrelated charge to 36 months in prison. That sentence was expressly designated as concurrent to the probation imposed in February.

In March 2009, the State filed an affidavit of violation of probation (VOP) alleging that defendant refused to take a drug test two days earlier, on March 4th. Defendant moved to dismiss the VOP on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction to consider the charge because both the alleged violation and the filing of the formal charge occurred after the period of probation had completely lapsed. The trial judge denied the motion and adjudicated him guilty of the violation. We reverse.

We confront a legal issue of jurisdiction. We are called upon to consider an alleged VOP committed and charged only after the probationary period had already ended. Defendant is correct that his plea did not waive this jurisdictional issue.1

The 24 month period of probation ended in February 2009. The VOP charge was not committed or filed until March 2009. By statute it is settled that “upon the termination of the period of probation, the probationer shall be released from probation and is not liable to sentence for the offense for which probation was allowed.” § 948.04(2), Fla. Stat. (2009); see also Carroll v. Cochran, 140 So.2d 300, 301 (Fla. 1962) (violation of probation must be set in motion before the end of the period of probation). The allegation of VOP here sought the revocation of the probation and a new sentence on the charge for which the probation was originally imposed and had already ended. A probation that has already ended by operation of law cannot be later “revoked”.

The State argues that the period of time during which he was confined on the unrelated charge should be tolled — i.e., not be counted as time served on probation. Nothing in the record suggests that the offense for the unrelated charge was committed after the sentence of probation was *974imposed. Also plainly he had already commenced serving the probation six months earlier when he was sentenced later on the unrelated charge.2

Even more important, the sentencing judge in the later case explicitly made that imprisonment concurrent to the probation, not consecutive to it. To deem the period of probation tolled while he served time on the unrelated charge would, in effect, make that confinement consecutive to probation, contrary to the actual sentence imposed.

The State has failed to cite statutory authority for the proposition that probation time already commenced cannot be counted whilst the offender is being confined on unrelated criminal charges elsewhere. In rejecting this argument we find analogous Bolden v. Florida Department of Corrections, 865 So.2d 1 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003). Bolden involved revocation of conditional release, rather than probation as here, and the issue concerned counting the time left on sentences of incarceration on other offenses after conditional release was violated and revoked. The State argued that, because of the conditional release violation, additional incarceration for that violation could not be counted against the sentences he was serving on related and unrelated charges. The court held that the statute governing conditional release makes no mention of “tolling or adding supervision time” for purposes of calculating a new release date. 865 So.2d at 4. Similarly, the statute governing probation makes no mention of tolling a probationary period that had already commenced because of the later imposition of sentence on an earlier unrelated offense, itself made concurrent with the probation.

We reverse the judgment and sentence and remand for the entry of judgment dismissing the VOP charge.

Reversed with instructions.

GROSS, C.J., and STEVENSON, J„ concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Dorian Kimberly Mathews v. State, 58 So. 3d 929 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011)
    …ial court lacked jurisdiction to revoke her probation because it had terminated when she called her probation officer from New Jersey. This issue is a question of fundamental error and may be raised for the first time on appeal. See Wright v. State, 47 So. 3d 972, 973 n. 1 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010) (addressing an argument that the trial court lacked jurisdiction when the alleged violation occurred after the probationary term ended). Ms. Mathews did not waive the argument by admitting to violating her probation. Se…
  • State v. Wiltsie, 111 So. 3d 185 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013)
    …PER CURIAM. Affirmed. See Wright v. State, 47 So. 3d 972 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010). STEVENSON, GERBER and CONNER, JJ., concur.…
  • Crum v. State, 197 So. 3d 86 (Fla. 2d DCA 2016)
    …le 3.850 motion); Ford v. State, 994 So. 2d 1244, 1245 (Fla. 4th DCA 2008) (holding that issue of whether the trial court lacked jurisdiction to revoke probation may be raised for the first time in a postconviction motion); see also Wright v. State, 47 So. 3d 972, 973-74 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010) (rejecting State’s argument that probationary period was tolled while deten- [*87] dant served time in prison on unrelated charge where prison term was made expressly concurrent to probationary term). Affirmed without p…

Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw