Court Opinion

ID: 9542779
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:38:41.804361+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:08:57.048436
License: Public Domain

*960MILLER, Judge,
concurring.
I concur with the majority’s conclusion that Defendant’s conviction should be affirmed. I also agree that the probable cause affidavit, although poorly written, managed to conform to the statutory requirements of the then effective IC 1971, 35-1-6-2, and was therefore sufficient to authorize the arrest of the Defendant.
However, I cannot agree with the majority opinion insofar as it implies that the Defendant has raised a valid issue on appeal based on his assertion that the trial court committed reversible error in failing to dismiss the information because of a defective probable cause affidavit. Such a defective affidavit is not a ground under our statute (IC 35-3.1-l-4(a)) upon which a motion to dismiss may be based. In the very recent case of Gilliam et al. v. State (1978), Ind., 383 N.E.2d 297 (1978) our Supreme Court resolved this issue as follows:
“Before trial appellant Gilliam filed with the trial court a motion to dismiss the information, which the trial court denied. Appellant urges on appeal that the information should have been dismissed.
The basis of the motion was that the probable cause affidavit which accompanied the charging information failed ‘to state any act which Kenneth Gilliam performed which would be a public offense.’ Ind. Code § 35-3.1-l-4(a) (Burns 1975) lists the grounds upon which a motion to dismiss may be based. While subsection (9) thereof lists as grounds for dismissal that ‘the indictment or information does not state the crime with sufficient certainty or the facts stated do not constitute a crime,’ nowhere in section 4 is deficiency of a probable cause affidavit made grounds for dismissal or the information.
The probable case affidavit is not the means by which the accused is charged with a crime, but is a means of satisfying the constitutional and statutory requirements that the pre-trial detention of the accused to face the charge be based upon a determination, by a neutral and detached magistrate, that probable cause exists to believe that the accused committed the crime. Ind. Code § 35-3.1-l-l(b), (d) (Burns 1975); Gerstein v. Pugh, (1975) 420 U.S. 103, 95 S.Ct. 854, 43 L.Ed.2d 54. Appellant’s motion stated no valid grounds for dismissal of the information and was properly denied.
If appellant’s contention as to the sufficiency of the probable cause affidavit were correct, the only remedy available to him would be discharge from the custody of the sheriff based upon the proba-cause determination supported by the deficient affidavit. State ex rel. French v. Hendricks Superior Court, (1969) 252 Ind. 213, 247 N.E.2d 519. Since appellant is no longer incarcerated by virtue of the magistrate’s determination of probable cause in the trial court, since there is no allegation that any evidence against appellant was derived from his pre-trial incarceration, and since an absence of probable cause does not in itself affect the validity of a conviction, Williams v. State, (1973) 261 Ind. 385, 304 N.E.2d 811, appellant presents no issue on appeal.”
Like the defendant in Gilliam, supra, the Defendant here presents no issue as to the sufficiency of the information by challenging the adequacy of the accompanying probable cause affidavit.