Court Opinion

ID: 9658331
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:55:37.129226+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:53.658347
License: Public Domain

Gordon, J.
{dissenting). Sec. 955.22, Stats., is clearly designed to provide for the prompt disposition of pending intrastate charges against persons in prison. If the prisoner makes a formal request for the disposition of a charge outstanding against him, the statute directs that such charge must be brought on for trial within one hundred and eighty days. Sec. 955.22 (2). If it is not so brought on for trial, the statute requires dismissal of the charge. Sec. 955.22 (7). There are, however, several exceptions to the requirement of dismissal recited in the statute; one exception is if “the trial is continued for cause upon notice to the defendant or his counsel or upon motion of defendant. . .”
In the instant case, the trial was never expressly continued for cause, although the defendant did bring certain motions before the court. In a rather remarkable piece of judicial legerdemain, the majority has determined that a motion by the defendant to suppress certain evidence “was, in effect, a motion that the trial be continued for cause.” To say that Mr. Fogle made a motion for a continuance when, in fact, he moved to suppress evidence is, in my opinion, fallacious. It is “correct” only because the majority of the court has said it; it has little else to sustain it.
I believe that the trial court properly granted the accused’s motion to dismiss, and the court’s order should therefore be affirmed.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Hallows and Mr. Justice Beilfuss join in this dissent.