Title: Burrows v. Forrest City

State: arkansas

Issuer: Arkansas Supreme Court

Document:

543 S.W.2d 488 (1976) Steven BURROWS, Appellant, v. FORREST CITY, Appellee. No. CR76-110. Supreme Court of Arkansas, In Banc. November 29, 1976. *489 Sharpe & Morledge, Forrest City, for appellant. Kinney & Easley by B. Michael Easley, Forrest City, for appellee. JONES, Justice. The appellant Steven Burrows was convicted in municipal court for the misdemeanor possession of marijuana. He was fined $250 and sentenced to ten days in jail. Upon appeal to the circuit court he was, on February 27, 1975, fined $250 and sentenced to one year in the county jail but the jail sentence was suspended during good behavior. This is an appeal by Burrows from a circuit court judgment revoking the suspension of the sentence, and the precise and only question on appeal is whether the trial judge abused his discretion in refusing to recuse himself from hearing and passing on the motion to revoke. On July 22, 1975, the appellant was arrested on a traffic violation for making an improper "U-turn." The arrest was not without additional incident and resulted in municipal court fines of $5.00 for the traffic violation; $25 for disturbing the peace; $500 with six months in the county jail for assaulting an officer; $500 and six months for obstructing justice, and $25 on additional charge of disturbing the peace at the police station. The appellant appealed to the circuit court and while the cases were pending in circuit court on appeal, the city filed a motion to revoke suspension of the sentence previously imposed on marijuana conviction. The motion to revoke was based upon the municipal court convictions growing out of the traffic incident. On November 6, 1975, the appellant filed a motion for continuance of a hearing on the motion for revocation of suspended sentence on the ground that the municipal court convictions upon which the motion to revoke was based, were still pending before the circuit court on appeal. The appellant *490 also filed a motion to quash the jury panel for trial of the appeal cases because it was not representative of the appellant's age group. An unfortunate situation developed between the very reputable attorneys representing the appellant and the very competent and conscientious trial judge during their discussions of the motions. The trial judge apparently considered the motions dilatory in an effort to extend the hearing on motion to revoke beyond the one year suspended sentence but, apparently in the light of Parkerson v. State, 230 Ark. 118, 321 S.W.2d 207 (1959), the trial court did extend the hearing from November 12 as originally set, to November 18, 1975. This new date as extended was well within the one year suspended sentence, but prior to a possible trial date for the municipal convictions on appeal. In the meantime, apparently chafing under the trial court's accusations of dilatory tactics, the attorneys for the appellant concluded from their conversations with the trial judge, that he had already concluded before hearing, that the suspension would be revoked; so, on November 13, 1975, the appellant filed a motion for the trial judge to recuse himself from hearing on the motion for revocation on the ground that the judge had told one of the attorneys of record to tell the appellant "to bring his toothbrush with him," and had made other statements indicating bias and prejudice against the appellant. In response to the motion to recuse, the appellee-city contended that the full statement of the circuit judge was "that Defendant should bring his toothbrush with him because if he is found guilty, he is going straight to jail", and that the statement was made to one of the attorneys for the appellant but was not made in a professional capacity, as affecting the rights of the defendant. The trial judge refused to recuse himself and on November 18, 1975, hearing was had on the motion to revoke. Following the hearing at which the peace officers and also the appellant testified, the suspension was revoked and the appellant was sentenced to serve the remaining 99 days of his original one year sentence in the county jail. On appeal to this court the appellant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion for the judge to recuse himself. The record on the motion to recuse was made at a hearing on November 6. At that hearing both attorneys for the appellant and the attorney for the appellee-city testified. The record as to attorney Sharpe's testimony, in pertinent part, appears as follows: Mr. Morledge, the appellant's co-counsel, testified that he and attorney Sharpe prepared a motion to strike the jury panel in *492 the trial of the cases pending against the appellant on appeal, and that they presented the motion to the trial judge in chambers. The pertinent portion of the record pertaining to attorney Morledge's testimony then appears as follows: Mr. Easley, the attorney for the appellee-city, testified in part as follows: We deem it a matter of common courtesy and accommodation for a trial judge to consider the convenience of attorneys in setting cases for trial and motions for hearing, but when an attorney and the trial judge cannot agree on a mutually convenient date, the convenience of the attorney must give way to the convenience of the trial court in setting a trial or hearing docket. The fact that the trial judge in the case at bar participated in "about an hour conversation" in attempting "to agree on a date of continuance," in our opinion, negates evidence of arbitrariness on the part of the trial judge in setting the matter for hearing. We conclude, however, that the judgment must be reversed because of the trial court's request that the attorneys have the appellant bring his toothbrush with him when he appeared for the hearing on the petition to revoke the suspended sentence, when this remark is considered together with the other remarks made. The city attorney agreed with the appellant's attorney that the toothbrush remark was made by the trial judge, and the attorneys only differed in their interpretation of what the trial judge meant by the remark. When the remark concerning the toothbrush is considered together with the remarks relating *493 to the police officers having done what they were supposed to do, and the enforcement of a contract between the judge and the appellant, it is apparent that the remarks could be interpreted to mean that the trial judge's impartiality in the exercise of his judicial discretion was impaired. Of course, a suspended sentence and also its revocation lie within the sound discretion of the trial court, Ark.Stat.Ann. §§ 43-2314 and 43-2326 (Repl.1964). Gross v. State, 240 Ark. 926, 403 S.W.2d 75. In Gerard v. State, 235 Ark. 1015, 363 S.W.2d 916, a suspended sentence was revoked on ample testimony in support of the motion to revoke, but we reversed because the trial court refused to hear testimony offered in behalf of the accused and refused to hear the accused's own statement. In the case at bar the testimony of police officers in support of the city's motion to revoke and also the appellant's own testimony were heard by the trial court, but we are not concerned on this appeal with whether the trial court abused its discretion in revoking the suspended sentence. We are concerned here with whether the trial judge should have recused himself under the circumstances in this case and we are of the opinion that he should have done so. Certainly we are of the opinion the trial judge did not consider himself prejudiced or biased against the appellant in this case because we are convinced that if he had felt he was prejudiced or biased, he would have recused himself even without a motion that he do so. We think the language we employed in the civil case of Farley v. Jester, 257 Ark. 686, 520 S.W.2d 200 (1975), is applicable to the case at bar. In Farley we said: Since the trial judge's remarks in the case at bar could be considered subject to more than one interpretation, we feel the better procedure, where the trial judge sits as a fact finder, would be to resolve the difference in favor of the appearance of fairness and remand this case for hearing on appellee's motion to revoke before a different judge. See Gerard v. State, supra. Reversed and remanded.