Case Name: STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Roger R. DEMARS, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2003-07-02
Citations: 848 So. 2d 436
Docket Number: No. 4D01-4950
Parties: STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Roger R. DEMARS, Appellee.
Judges: GUNTHER, KLEIN, STEVENSON, SHAHOOD, GROSS and TAYLOR, concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 848
Pages: 436–441

Head Matter:
STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Roger R. DEMARS, Appellee.
No. 4D01-4950.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
July 2, 2003.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Heidi L. Bettendorf, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and James W. Mclntire, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

Opinion:
WARNER, J.
In granting a motion to discharge appel-lee Demars from felony petit theft charges, the trial court followed Bryant v. State, 757 So.2d 617, 618 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000), in which we determined that the trial court should have treated a motion for speedy trial discharge as a notice of expiration of speedy -trial time and set a hearing within five days of the notice as required by Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.191(p). Because the hearing in this case was not set until fifteen days after the motion was filed, leaving no time within the window created in the rule to try Demars, the court ordered his discharge. We recede from Bryant and instead adopt the reasoning of Clark v. State, 698 So.2d 1274 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997), which determined that a motion for discharge should not be treated as a notice of expiration of speedy trial, triggering the five day hearing. We therefore reverse.
After having first been arrested for a misdemeanor, which the state nolle prossed, the state refiled the information against Demars and arraigned him on the charge of felony petit theft, 213 days from Demars' original misdemeanor arrest, well past the speedy trial period. See Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.191(a). A month and a half later, Demars filed a motion for discharge, alleging the state failed to bring him to trial within the speedy trial period. Eleven days later the state moved to strike Demars' motion, because he failed to file a notice of expiration of speedy trial pursuant to Rule 3.191(p)(2). Both motions were heard by the trial court four days later, fifteen days after the filing of the motion for discharge. Bound by Bryant, the trial court granted the motion for discharge, and the state appeals.
The facts of Bryant are very similar to this case. The state had filed an information against Bryant naming a female victim. It later amended this same information naming only a male victim. This case apparently languished for over a year. Prompted by a motion for discharge due to speedy trial, the state nol prossed the information and refiled an information alleging the same charges and dates but only as to the female victim. A month later, Bryant filed a motion to discharge the newly filed information based upon speedy trial. Three months later the court denied the motion. See id. at 617-18. We concluded that although the amended information constituted a nol prosse as to the original charges regarding the female victim, the speedy trial time continued to run, citing State v. Agee, 622 So.2d 473, 475 (Fla.1993). Therefore, when the state refiled the information, the time for speedy trial had run, similar to the facts of this case. We then said:
The trial court should have treated appellant's motion for discharge as a notice of expiration of speedy trial period and set a hearing within five days. See Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.191(p). At which point, unless the trial court found that discharge was inappropriate for reasons set forth in the Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.191(j) it should have ordered that appellant be brought to trial within ten days. See id. Since the trial court took no action in response to appellant's motion for discharge other than to deny it, appellant was entitled to a discharge.
Bryant, 757 So.2d at 618.
This same factual scenario was present in Clark, 698 So.2d 1274, where the defendant filed a motion for discharge, not a notice of expiration of speedy trial. The court determined that because the defendant failed to file the requisite "notice" he was not entitled to discharge. See id. at 1275. The court rejected the defendant's contention that refusing to treat the motion as the "notice" elevates form over substance. The court stated:
In accordance with the precise purpose a "notice" is designed to serve under the scheme carefully crafted by rule 3.191(p), the filing of a document which is so designated alerts the clerk and the prosecution that the case must immediately be brought to the attention of the court by placing it on its calendar within a day or two so that the recapture period may be complied with. On the other hand, since a "motion to discharge" may not be granted unless it is well taken when filed, there is no necessity for scheduling it at any particular time. As defense counsel may well have anticipated, that is exactly what, as a direct result of the fact that a "motion" and not a "notice" was filed, occurred below.... Having thus attempted, as it were, to entrap the clerk, the prosecution and the court into depriving him of rights which he did not appropriately assert, the defendant cannot now argue that it does not matter that he did not claim them in the way required by the rule itself.
Id. at 1275 (citations omitted); accord, Dabkowski v. State, 711 So.2d 1219, 1220 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998).
We agree with the reasoning in Clark, that a notice, not a motion, is required to trigger the expiration of recapture period. Rule 3.191(p)(2) states:
At any time after the expiration of the prescribed time period, the defendant may file a separate pleading entitled "Notice of Expiration of Speedy Trial Time," and serve a copy on the prosecuting authority.
(Emphasis added). Because the trial court is responsible for setting an immediate hearing, the notice must be brought to the court's attention. When the notice is styled as a motion for discharge, a clerk accepting it for filing may not distinguish it from the myriad of motions filed in the clerk's office. We cannot expect the non-lawyer personnel of the clerk's office to pour over motions to determine whether they seek a speedy trial discharge, requiring the court's immediate attention. Moreover, even the state attorney's office may not treat a motion for discharge with the same urgency as a notice. Strict compliance with the rule is a practical necessity-
Although we might harmonize Bryant with our result here by allowing a trial court to treat a motion for discharge as a notice of expiration of speedy trial when the trial court becomes "aware" of it, that approach is fraught with the possibility of inconsistent results. We fear that we would be inviting a multitude of disputes as to exactly when a trial judge became "aware" that a motion for discharge constituted an assertion that the speedy trial time had expired. The rule is specific and easy for defense counsel to follow. We see no need to complicate the process by permitting other means of compliance.
We therefore reverse the order of discharge and remand for further proceedings.
GUNTHER, KLEIN, STEVENSON, SHAHOOD, GROSS and TAYLOR, concur.
MAY, J., concurs specially with opinion, in which POLEN, J., and STONE, J., concur.
FARMER, C.J., dissents with opinion.
HAZOURI, J., recused.
. We note that under the Rules of Juvenile Procedure, there is no requirement for a Notice of Expiration of Speedy Trial. Instead, the respondent may file a motion for discharge and simultaneously file a notice of hearing, both of which shall be served on the prosecutor. See Rule 8.090(m)(2). As the Committee Notes explain, "[t]his rule requires a notice of hearing at the time of filing the motion of discharge to ensure that the child's motion is heard in a timely manner." This requirement is not part of the Rules of Criminal Procedure, but as this case indicates, placing the responsibility on the defendant asserting his right to a rule-based speedy trial discharge would also ensure that the defendant's motion is timely heard.