Court Opinion

ID: 9523634
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:44:55.405778+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:07:03.096751
License: Public Domain

SCHUMACHER, Judge
(dissenting).
I disagree with the majority insofar as they modify the dispositional departure based on their conclusion that the departure was “inappropriate.” The trial court in its detailed written sentencing departure report made findings that defendant was not amenable to supervised probation because of his “deliberate unwillingness to cooperate” in past probation and with the person conducting the presentence investigation in the present case. The supreme court has stated that this is a proper ground for departure. State v. Park, 305 N.W.2d 775, 776 (Minn.1981). The majority’s reasoning that the trial court’s departure was influenced by appellant’s good faith assertion of his constitutional rights is simply not supported by the record. The fact that appellant’s conduct was exemplary and cooperative during his presentence release, although laudatory, is not unusual and certainly not controlling as far as the issue of departure is concerned.
Our judgment should not be substituted for that of the trial court and the departure should not be modified in the absence of a clear abuse of discretion. State v. Garcia, 302 N.W.2d 643, 647 (Minn.1981). Appellant does not assert that he was exercising constitutional rights in failing to cooperate with prior probation or with the present presentence investigation. Here the trial court has stated proper grounds for a departure and there is no clear abuse of discretion. We should affirm.