Court Opinion

ID: 9719933
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:09:35.237311+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:11.333983
License: Public Domain

BROWN, J.
David W. Oakley was fined in 1989 after pleading no contest to operating after revocation. Then, in 1993, he was fined after he failed to appear for sentencing for disorderly conduct. Except for two minimal payments, he still owes these fines. In an October 20, 1997 sentencing for intimidation of a witness, the trial court made payment of these outstanding fines a condition of probation. Oakley argues that the fines have nothing to do with the witness intimidation, and therefore this condition is impermissible. We disagree. The relevant question is not whether the condition is related to the offense for which it is imposed, but whether the condition serves to rehabilitate the offender or protect the public. Here, Oakley has made only a minimal effort to pay the fines, even though they were imposed years ago. This blatant disregard for the necessity of paying the fines and the witness intimidation both demonstrate defiance of the court and our judicial system. Requiring Oakley to pay the fines will foster in him the realization that court orders and proceedings are not to be disrespected. Thus, payment of overdue fines serves Oakley's rehabilitation, and therefore was a reasonable and appropriate condition of probation in this case. We affirm.
*440The trial court has broad discretion in fashioning conditions of probation. See State v. Heyn, 155 Wis. 2d 621, 627, 456 N.W.2d 157, 160 (1990). We uphold conditions of probation when the court has properly exercised its discretion in setting conditions that are reasonable and appropriate. See § 973.09(1)(a), Stats.; State v. Beiersdorf, 208 Wis. 2d 492, 502, 561 N.W.2d 749, 754 (Ct. App. 1997). Whether a condition is reasonable and appropriate depends on whether it serves the dual goals of probation: rehabilitation of the offender and protection of the community. See Beiersdorf; 208 Wis. 2d at 502, 561 N.W.2d at 754.
Oakley argues that the payment of the outstanding fines was an unreasonable and inappropriate condition of probation because the fines were imposed for violations unrelated to this conviction. We reject this argument. A condition of probation need not be related to the crime of conviction. For example, in State v. Miller, 175 Wis. 2d 204, 207-08, 499 N.W.2d 215, 216 (Ct. App. 1993), the defendant was placed on probation after his guilty plea to burglary and theft. A condition of probation was that he not call any woman on the phone without permission from his probation officer, unless the woman was a relative. See id. at 208, 499 N.W.2d at 216. Rather than focus on the lack of relationship between Miller's phone habits and the burglary, this court looked to the rehabilitative goal of probation. See id. at 208-210, 499 N.W.2d at 216-17. "While his past criminal conduct of making sexually explicit telephone calls to women is unrelated to the offenses for which he was convicted, Miller needs to be rehabilitated from that conduct. The condition that Miller not telephone any woman other than a family *441member is rationally related to Miller's need for rehabilitation." Id. at 210, 499 N.W.2d at 217. Thus, the crucial question is not whether the condition is related to the offense, but whether it is related to rehabilitation. See id.
Here, the repayment condition is related to Oakley's need for rehabilitation. Oakley's fines for operating after revocation and disorderly conduct have been outstanding for nine and five years, respectively. Oakley has made virtually no effort to pay them — the record contains evidence of only two fifty-dollar payments made in 1989. Now Oakley has intimidated two witnesses in his child abuse case, one of whom was the victim. The refusal to pay the fines and the victim intimidation both show Oakley's cavalier attitude toward the justice system. Rehabilitation from this disdainful attitude is what the trial court was addressing when it imposed the repayment condition. Oakley needs to be rehabilitated from his perception that one may flout valid court orders and the judicial process with impunity and suffer no real consequence. Because the repayment condition was related to Oakley's rehabilitation, it was reasonable and appropriate and we will not set it aside.
Oakley also argues that the court acted beyond its authority in imposing payment of fines as a condition of probation because other statutory sections supply the remedy for nonpayment of fines and forfeitures. See § 66.12(1), Stats, (collection of forfeitures); § 973.07, Stats, (failure to pay fine may result in commitment to county jail not to exceed six months). By subjecting him to potential prison time for failure to pay, Oakley argues, the trial court is turning a civil forfeiture into a crime. See § 939.12, Stats.; State v. Thierfelder, 174 Wis. 2d 213, 221-22, 495 N.W.2d 669, 673 (1993) (dis*442tinguishing between conduct punishable by imprisonment, which is criminal, and conduct punishable only by forfeiture, which is not). We are not persuaded.
A similar argument was raised in Heyn. There, Heyn was convicted of burglary. As a condition, of probation, the trial court ordered Heyn to pay the victims of the burglary the cost of a burglar alarm they had installed after the burglary. See Heyn, 155 Wis. 2d at 625, 456 N.W.2d at 159. Heyn argued that this was impermissible, as this type of cost was not taxable to the defendant under the restitution statute. See id. at 627, 456 N.W.2d at 160; § 973.09(1)(b), Stats. Heyn's view was that the restitution statute was the exclusive vehicle for requiring a defendant to reimburse his or her victims. Thus, the theory went, no costs to the victims could be imposed unless they fit within the restitution statute. The supreme court agreed with the State that "the restitution provisions of sec. 973.09(1)(b), Stats., do not restrict the broad authority of the circuit court to condition probation on the satisfaction of any requirement which is reasonable and appropriate." Heyn, 155 Wis. 2d at 629, 456 N.W.2d at 160. Therefore, the existence of a separate restitution provision did not limit the court's ability to require Heyn to reimburse his victims as a condition of probation.
Here, as in Heyn, the existence of other statutes providing for the collection of fines did not preclude the trial court from imposing payment of those fines as a condition of probation. Sections 973.07 and 66.12(1), Stats., are meant to give the courts a mechanism to coerce the payment of fines. The trial court here did not *443order payment as a probation condition because it was concerned with collection of the fines; the trial court wanted to change Oakley's contemptuous attitude toward the court system. The court, rather than acting as a collection agency, saw an opportunity to drive home the rehabilitative message that Oakley must heed court orders and respect the judicial system. That the condition involved payment of fines, fines which could have been collected by other means, is only peripherally relevant. We affirm Oakley's conviction and the trial court's order declining to strike the payment of outstanding fines as a condition of probation.
By the Court. — Judgment and order affirmed.