Opinion ID: 1706470
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The disposition of the ticket

Text: To assess the propriety of Judge Murphy's handling of the ticket, we must place it against the backdrop of standard practice in Dakota County. The panel heard testimony as to how petty misdemeanor traffic tickets are handled in Dakota County from four witnesses: Judge Richard Spicer, Christopher Groves, Lori Hunstad, and Scott Hersey. Judge Spicer, who was the Chief Judge of the First Judicial District from 2001 through 2005, testified that he routinely handles petty misdemeanor traffic tickets similar to the ticket at issue here without prosecutorial input. He testified that on many occasions clerks have come to his chambers with petty misdemeanor traffic tickets from individuals who came to the wrong courthouse, appeared on the wrong day, or lived out of town and mailed the ticket in. Judge Spicer testified that a day [didn't go] by where he didn't see a clerk about a petty misdemeanor and that he felt free to resolve these matters without talking to a prosecutor. He went on to testify that he resolved 40 cases yesterday morning alone without any input from prosecutors, and at their request and that in Apple Valley he might handle 100 petty misdemeanors in a morning, 90 of them without prosecutorial input. Judge Spicer explained that Dakota County prosecutors want judges to handle petty matters without individual input because the sheer volume of cases requires it. He also testified that the disposition of the ticket at issue was not unusual. Christopher Grove is an attorney in private practice who formerly prosecuted misdemeanors for the City of Apple Valley and who had also defended misdemeanors in Dakota County. He testified that the courts in Apple Valley, Hastings, and West St. Paul might each handle more than 100 petty misdemeanors and misdemeanors in a morning. He testified that judges in Dakota County routinely resolved petty misdemeanors without input from prosecutors, and that he appreciated their doing so because it would be impossible to be involved or provide input into each petty misdemeanor case. He further testified that he would resolve cases where the defendant was not personally present, for instance where a parent would come in on behalf of a child, or a spouse on behalf of a spouse. He also testified that a stay of adjudication for six months with $50 in court costs was consistent with what would normally happen to a ticket for traveling fourteen miles per hour over the speed limit where the defendant had a clean record. Lori Hunstad has been an Office Services Supervisor at the Dakota County District Court in Hastings for twenty-five years. She testified that tickets are sometimes handled in chambers without a prosecutor present, that judges sometimes resolve tickets for parties who show up on the wrong date or at the wrong location, and that the disposition of the ticket was not unusual. Scott Hersey is head of the Criminal Division at the Dakota County Attorney's Office. He testified that it was his policy to handle most matters in open court and that he would have objected to ex parte contact between a defense attorney or defendant and a judge in chambers. He conceded, however, that such contacts happen, and did not testify that he had ever complained about this practice. [7] He testified that he prefers to resolve petty misdemeanors with a guilty plea not accepted, rather than a continuance for dismissal, to avoid possible problems of proving the violation later, and that he would not have offered a continuance for dismissal here in light of the driver's history of license suspensions and revocations. He testified, however, that prosecutors exercise discretion and may offer a continuance for dismissal based on their review of a case, and further that any judge could have given the ticket a continuance for dismissal. From this testimony, we conclude that ex parte disposition of traffic tickets without prosecutorial input is common in Dakota County; that it is not unusual for clerks to present traffic tickets to judges in chambers; that a continuance for dismissal with court costs is not an unusual disposition for a ticket issued to a defendant with a clean record for driving 79 m.p.h. in a 65 m.p.h. zone; [8] and that tickets are sometimes resolved for a party who is not even present in the courthouse. On this record, therefore, we conclude that the disposition of the ticket was within the range of normal dispositions for similar traffic violations in Dakota County. We also conclude that ex parte resolution of similar traffic violations without prosecutorial input is common in Dakota County. [9] Thus, we cannot conclude that the board has proven by clear and convincing evidence that Judge Murphy's resolution of the ticket violated Canon 2B, either because it was done in chambers rather than in open court or because it was continued for dismissal. Canon 2B bars a judge from allowing family, social, political or other relationships to influence judicial conduct or judgment. Given the undisputed testimony of the witnesses before the fact finding panel that judges in Dakota County resolve similar petty misdemeanor citations in chambers rather than in open court, we conclude the board failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that Judge Murphy's handling of this ticket in chambers was influenced by a family, social, political or other relationship [ ] between the clerk and Judge Murphy. The Board relies on Ginsberg to argue that Judge Murphy violated Canon 3A(7), which requires him to afford all interested parties an opportunity to be heard. In Ginsberg we found, in relevant part, that a judge acted improperly by denying a prosecutor an opportunity to be heard on three occasions. 690 N.W.2d at 549. On the first two occasions, Judge Ginsberg dismissed charges at a hearing in open court without allowing the prosecutor, who was present, to be heard. Id. at 545. Here, in contrast, Judge Murphy continued the ticket for dismissal, rather than dismissed it outright, and he presented testimony that prosecutors in Dakota County did not want to be heard with regard to every petty misdemeanor ticket handled in court or in chambers. Ginsberg also involved Judge Ginsberg's outright dismissal, for an attorney who was in his chambers on an unrelated matter, of a citation for failure to obey a traffic-control device. Id. at 546. Judge Ginsberg evidently believed that the city attorney prosecuting the case had a problem with the defendant's wife, who was also an attorney, and the dismissal appears to have been, in part, an attempt at retribution against the city attorney. Id. The Panel and Board found that this conduct violated Canon 3A(7), and Ginsberg did not contest this conclusion. Id. at 548. He also did not argue or present any evidence that he simply followed standard procedures in his handling of the matter, as Judge Murphy has in this case. Although the county or city prosecutor certainly qualifies as an interested party to a petty misdemeanor ticket issued by the county or city, it is apparently routine practice, unobjected to by prosecutors, for minor traffic violations to be handled without prosecutorial appearances in Dakota County. We conclude that the bare fact that Judge Murphy resolved the ticket in chambers without prosecutorial input does not constitute a violation of Canons 2B and 3A(7), Code of Judicial Conduct.