Opinion ID: 853612
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Absence of Charges

Text: In his cross-appeal, the defendant also contends that the post-conviction court erred in denying his claim that his trial, conviction, and sentence were illegal because charges were never properly brought against him. He argues that the 1989 charges that resulted in his trial, conviction, and sentence were dismissed in 1991 and later improperly reinstated without being formally refiled. The post-conviction court found the claim to be without merit. The post-conviction court found that the defendant's trial counsel neither saw nor were served with a motion to dismiss and that, in major felony cases, such motions are usually submitted in writing. The post-conviction court determined that, although the deputy prosecutor at some point wanted to dismiss the charges filed in 1989, they were never dismissed and that the charges filed in the 1992 case were duplicative of the 1989 charges that were still pending before the trial court. The post-conviction court concluded that the defendant failed to show that no valid charges were brought against him. The defendant derives this claim from a pleading entitled Notice of Refiling filed on August 5, 1992, when the State refiled these criminal charges in cause number 49G05-9208-CF-101477, a separate cause. The Notice of Refiling recited that the cause had been charged in this present proceeding, cause number 49G05-8911-CF-131401, and dismissed on November 16, 1991. The charges refiled in 1992 were dismissed on the State's motion two days later. And, on that same day, the State also filed in the present cause a Motion to Withdraw Motion to Dismiss. The defendant cannot establish either the filing or the granting of any motion to dismiss the present cause, and we find none. Furthermore, the record and filings at and around the time of the purported motion to dismiss and dismissal of charges demonstrate that both the defendant and the State were actively involved in ongoing discovery without any indication that either the parties or the trial court intended or understood that the charges were being dismissed. The defendant has not demonstrated that the evidence unmistakably and unerringly points to a conclusion contrary to the decision of the post-conviction court.