MERLE VAN CLEAF, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1976-03-19
No. 75-846
HOBSON, Acting C. J., and SCHEB, J., concur.
328 So. 2d 568 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1976) Caution
Cited by 20 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

Van Cleaf challenges his probation revocation and sentencing for violating probation conditions on the ground that he lacked counsel at the revocation hearing. The court holds that while counsel should be appointed at probation revocation hearings as a matter of policy, the lack of counsel was not constitutional error under Gagnon v. Scarpelli because appellant admitted the violation, and therefore the revocation need not be set aside.


Holding

The court holds that under Gagnon v. Scarpelli, counsel is only constitutionally required at probation revocation proceedings where the probationer denies the violation or there are substantial and complicated reasons justifying or mitigating it. Since Van Cleaf admitted the violation, the lack of counsel was not constitutional error and the revocation need not be set aside. However, the sentencing portion remains subject to Mempa v. Rhay's requirement of counsel, but since Van Cleaf has already served the sentence and is in another state, resentencing is not required.


Headnotes

[1] A probationer is entitled to court-appointed counsel at a probation revocation hearing if the probationer denies committing the alleged violation or if there are other su…

[2] The failure to provide counsel at a probation revocation hearing is not an error of constitutional dimension when the probationer admits to violating the conditions of pr…

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Key Quotes

“an indigent person was only entitled to counsel in those probation revocation proceedings where he denied having committed the alleged violation of the condition of his probation or where there are other substantial and complicated reasons which may justify or mitigate the violation”

The court's statement of the holding in Gagnon v. Scarpelli limiting when counsel must be appointed at probation revocation hearings.

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Facts & Procedural History

In 1969, Van Cleaf pleaded nolo contendere to forgery with court-appointed counsel and was placed on three years' probation. Later that year he was ch…

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Opinion of the Court
GRIMES, Judge.

GRIMES, Judge.

In 1969 appellant, accompanied by his court-appointed counsel, entered a plea of nolo contendere to a charge of forgery. He was adjudicated guilty and placed on three years’ probation. Later that year he was charged with violating the conditions of his probation. He appeared without counsel at the revocation hearing. At the conclusion of the hearing, probation was revoked and appellant was sentenced to three years in the state prison. Appellant is now in prison in New York state. He has filed a motion to vacate the records incident to his revocation proceedings because he was not represented by counsel.

Appellant suggests that the revocation of probation is serving to enhance his prison tenure in New York. In any event, this court recently held in Weir v. State, Fla.App.2d, 1975, 319 So. 2d 80, that a person no longer in custody could attack his conviction on Gideon grounds by way of coram nobis. Therefore, we will consider the motion on the merits.

A motion to vacate was filed under similar circumstances in Herrington v. State, Fla.App.2d, 1968, 207 So. 2d 323, as a result of which this court stated:

“Florida courts have held that a probationer’s lack of counsel at a proceeding at which probation is revoked and sentence is imposed voids the sentence but not the order of revocation itself. See Bryant v. State, Fla.App.1967, 194 So. 2d 21-22; Phillips v. State, FIa.App.1964, 165 So. 2d 246, 247. The United States Supreme Court, however, has since ruled that such lack of counsel renders the entire proceeding subject to collateral attack, ‘whether it be labeled a revocation of probation or a deferred sentencing.’ Mempa v. Rhay, 1967, 389 U.S. 128, 88 S.Ct. 254, 258, 19 L.Ed.2d 336, 342. Therefore, if appellant was not afforded the opportunity to be represented by counsel at the hearing in question, both the sentence imposed and the order revoking his probation are void.”

However, the United States Supreme Court more recently revisited the issue in Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 1973, 411 U.S. 778, 93 S.Ct. 1756, 36 L.Ed.2d 656. In Gagnon, the court held that an indigent person was only entitled to counsel in those probation revocation proceedings where he denied having committed the alleged violation of the condition of his probation or where there are other substantial and complicated reasons which may justify or mitigate the violation. The holding of Mempa v. Rhay, 1967, 389 U.S. 182, 88 S.Ct. 254, 19 L.Ed.2d 336, was limited to the proposition that a person is entitled to court-appointed counsel at sentencing even if this occurs at a probation revocation hearing.

Even though Gagnon tells us that for federal constitutional purposes our Herrington construction of the language of Mempa v. Rhay was stricter than necessary, we are unwilling to recede.from Her-rington because we believe that counsel should be appointed to represent an indigent probationer faced with revocation proceedings.

But does this mean that appellant’s revocation of probation must be set aside? The record reflects appellants probation revocation was predicated upon a conviction of disorderly conduct to which appellant had pled guilty. The effect of the colloquy at the hearing was an admission by appellant of his violation of the conditions of his probation. Measured by Gag-non, this was not the type of case in which counsel was required. We, therefore, hold that the failure to provide appellant with counsel at the revocation hearing was not an error of constitutional dimension. There being no fundamental error, the 1969 probation revocation need not be set aside.

This conclusion cannot be carried over to the sentencing which took place at the conclusion of the hearing because of the constitutional interpretation announced in Mempa v. Rhay. Nevertheless, appellant has already served the sentence, and we see no purpose in seeking appellant’s return from New York for resentencing. Therefore, the lower court’s order denying appellant’s motion is hereby

AFFIRMED.

HOBSON, Acting C. J., and SCHEB, J., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Hicks v. State, 452 So. 2d 606 (Fla. 4th DCA 1984)
    …ourt concluded the probationer was not entitled to appointed counsel under Gagnon, any impropriety in the waiver was not reversible error. More importantly, the court, while noting the position expressed by the second district in Van Cleaf v. State, 328 So. 2d 568 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976), stated “[w]e are of the view that adoption of a per se rule for appointed counsel in [*608] probation revocation proceedings would be inappropriate.” Sanderson, supra, at 377. The Supreme Court articulated a similar aversion to…
  • Sanderson v. State, 447 So. 2d 374 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984)
    …bsent special circumstances which require the appointment of counsel as a matter of fundamental fairness. Accord Grandin v. State, 421 So. 2d 803 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1982); Woodard v. State, 351 So. 2d 1096 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1977); but see Van Cleaf v. State, 328 So. 2d 568 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1976); Swift v. State, supra; Smith v. State, 427 So. 2d 773 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1983); Gargan v. State, 217 So. 2d 578 (Fla. 4th DCA 1969). The Supreme Court in Gagnon stated that an indigent’s need for appointed counsel in probation revoc…
  • Esker E. Smith v. State, 427 So. 2d 773 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983)
    …en he denies having committed the alleged violation of probation or where there are other substantially complicated reasons which may justify or mitigate a violation, making revocation inappropriate. Despite Mempha, this court in Van Cleaf v. State 328 So. 2d 568 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976), stated its unwillingness to recede from Her-rington, although in Van Cleaf the violation was not deemed reversible error on collateral attack years following the conviction. In finding that appellant was denied his right to effe…

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