Opinion ID: 2208459
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Violation Proceeding

Text: The defendant argues that he moved to dismiss the violation proceeding on the ground that defendant could not be found to be a violator of a sentence he was not yet serving. When defendant was sentenced for criminal contempt, he was already serving another sentence for extortion. The criminal contempt sentence was made consecutive to the extortion sentence. We have held in State v. Dantzler, 690 A.2d 338, 340 (R.I.1997), that when a defendant has been sentenced to a term that includes any period of probation and is thereafter found to have committed any act that constitutes a violation of the implied condition of good behavior, he may be punished for any violation of that implied condition from the moment the sentence has been imposed until the expiration of the total term of the sentence. The implied condition of good behavior is immediately effective upon the imposition of the sentence. Id. It does not accrue only upon expiration of a previous sentence to which the subject sentence is consecutive. In Dantzler, 690 A.2d at 339, the defendant had pleaded nolo contendere to a robbery charge and received a twenty-five year sentence with eighteen years to serve, seven years suspended, and seven years of probation. The sentencing judge informed the defendant that his probationary period would commence upon his release. Id. After the sentence was imposed, but before his release, the defendant escaped from custody and committed a sexual assault while at large. Id. He was presented as a violator of the probation previously imposed on his earlierrobbery charges. He argued that he could not be violated on the earlier-imposed probation because he had not yet completed serving the sentence of incarceration and therefore his period of probation had not begun. Id. After citing numerous cases from other jurisdictions, we held that the defendant may be punished for any act that constitutes a violation of the obligation of good behavior that comes into existence at the very moment the sentence is imposed. Id. at 340-42. Consequently, defendant in the case at bar was properly subjected to punishment for a criminal act that occurred after the sentence was imposed even though that sentence was made consecutive to another period of imprisonment that defendant was already serving. The defendant does not challenge the grounds for his revocation of probation but only the timeliness of its imposition. The trial judge did not err in declining to dismiss the violation proceeding.