Case Name: James G. DEMERS, Appellant, v. STATE of Alaska, Appellee
Court: Alaska Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Alaska
Decision Date: 2002-02-08
Citations: 42 P.3d 1
Docket Number: No. A-7916
Parties: James G. DEMERS, Appellant, v. STATE of Alaska, Appellee.
Judges: Before COATS, Chief Judge, and MANNHEIMER and STEWART, Judges.
Reporter: Pacific Reporter 3d
Volume: 42
Pages: 1–5

Head Matter:
James G. DEMERS, Appellant, v. STATE of Alaska, Appellee.
No. A-7916.
Court of Appeals of Alaska.
Feb. 8, 2002.
James E. Curtain, Juneau, for Appellant.
David Brower, Assistant District Attorney, and Bruce M. Botelho, Attorney General, Juneau, for Appellee.
Before COATS, Chief Judge, and MANNHEIMER and STEWART, Judges.

Opinion:
OPINION
STEWART, Judge.
From 1994 until 1999, James G. Demers served as treasurer of the Juneau-based Alaska Folk Festival, a non-profit organization. After Demers resigned his position, the new treasurer discovered discrepancies in the Festival's business records. More than $13,000 was unaccounted for in over forty transactions spanning more than four years. After the police investigated, the State filed an information charging Demers with one count each of second-degree theft and falsifying business records.
Demers waived indictment by the grand jury and pleaded no contest to the charges. Superior Court Judge Patricia A. Collins imposed 2 years with 18 months suspended on each count and ran the sentences concurrently. At sentencing, Judge Collins ordered Demers to pay restitution of up to $24,000 (with credit for the $7,748.14 he paid before sentencing) as a condition of probation subject to input from Demers after he had reviewed the Festival's records.
Ultimately, Judge Collins amended the judgment to provide as a condition of probation that Demers pay restitution to the Festival in the total sum of $16,283.17. Included in this sum was $5,400 for the Festival's "accounting costs." In this appeal, Demers challenges only the $5,400 awarded for accounting costs. Those costs included $400 paid to the Festival's accountants for reviewing the Festival's books after the embezzle ment was discovered and $5,000 for 200 hours of volunteer work performed by two of the Festival's board members who audited and reconstructed the Festival's business records.
For the reasons expressed below, we affirm the award of $400 as reimbursement to the Festival's accountants. However, we vacate the condition of probation that orders $5,000 restitution for the volunteer time expended by the Board members.
Discussion
Title 12 of the Alaska Statutes authorizes courts to award restitution both as a component of the sentence and as a term of probation. Alaska Statute 12.55.045(a)(2) provides that when contemplating an order of restitution, the court should consider the "financial burden placed on the victim . as a result of the criminal conduct of the defendant." The legislature intended that courts should construe AS 12.55.045(a) broadly by ordering restitution to all persons who were injured as a result of a defendant's conduct. Alaska Statute 12.55.100(a)(2) provides, in part, that a court may order a defendant to make restitution or reparation to a victim "for actual damages or loss caused by the crime" as a condition of probation.
Clearly, Demers injured the Festival, and the Festival incurred a loss as a result of Demers's theft and falsification. Judge Collins considered the evidence that, in addition to the stolen funds, the Festival incurred other expenses. For example, the State presented evidence that the Festival incurred a $400 expense for accounting services. This evidence supports the court's probation condition ordering restitution of $400 for the accounting services.
A Festival board member also testified that board members volunteered 200 hours of work auditing and reconstructing Festival records. The member valued the volunteer effort at $25 per hour for purposes of seeking restitution.
Judge Collins ordered $5,000 of restitution for accounting services based on the testimony regarding the volunteer efforts of Festival board members. She reasoned that restitution was appropriate because, if she did not order the restitution, Demers would benefit since the Festival "is too poor to afford the costs of a more expensive, but necessary, audit." Judge Collins recognized this was a close issue but reasoned that this amount of restitution was appropriate because a commercial enterprise would have incurred a monetary cost that, in this case, was met by volunteer efforts.
But the Festival did not expend any money nor receive an invoice for this volunteer effort. Although the Festival was injured as a result of Demers's crimes, it did not ineur any monetary damage or loss when the Festival's board members volunteered their time and effort to audit and reconstruct the Festival's business records.
Obviously, the legislature intended to provide the courts with the authority to order defendants to compensate their victims. But AS 12.55.100(a)(2) grants a sentencing court the power to impose restitution as a probation condition when a victim suffers "actual damages or loss."
We conclude that the legislature did not provide a sentencing court with the power to order restitution to a vietim who was injured but who did not sustain actual damages or loss because the injury was cured by volunteer efforts. Accordingly, we vacate that portion of the court's probation conditions which ordered $5,000 restitution for the volunteer work performed by the board members.
Conclusion
The judgment of the superior court is AFFIRMED in part and VACATED in part.
MANNHEIMER, J., concurring.
COATS, Chief Judge, dissenting.
. AS 11.46.130(a)(1) & AS 11.46.630, respectively.
. In the Alaska Session Laws, Ch. 71, SLA 1992, the legislature announced the purpose of AS 12.55.045(a):
Section 1. PURPOSE. It is the purpose of this Act . to make full restitution available to all persons who have been injured as a result of criminal behavior, to the greatest extent possible, by
(3) allowing courts to order that restitution be made to all persons who have suffered a loss as a result of a defendant's conduct.]