Opinion ID: 1931497
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: What Is Before Us

Text: Before addressing the substantive issues raised by the parties, it is important to define what is actually before us and whether it is properly before us. As we read the record, the Circuit Court has abrogated, prospectively, all of the conditions to the probation enunciated in the June 27 Order for Probation and the addendum that was attached to it, including the drug testing and self-help requirements. The only conditions that remain in effect are those included in the June 28 Order for Constructive Civil Contempt, and even those conditions were substantially modified. The June 28, 2002 Order for Constructive Civil Contempt, as noted, sentenced appellant to 180 days in jail, suspended all but 30 days, directed that appellant report to the sheriff to serve those 30 days on August 30, 2002, unless he paid a purge amount of $1,000 prior to that date, and directed that appellant would be released from serving the suspended 150 days if he paid $189/month child support and $47/month on the then-existing arrearage. In declaring, in its October 9, 2003 order, that no further incarceration of [appellant] is ordered, the court effectively abrogated the sentence imposed in the June 28 order and any prospect that appellant will have to serve any part of that sentence. Only two things thus remain. First, even though it abrogated those conditions prospectively as well as any prospect of enforcing them through incarceration, the court purported to hold appellant in contempt for failing, prior to October 9, 2003, to undergo drug testing and to attend NA self-help meetings, as directed in the addendum to the June 27 order. Because, in announcing that finding of contempt, the court referred to the non-existent addendum to the June 28 order, it is not clear that its finding of contempt was effective, even if valid, but, as the court's intent seems clear and appellant has not raised that as an issue, we shall, for purposes of this appeal, treat the finding of contempt based on those two conditions as at least facially effective. The second directive that remains in effect is the renewal of the order that appellant pay the $189/month child support and the $47/month on the arrearage. It does not appear that appellant is challenging the second aspect of the October 9 order. As noted, he has never complained about either the setting of the child support or the arrearage. The only issue he has raised, therefore, is whether the court had authority, in June, 2002, to impose the two conditions on which the October 9, 2003, finding of contempt was based.