Title: City of Dodge City v. Downing

State: kansas

Issuer: Kansas Supreme Court

Document:

257 Kan. 561 (1995)
CITY OF DODGE CITY, KANSAS, Appellant,
v.
GREGORY A. DOWNING, Appellee.
No. 72,193

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed April 21, 1995.
Terry J. Malone, city attorney, argued the cause and was on the brief for appellant.
Leslie Phelps Hess, of Patton, Kerbs & Hess, of Dodge City, argued the cause and was on the brief for appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
DAVIS, J.:
The City of Dodge City (City) appeals from an order of the district court dismissing a criminal case against Gregory A. Downing on the grounds that the case was not brought to trial within the 180 days required by K.S.A. 22-3402(2). The City contends that the court erred by failing to deduct 30 days occasioned by the defendant's motion for suppression of evidence. We agree, and reverse and remand for further proceedings.
The facts in this case are not disputed. The parties have entered into the following agreed statement of facts pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 3.05 (1994 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 20):
There is no dispute that the time taken to bring the defendant to trial was 204 days. The City argues that the district court erred by not charging the defendant with the time from the date of filing of his motion to suppress until the time set by the court for filing of briefs on the motion, a total of 16 days. The City also argues that the defendant should be charged with a reasonable period of time for the trial court to consider and resolve the motion to suppress. We agree and conclude that the 16 days, as well as 14 days for the court to resolve the defendant's motion, are attributable to the defendant. The deduction of 30 days occasioned by application of the defendant establishes that on May 25, 1994, the scheduled trial date, he would have been brought to trial in 174 days, well within the dictates of K.S.A. 22-3402(2).
K.S.A. 22-3402(2) states:
While the State has an obligation to insure that an accused is provided a speedy trial, delays which "happen as a result of the application or fault of the defendant" are not counted in computing the statutory speedy trial period under K.S.A. 22-3402(2). See State v. Green, 254 Kan. 669, 672, 867 P.2d 366 (1994).
When a defendant, as in this case, files a motion to suppress evidence, any delay caused by the filing of the motion is necessarily the result of the application of the defendant. Under a plain reading of the statute, a reasonable time taken by the parties and the court to process the defendant's motion to suppress should be charged to the defendant. This is the rule in Kansas as well as in many other jurisdictions. See State v. Prewett, 246 Kan. 39, 785 P.2d 956 (1990); State v. Roman, 240 Kan. 611, 731 P.2d 1281 (1987). See also Saffold v. State, 521 So. 2d 1368, 1371 (Ala. Crim. App. 1987); Smith v. State, 303 Ark. 524, 525, 798 *564 S.W.2d 94 (1990); People v. Cabrera, 188 Ill. App.3d 369, 371, 544 N.E.2d 439 (1990); State v. Blount, 519 So. 2d 153, 154 (La. App. 1987); State v. Sorensen, 243 Mont. 321, 331, 792 P.2d 363 (1990); State v. Oldfield, 236 Neb. 433, 439, 461 N.W.2d 554 (1990).
In Roman, we found that the six months it took the district court judge to decide a motion to suppress were not chargeable to the defendant. 240 Kan. at 613. In doing so, we noted that procrastination, whether it is prosecutorial or judicial, is not the fault of the defendant and that any party filing a motion has a right to assume that it will be acted upon expeditiously. 240 Kan. at 613. We also noted, however, that "[i]f the motion to suppress had been filed at the end of the 180-day statutory speedy trial period, a reasonable time (at most two or three weeks) for decision might well be charged to a defendant under appropriate circumstances." 240 Kan. at 613.
In State v. Prewett, 246 Kan. 39, 43, 785 P.2d 956 (1990), we stated: "Furthermore, in Roman, the 7-day period between the defendant's motion to suppress and the hearing on the motion was found properly chargeable to the defendant." Actually, we did not specifically make such a finding in Roman, but instead simply noted that neither party disputed that the seven days were chargeable to the defendant. 240 Kan. at 612. Nevertheless, because a motion to suppress is filed at the urging of the defendant, the time between the filing of the motion and the time set by the court for submission of briefs, provided this is not an unreasonable period of time, is properly chargeable to the defendant.
Not all of the time taken by the court to rule on the motion to suppress should be chargeable to the defendant. Instead, when the motion is taken under advisement for a long period of time, only a reasonable time, i.e., no longer than two to three weeks, should be properly chargeable to the defendant. See State v. Roman, 240 Kan. at 613. We conclude that here the two weeks during which the defendant's motion to suppress was taken under advisement should be chargeable to the defendant. Moreover, the 16 days granted the parties to file briefs on the defendant's motion *565 to suppress should also be charged to the defendant. Both periods of time are delays which happened as a result of the application of the defendant under K.S.A. 22-3402(2). A deduction of 30 days attributable to the defendant demonstrates that the defendant would have been brought to trial within the statutory period.
Reversed and remanded with directions to reinstate the complaint.