Court Opinion

ID: 9626198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:05:01.40349+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:23.066199
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I do not believe that the Board of Veterinary Medicine erred when it revoked Dr. Manners’ license as the result of his conviction of delivery of a controlled substance, *953even though that conviction was later set aside as a result of Dr. Manners’ serving a successful probation. The fact is that Dr. Manners committed the felony crime of delivery of a controlled substance, and he was convicted. Since veterinarians have access to drugs and authority to issue prescriptions for drugs, the State Board of Veterinary Medicine is entirely justified in revoking the license of a person who has committed the felony crime of delivery of a controlled substance, even though that conviction is later set aside under I.C. § 19-2604.
While the Board of Veterinary Medicine may not use the felony conviction itself as a result of the decision today, I concur in the suggestion in the majority opinion that the board might still be entitled to establish the fact of a delivery of controlled substance, including Dr. Manners’ initial guilty plea which admits those facts, as grounds for revoking his license to practice veterinary medicine. While technically the conviction no longer exists, the underlying felony conduct of delivery of a controlled substance is not erased, and the board may act upon that, including his guilty plea admission that he committed such an offense, in deciding whether or not his license should be revoked.