Opinion ID: 1304136
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Scope of the Horry County Plea Agreement

Text: The trial judge dismissed with prejudice all indictments against Respondents Tom, Sam, Glenn, and Gary Thrift on the ground that the State's plea agreement with Sam and Tom Thrift in December 1991 prohibited the State from further prosecution of the Thrifts or their corporations for conspiracy or substantive acts of bribery of Highway Department officials. The issue before us therefore must focus on the terms of that oral plea agreement and their interpretation. Under the separation of powers doctrine, which is the basis for our form of government, the Executive Branch is vested with the power to decide when and how to prosecute a case. Both the South Carolina Constitution [5] and South Carolina case law [6] place the unfettered discretion to prosecute solely in the prosecutor's hands. The Attorney General as the State's chief prosecutor may decide when and where to present an indictment, and may even decide whether an indictment should be sought. Prosecutors may pursue a case to trial, or they may plea bargain it down to a lesser offense, or they can simply decide not to prosecute the offense in its entirety. The Judicial Branch is not empowered to infringe on the exercise of this prosecutorial discretion; however, on occasion, it is necessary to review and interpret the results of the prosecutor's actions. We must, therefore, analyze the State's agreement within our judicial constraints. In its brief, the State posits that since the enforcement of the plea agreement is likened to specific performance of a contract, it falls into equity. As an equity matter, the State argues that we can take our own view of the facts in this appeal. This argument fails because the central question about the plea agreement is what are its terms, which is a legal question. Baughman v. State, ___ S.C. ___, 430 S.E.2d 505 (1993) (per curiam); State v. Gates, 299 S.C. 92, 382 S.E.2d 886 (1989). Moreover, the case before the Court is a criminal action at law which also places it within the ambit of Amerson. The State conceded at oral argument that the Amerson standard of review controls here. The United States Supreme Court in Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257, 92 S.Ct. 495, 30 L.Ed.2d 427 (1971), held that where a guilty plea rests on a promise or agreement which can be said to be a part of the inducement or consideration, then the agreement must be fulfilled. The Fourth Circuit recently addressed this same issue in United States v. Ringling, 988 F.2d 504 (4th Cir.1993). In Ringling, the court held that a plea bargain rests on contractual principles, and that each party should receive the benefit of the bargain. Id. [7] The court further stated that a plea agreement analysis must be more stringent than a contract because the rights involved are fundamental and constitutionally based. Id. The court also noted that the government had to be held to a higher degree or responsibility than the defendant for imprecisions or ambiguities. Id. Another important holding in Ringling is that where one district attorney states that the `Government' will not prosecute, it encumbers all other districts. Id. at 507. The court also stated: [i]t is the Government at largenot specific United States Attorneys or United States `Districts'that are bound by plea agreements negotiated by agents of the Government.... When a defendant's fundamental rights are at stake the right hand should know what the left hand is doing. Id. at 507. Whether the plea agreement is wise, or even in the best interests of the state, is not the question before us. The record below supports the factual findings of the trial judge. The Respondents called the three attorneys involved in negotiating the Horry County plea on behalf of the Thrifts. Each attorney testified consistently that the oral plea agreement included a promise not to further prosecute Sam Thrift, Tom Thrift, Gary Thrift, Glenn Thrift, or their corporations. The trial judge also properly found that oral plea agreements are consistent with the day-to-day practice of criminal law in state courts. The letter written by the Assistant Attorney General, dated December 11, 1991, further supports the trial court's findings that the agreement encompassed Sam Thrift, Tom Thrift, Gary Thrift, Glenn Thrift, and the corporations. This letter to the Highway Department, important to the administrative debarment proceedings, specifically stated: This letter is to inform you that the Attorney General's Office has now completed its prosecution of Sam Thrift, Tom Thrift, and Herman Snyder. The Attorney General's Office does not plan to seek prosecution of additional individuals thus all documents and/or materials supplied ... are released back to the Highway Department. (ROA p. 1601). The Assistant Attorney General who authored the letter and the Deputy Attorney General who co-prosecuted the Horry County case conceded in their testimony below that at the time the plea in Horry County was entered, they believed that it concluded the matter for the Attorney General's Office. The debarment agreement itself is further evidence that the plea agreement ended all criminal prosecutions arising out of the Thrifts' previous involvement with the Highway Department. The debarment agreement imposed the obligation to cooperate on the Thrifts and even led to their personally notifying the Attorney General about the pending sale of their asphalt plant. In fact, the Thrifts were served with a subpoena to appear before the State Grand Jury while they were seated in the Attorney General's office discussing the pending sale with him. The testimony of the Horry County defense attorneys was complete and concise as to the terms of the agreement, while the Assistant Attorney General stated that he had no recollection of the agreement. The testimony of the Deputy Attorney General supported the proposition that oral agreements are perfectly enforceable, and that he felt that the Horry County plea agreement closed the file for the Attorney General's Office. Under Amerson, we find that the evidence in the record supports the trial judge's order on this first issue. We must, therefore, affirm the trial court's dismissal of the indictments against Tom, Sam, Glenn, and Gary Thrift. Throughout this case, the State has contended that the plea agreement was not so comprehensive as to relieve the Thrifts from further potential criminal liability. While there is some conflicting evidence, this assertion begs the question. In the Transcript of Record for the Horry County Guilty Plea, the State began its presentation with the words pursuant to plea negotiations, yet there was no further discussion as to what the plea agreement provided. At the inception of the State's investigation, the federal authorities had evidence of pervasive misconduct involving the Thrifts. The actual situs of the worst misconduct, the payoffs, the cash gratuities, and the falsified work records, was in the upstate. Armed with this knowledge and other information developed from the Attorney General's own sources, the Attorney General opted to pursue the Thrifts only in Horry County. Exercising the discretion which rests solely within the powers of the office, the Attorney General chose the time and place for the initial prosecution of the Thrifts and then chose to end that prosecution with a plea bargain. On the present facts, the State's current dilemma is one of its own creation. The State had the opportunity to set forth the scope of the agreement and persons to whom the agreement applied, but did not. We caution both the bench and bar that this can no longer be an option.