Court Opinion

ID: 9766821
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:00:02.223257+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:26.339466
License: Public Domain

HOLSTEIN, Judge,
concurring in part, dissenting in part.
I concur with the majority opinion vacating the judgment and ordering the cause remanded for a rehearing on the motion to suppress defendant’s videotaped and written confessions and an entry of findings on that motion. However, I must respectfully dissent from this court's direction to the trial judge to recuse.
The only time the trial judge made factual findings which may have been tainted by ex parte communication was in his ruling on the motion to suppress prior to trial. From the record there is no showing as to when the communication took place. For all we know, it occurred after the trial commenced. If it did occur after trial had commenced, the duty to remain as judge in the case was at least as strong as the duty to recuse. See Molasky v. State, 710 S.W.2d 875, 878 (Mo.App.1986). A judge has an affirmative duty not to disqualify himself unnecessarily. Cain v. Hershewe, 760 S.W.2d 146, No. 15487 (Mo.App.1988).
There was no motion filed before the trial court asking Judge Reeves to recuse. The motion for new trial claimed error in the trial judge’s failure to recuse on his own motion. That point was abandoned on appeal. The request for a new judge at a future suppression hearing was invented in *908the appellant’s brief. Ordinarily a contention that a trial judge should have disqualified himself will not be considered on appeal in the absence of a request for such action in the trial court. State v. Faber, 499 S.W.2d 790, 793 (Mo.1973); Novack v. Drey, 668 S.W.2d 259, 260 (Mo.App.1984).
I know of only two situations in which appellate courts have held that on remand a trial judge must recuse where there has been no motion to disqualify in the trial court. The first situation is one in which the judge demonstrably prejudges a case prior to presentation of all the evidence. Rutlader v. Rutlader, 411 S.W.2d 826 (Mo.App.1967). The second situation is one in which the trial judge is shown to be prohibited from sitting in a case by reason of a specific relationship to one of the parties or to the case. Grant v. State, 700 S.W.2d 170 (Mo.App.1985); Rule 2, Canon 3C(1). Neither of those situations exists here.
A judge should not initiate or consider ex parte communication. Rule 2, Canon 3A(4). But the occurrence of ex parte communication is not one of those specific situations in which disqualification is mandatory. Disqualification resulting from ex parte communication is mandatory only if the ex parte communication results in bias or prejudice against a defendant. Rule 2, Canon 3C(l)(a). Applications to disqualify a judge for personal bias and prejudice against a defendant are addressed to the court’s discretion. City of Kansas City v. Wiley, 697 S.W.2d 240, 244 (Mo.App.1985). We have no idea whether Judge Reeves would disqualify himself if presented with a motion to do so. A judge is entitled to a presumption that he will not undertake to preside in a hearing in which he cannot be impartial. State v. Presley, 694 S.W.2d 867, 869 (Mo.App.1985). I see no reason why we cannot presume that this trial judge will not disqualify in a subsequent proceeding in this case if in doing so he will remove any cloud of impropriety.
Apart from the failure to file factual findings on the motion to suppress, the trial was free from prejudicial error. Absent some showing that disqualification is mandatory or of actual bias and prejudice by the judge, appellate review of disqualification is viewed from the time of a motion, and only the proceedings that follow an improper ruling on a motion to disqualify are infected. State v. Lovelady, 691 S.W.2d 364, 368 (Mo.App.1985). Here, in advance of any infection, the majority administers its remedy.
As I understand the majority holding, if on appeal we find error requiring further action by the trial court, and the record contains an unrefuted affidavit complaining of improper ex parte communication, this court will not only reverse the case but sua sponte disqualify the judge. The disqualification will be ordered even though there is no motion to disqualify, and there is no error associated with the alleged impropriety by the judge. Sound jurisprudence dictates judicial restraint, which in turn demands that the matter of disqualification on the basis of bias and prejudice be presented to the trial judge in the first instance.
I would merely reverse the case for a determination of the issues raised in the motion to suppress. To avoid another appeal on the same issue, I would caution the trial judge that as the record now stands the unrefuted allegations of ex parte communication, accompanied by the absence of detail in the judge’s response regarding the time, source, and substance of the communication, give an appearance of impropriety. Therefore, if requested to do so, the trial judge should consider disqualifying and requesting assignment of another judge to rehear the motion to suppress and make the necessary findings.