Opinion ID: 1395220
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The validity of the Klamath Falls ordinances.

Text: Defendants also contend that they were denied equal protection of the laws for another reason. Citing State v. Pirkey, 203 Or. 697, 281 P.2d 698 (1955), and State v. Cory, 204 Or. 235, 282 P.2d 1054 (1955), defendants contend that the ordinances they were convicted of violating were identical to state criminal statutes covering the same offenses [12] and that the arresting officer had the option to charge them under either the municipal ordinances or the state statutes. Because a charge under the state statute would have been tried in district court with a right of appeal to the Court of Appeals, defendants contend that this discretion to accord some individuals a broader right of appeal than others charged with identical offenses violates Article I, Section 20. The record before us and the original briefs presented by the parties in this case do not disclose whether under the ordinances or charter of the City of Klamath Falls the arresting officer, city attorney or any other city official was granted or permitted unlimited discretion to charge defendants with violating either the municipal code or the state criminal statutes. In response to a request by this court for supplemental briefs, however, it is conceded by the city that there is no provision of any ordinance or of the city charter which limits or controls the exercise of such a discretion, although contending that it is the unwritten policy of the city and its police department that an offense against a city ordinance is to be charged into Municipal Court as a municipal offense, unless there exists a companion charge over which the Municipal Court does not have jurisdiction, in which event both charges would be brought under statutes in state court. In State v. Pirkey, supra , this court reviewed the constitutionality of a statute that provided that the crime of drawing a bank check without sufficient funds in the bank with which to pay the check in full could, in the discretion of the grand jury or magistrate to whom complaint was made, be prosecuted as either a felony or a misdemeanor. In State v. Cory, supra , this court reviewed the constitutionality of a statute that granted to district attorneys, in cases involving non-violent crimes, unlimited discretion to file or not file an information seeking a sentence under Oregon's Habitual Criminal Act. In both cases this court held that the statutes violated equal protection because they constituted an unauthorized delegation of discretionary power. In cases since Pirkey and Cory we have made it clear that the rule of Pirkey is limited to cases in which there is no basis for distinction between the two offenses as described in the two statutes involved in such cases. See State v. Reynolds, 289 Or. 533, 538, 614 P.2d 1158 (1980). It is also important to note that in Pirkey the same conduct that constituted an offense under either statute might be punished more leniently or more severely dependent upon the complete discretion of a prosecutor in initiating a prosecution under one statute, rather than under the other. It was the unbridled power conferred upon the prosecutor to determine what maximum punishment the judge could later impose that was held to be the fatal flaw of the statute in Pirkey. It is also important to note that in both Pirkey and Cory the exercise of discretion presented the potential for significant prejudice to the defendants involved, i.e., greater or lesser punishment, and in both cases the discretion in question was exercised to the detriment of the defendants. In this case, however, both of the municipal ordinances under which defendants were charged carried a maximum penalty of a $505 fine and 60 days imprisonment, whereas the state statutes defendants claim they could have been charged with violating carry maximum penalties of imprisonment for one year and a $1,000 fine in one instance and imprisonment for 6 months and a $500 fine in the other. [13] Thus, defendants may have been ultimately benefited by the decision to prosecute them under the municipal ordinances because the ordinance violations carried lighter penalties than violations of the corresponding state statutes. Defendants contend that the rule of Pirkey is nevertheless applicable and controlling in this case because not only are the offenses described in the ordinances identical with those described in the statute, but defendants prosecuted under the ordinances suffer substantial prejudice in that although they have a right to a trial de novo in circuit court they have no right of appeal to the Court of Appeals for any error committed in the prosecution or trial of this case, as does a person charged with the same offense in violation of the state statute, but that defendants are limited in any such appeal to a challenge of the constitutionality of the ordinance. Regardless of whether any such prejudice is sufficiently comparable to the prejudice suffered by the defendant in Pirkey, we are of the opinion that such a contention must be rejected for another reason. In United States v. Batchelder, 442 U.S. 114, 99 S.Ct. 2198, 60 L.Ed.2d 755 (1979), the defendant was convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 922(h) of being a felon who received a firearm that had traveled in interstate commerce and was sentenced to the maximum term, five years' imprisonment. The Court of Appeals, noting that the substantive elements of § 922(h) and 18 U.S.C.App. § 1202(a) [18 U.S.C.S.Appx. § 1202(a)] are identical as applied to a convicted felon who unlawfully receives a firearm, held that no more than the two-year maximum sentence provided by § 1202(a) could be imposed upon the defendant, thus applying a rule similar to that applied by this court in Pirkey. 442 U.S. at 116-117, 99 S.Ct. at 2200. The Supreme Court of the United States reversed and held, in a unanimous opinion, that: This Court has long recognized that when an act violates more than one criminal statute, the Government may prosecute under either so long as it does not discriminate against any class of defendants. 442 U.S. at 123-24, 99 S.Ct. at 2203-2204. Of more direct significance for purposes of this case, the Court also stated:    More importantly, there is no appreciable difference between the discretion a prosecutor exercises when deciding whether to charge under one of two statutes with different elements and the discretion he exercises when choosing one of two statutes with identical elements. In the former situation, once he determines that the proof will support conviction under either statute, his decision is indistinguishable from the one he faces in the latter context. The prosecutor may be influenced by the penalties available upon conviction, but this fact, standing alone, does not give rise to a violation of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clause.   . 422 U.S. at 125, 99 S.Ct. at 2205. In our opinion, the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in Batchelder is directly contrary to the rule as adopted by this court in Pirkey. It follows, in our opinion, that the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States can no longer be properly held by this court to be violated in cases in which a prosecutor, grand jury or magistrate has complete discretion to decide whether to charge under one of two statutes (or under a municipal ordinance or a statute) with identical elements even though, depending upon such a choice, the maximum penalty which may be imposed upon conviction is greater under one statute (or ordinance) than under the other. For similar reasons, it also follows, in our opinion, that by reason of the decision in Batchelder, it cannot be properly held by this court that the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is violated in a case such as this in which the potential prejudice to the defendant is not the possibility of a heavier penalty, but a difference in his right of appeal. As previously stated, there are both advantages and disadvantages to defendants prosecuted under municipal ordinances in municipal courts, as compared to defendants prosecuted under state statutes in district courts, and it would be difficult to state categorically which offers greater advantages to such defendants. In addition, as previously noted, there is no constitutional right of appeal. Thus, no fundamental right is involved so as to require a broad application of the Fourteenth Amendment, and no discrimination on grounds that are inherently suspect, such as race, religion, etc., is charged. See Tribe, Constitutional Law, §§ 16-6, 16-7 (19__). Accordingly, we do not believe that any prejudice to a defendant prosecuted under a municipal ordinance in a municipal court can properly be said to be sufficiently greater or different than the prejudice to the defendant in Pirkey so as to properly hold that the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is violated in this case, but not in a case such as presented in Pirkey. Defendants also contend that the privileges and immunities provision of Article I, Section 20, of the Oregon Constitution is violated in this case. Even assuming, however, that Article I, Section 20, is to be interpreted as conferring rights substantially different or greater than those conferred by the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, neither the ordinance under which these defendants were prosecuted nor the statute describing the same offense were laws which granted to any citizen or class of citizens any privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, do not equally belong to all citizens. Defendants do not contend that either that ordinance or that statute is unconstitutional. If any such privileges were granted by any law, they were conferred by ORS 221.360, which provides for differences in the rights of appeal by defendants prosecuted in municipal courts and in state district courts. For reasons previously stated, that statute does not violate Article I, Section 20.