Court Opinion

ID: 9774378
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:18:01.257413+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:07.214790
License: Public Domain

SPAIN, Justice,
dissenting.
Respectfully, I dissent and would reverse the Court of Appeals and affirm the Kenton Circuit Court. I do not understand the Majority’s insistence that the improvident dismissal of the DUI and reckless driving charges against Hicks by the Kenton District Court barred the subsequent refiling and prosecution of the same charges. In so commenting, I am at the same time fully aware of the provisions of CR 41.02(3) regarding involuntary dismissals. The language of the rule itself begins by excepting from its effect a dismissal not intended by the court to operate as a final adjudication on the merits. Here we have just such a situation. The district judge made it abundantly clear to all concerned, including the defense as well as the prosecution, that in entering an order of *39dismissal on October 2, 1991, he did not intend for there to be a final adjudication. He announced such for the audiotape court record, commenting that the charges could be refiled. Furthermore, after the dismissal and upon the refiling by the prosecution, said district judge ratified his earlier action by denying the defense motion to dismiss on grounds of double jeopardy.
Thereafter, the circuit court correctly ruled that the original charges had not been "dismissed for failure to grant a speedy trial and were not dismissed for failure of the Commonwealth to prosecute, and that consequently there could be no double jeopardy bar to further proceedings. Under these circumstances, I feel that the district judge was without the authority to effectively dismiss charges with prejudice, over the objection of the prosecutor.
Here the Majority admits that the district judge erroneously denied the prosecution the right to proceed to trial without the breathalyzer expert, yet they compound the error by now holding that the prosecution is now further prohibited because of the entry of the dismissal order. Two wrongs do not make a right.
I would reverse the granting of the writ of prohibition and order that the prosecution could proceed in the district court.