Opinion ID: 2613197
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: separation of powers and abuse of discretion

Text: In denying the lawful motions to dismiss filed in Petitioners' cases, the District Court intruded on the prosecutorial discretion of the Attorney General and the Lincoln County Attorney and, in so doing, violated the separation of powers between the executive and judicial branches of government. Article III, Section 1 of the Montana Constitution provides: The power of the government of this state is divided into three distinct branches  legislative, executive, and judicial. No person or persons charged with the exercise of power properly belonging to one branch shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except as in this constitution expressly directed or permitted. It has been said that the principle of the separation of powers is fundamental to the existence of constitutional government. National Mut. Ins. Co. v. Tidewater Transfer Co. (1949), 337 U.S. 582, 590, 69 S.Ct. 1173, 1177, 93 L.Ed. 1556, 1567. Each branch constitutes a check or balance upon the other branches, in order that no one branch has too much power in its hands. Parker v. Riley (Cal. 1941), 113 P.2d 873, 877. The Attorney General and the Lincoln County Attorney are members of the executive branch, and the district judge is a member of the judicial branch. In the legitimate exercise of his authority, the Attorney General concluded that taking Petitioners' cases to trial was without proper evidentiary basis and, therefore, inconsistent with the interests of justice. This decision was well within the powers granted to the Attorney General under his authority to supervise county attorneys in criminal matters. Similarly, in the legitimate exercise of his authority, and pursuant to the direction of the Attorney General, the Lincoln County Attorney moved to dismiss the various cases against the Petitioners. As we have stated above, because the Tilton evidence could not be used, and because there was insufficient other untainted evidence on which to continue the prosecutions, the Lincoln County Attorney's motions met the good cause and furtherance of justice requirements of § 46-13-401(1), MCA. Under such circumstances, the District Court's denial of the motions to dismiss and its consequent intervention in the Attorney General's legitimate decision to direct the Lincoln County Attorney to dismiss the cases against the Petitioners was improper and constituted an abuse of discretion. While under § 46-13-401(1), MCA, the district court may, for good cause and in the furtherance of justice, dismiss a felony criminal charge on its own motion, it does not follow that the district court may deny a motion to dismiss filed by the prosecutor when that motion meets the good cause and furtherance of justice elements of the statute. When they are acting lawfully and within their constitutional and statutory authority, the district court may not interfere in the prosecutorial functions of the Attorney General and the county attorney  the executive branch  without violating the separation of powers embodied in Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of the State of Montana. To hold otherwise would erode that fundamental constitutional mandate.