Court Opinion

ID: 9686709
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:02:00.177388+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:44:35.400331
License: Public Domain

DISSENT
PAGE, Justice dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. Based on the record before us, our precedent, and that of the United States Supreme Court, I can only conclude that Butala should have been able to withdraw his guilty plea. Therefore, I would reverse the district court’s denial of Butala’s request to withdraw his guilty plea.
To constitute a valid guilty plea, the plea, when made, must be accurate, voluntary, and intelligent. See Kaiser v. State, 641 N.W.2d 900, 903 (Minn.2002). The voluntariness requirement is designed to ensure that the plea is not the product of improper inducements or pressure. State v. Kaiser, 469 N.W.2d 316, 319 (Minn.1991). This requirement is implicated when the plea involves a “package deal,” an agreement in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for leniency for a third party, especially when the third party is related to the defendant. State v. Danh, 516 N.W.2d 539, 542 (Minn.1994). In Danh, noting that “the standard Minn. R.Crim. P. 15.01 inquiry cannot adequately discover coercion in these cases,” we held
that the state must fully inform the trial court of the details of these agreements at the time a defendant enters a “package deal” plea, and the trial court must then conduct further inquiries to determine whether the plea is voluntarily made.[4] In future cases, a defendant must be allowed to withdraw his or her guilty plea if the state fails to fully inform the trial court of the nature of the plea, or if the trial court fails to adequately inquire into the voluntariness of the plea at the time of the guilty plea. This holding is in accordance with those cases which hold that trial courts must take extra steps to determine the volun-tariness of these types of pleas. E.g., In re Ibarra, 193 Cal.Rptr. at 544, 666 P.2d at 986.
Id. at 542-43. Footnote 4, it its entirety, reads:
We agree with the First Circuit Court of Appeals that “a later hearing cannot replace a full inquiry into voluntariness at the time the plea is entered.” United States v. Daniels, 821 F.2d 76, 80 (1st Cir.1987). We also note that the Supreme Court has stated, “There is no adequate substitute for demonstrating in the record at the time the plea is *343entered the defendant’s understanding of the nature of the charge against him.” McCarthy v. United States, 394 U.S. 459, 470, 89 S.Ct. 1166, 1173, 22 L.Ed.2d 418 (1969) (emphasis in original). Because voluntariness is equal in importance to knowingness, it should also be apparent from the record at the time of the plea. See Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 242, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 1711, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969) (“It was error, plain on the face of the record, for the trial judge to accept petitioner’s guilty plea without an affirmative showing that it was intelligent and voluntary!)]”).
Finally, this court, in State v. Casarez, 295 Minn. 534, 536, 203 N.W.2d 406, 408 (1973), similarly held that a guilty plea must appear on the record to have been voluntarily and intelligently made. In that case, we noted that the transcripts from the appellant’s guilty plea and sentencing hearings were so incomplete that we could not determine whether the appellant had “properly waived all of his rights.” We went on to note, “Nor is there anything in the record showing that the trial judge discussed the consequences of the plea so that defendant would have a full understanding of its consequences.”
Id. at 542.
At least two federal circuit courts of appeal have found that the state is required to disclose not just those promises that are considered important, but all promises that have been made by the prosecution to the defendant. See United States v. Daniels, 821 F.2d 76, 80 (1st Cir.1987); United States v. Blackner, 721 F.2d 703, 708 (10th Cir.1983); see also United States v. Roberts, 570 F.2d 999, 1007 (D.C.Cir.1977) (concluding that “[t]here is no standard short of requiring total disclosure of all material details of plea agreements that can reliably guarantee that guilty pleas are knowing and voluntary and fully understood by the parties themselves”).
In this case, the district court accepted Butala’s plea based on the inquiry required by the Rule 15.01 petition. However, the Rule 15.01 petition contained no mention of the state’s promise as set out in the January 6, 2000, letter, which contained the following terms:
Per our discussions concerning the plea agreement in the above-referenced matter, I am certifying to you at this time that in exchange for your client’s pleas of guilty to the two Counts of First Degree Murder involving the intentional deaths of Gene Olson and Michael Mic-kalich while committing the crime of Arson, the County Attorney’s Office will not prosecute any member of Mr. Buta-la’s immediate family for any criminal offenses arising out of the investigation into the deaths of Gene Olson and Michael Mickalich or for any criminal offenses which may have come to light during the course of the investigation. ***
Additionally, as I have indicated, I will continue to do all that I can to facilitate the continued contact visits between Mr. Butala and his family, including a visit which would allow the use of a camera so that Mr. Butala can have photographs taken of himself with various of his family members. I will also do what I can to attempt to arrange a contact visit between Mr. Butala and a long-standing friend, Ms. Dana Jordahl. I will also assist in facilitating your client’s request regarding the opportunity to have a meal prepared for him by his mother. I can indicate that those matters have been discussed with my division head in Duluth and he has assured me that I would have the backing of our office *344should there be some difficulty in facilitating those matters.
While both parties agree that the district court was aware of the discussions regarding Butala’s family visits before the January 6, 2000, letter and had clearly informed the state and Butala that the visits could not be accepted as a part of any plea agreement, it appears that the district court did not know that Butala had received a promise that his family members would not be prosecuted as accessories after the fact. Nor did the district court know that, after informing the state and Butala that family visits could not be accepted as part of any plea agreement, family visits remained a part of the agreement between the state and Butala.
At the post-conviction hearing, Chadwick, Butala’s attorney during the plea agreement, his mother, and his sister all testified that the police had intimated that charges might be filed against Pat Butala (Butala’s father) and Keith Gaul (Butala’s brother) for being accessories after the fact and for dealing drugs. Butala further testified that the police and BCA agents had told him that his father, brother, and stepmother were possibly looking at charges of accessory after the fact and could face up to half the amount of time Butala would receive if he was convicted unless he accepted the terms of the plea. Butala testified that he was concerned about the prosecution of family members because he was told that, if he was found guilty, each family member would get a life sentence. It appears that, based on these statements, Butala sought to obtain promises from the state that his family would not face prosecution for their criminal acts.
While the simple presence of a benefit to a third party does not automatically render a guilty plea invalid, I am troubled by the court’s affirmation of a plea agreement that is in part based on terms not before the district court when the plea agreement was accepted. Moreover, the court’s affir-mance ignores the additional inquiry required by Danh. As we stated in Danh, it is the state’s burden to provide the district court with all the details of the plea agreement. State v. Danh, 516 N.W.2d 539, 542-43 (Minn.1994). By focusing solely on the fact that the defendant sought to obtain these agreements from the state, this court misses the purpose underlying Rule 15.01 inquiries — to ensure that the plea was voluntarily made. As we pointed out in Danh, ensuring that a plea was voluntarily made requires questioning by the district court at the time of the plea to ensure that the defendant not only understands the charges before him, but also to ensure that the plea comports with constitutional requirements. Id. It is simply not enough to conduct an inquiry after the plea has been entered in a prophylactic attempt to create a record as to whether the defendant’s plea is voluntary. See Daniels, 821 F.2d at 80.
It is even more distressing that the court is not troubled by the fact that Buta-la was forced to represent himself in bringing his motion to withdraw his guilty plea after his counsel refused to advocate on his behalf. Article I, section 6, of the Minnesota Constitution and Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution provide that a criminal defendant is entitled not only to the assistance of counsel, but also to the effective assistance of counsel. There is no question here that Butala was denied that assistance.
Without a knowing and voluntary waiver of the right to counsel, of which there is none on record here, Butala had a right to be represented at the motion to withdraw his guilty plea. See Minn. R.Crim. P. 5.01(b). While Butala was given “the relevant rules and statutes” in preparation of his motion, there is no indication from the *345record that he realized the import of the January 6 letter.1 Had counsel been appointed to represent Butala, it is doubtful that his counsel would have failed to deliver the letter to the district court or failed to make the associated legal arguments under Danh. At a minimum, this would have triggered a more in-depth inquiry by the district court into the voluntariness of Butala’s plea. Instead, the record clearly indicates that, at the time Butala’s guilty plea was accepted and even after the state’s response to Butala’s motion to withdraw the guilty plea, the district court still had not seen the terms of the January 6, 2000, letter. Thus, I do not understand how the court could reach the conclusion that “the record reflects the trial court gave the motion serious consideration, taking care to review appellant’s stated reasons and factual support as well as all of the relevant materials before making his ruling,” when the district court never saw and never knew about the terms set out in the January 6 letter that confirmed the terms of the plea agreement. Further, whether Butala was able to “succinctly articulate[ ] essentially the same facts and grounds for plea withdrawal” as those asserted by his counsel in the post-conviction proceeding is not the proper standard for determining whether he received effective assistance of counsel.
The court attempts to justify the result by relying on Butala’s lead trial counsel’s statement at the post-conviction hearing that some of the things that Butala had asserted in his motion were untrue. While counsel is barred from presenting false evidence, to the extent that there was some truth to Butala’s allegations, Butala had the right to effective assistance of counsel in presenting his motion. The terms of the January 6 letter speak for themselves and on their own are not factually or legally untrue. There is no reason an attorney representing Butala could not have presented this letter as support for Butala’s assertion that deals were being made behind the trial court’s back. Indeed, his lead trial counsel admitted in Butala’s post-conviction hearing that, with the help of counsel, it was quite possible that Butala would have been able to present a different view regarding the terms in the January 6 letter at the time of his motion, which could have resulted in a successful plea withdrawal.
Absent the effective assistance of counsel at the time of the hearing on Butala’s motion to withdraw his plea, we do not know nor can we know what the outcome would have been had Butala received such assistance. Hindsight, in this case, is not 20-20.

. The court relies in part on the provision of "the relevant rules and statutes” by Butala's lead trial counsel to him for preparation of his motion. Self-representation by a person not learned in the law but who has access to the "relevant rules and statutes” is not the equivalent of having the assistance, much less the effective assistance of counsel. The notion that it is, is laughable. Requiring Butala to represent himself in preparing for and presenting the motion put him in a worse position than if he had been proceeding pro se, in which case he would at least have had the assistance of standby counsel.