Court Opinion

ID: 9788624
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:12:59.702613+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:15.033242
License: Public Domain

ARMSTRONG, J.,
dissenting.
The majority holds that the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal on charges of criminal nonsupport, ORS 163.555, because there are no facts from which the inference can be drawn that defendant neglected or refused to pay child support “without lawful excuse.” 194 Or App at 356. I disagree with the majority’s holding for a number of reasons and therefore dissent.
In the first place, I disagree with the majority’s characterization of the state’s argument on appeal. Contrary to the majority’s assumption, the state does not rely exclusively on the argument that evidence of defendant’s nonincarceration or nondependence on public assistance establishes that he acted without lawful excuse. Rather, the state contends that that evidence is among the evidence that supports an inference that defendant acted without lawful excuse in failing to pay child support. And even if the majority is correct that the state’s argument focuses solely on the evidence regarding incarceration and public assistance, our task on review is to determine whether the record, viewed in the light most favorable to the state, is insufficient to sustain defendant’s conviction. State v. King, 307 Or 332, 339, 768 P2d 391 (1989). That task necessarily requires us to consider all of the evidence in the record to determine whether the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal.
Further, I disagree with the majority’s conclusion as to what the state’s evidence shows. The majority faults the state for failing to present evidence that it had conducted a criminal history search and public assistance verification for defendant. It reasons that the state’s evidence amounts to an *359absence of information about defendant’s possible incarceration or dependence on public assistance. I disagree with, that analysis.
A child support specialist for Washington County testified about the contents of the Washington County District Attorney’s child support file on defendant. She testified that four times a year her agency reviews child support files and conducts “computer trolls” — searches of various databases — for information on obligors, including a search of death records and law enforcement data systems. She testified that Washington County has a policy of looking for missing obligors in law enforcement data systems and has agreements with other states to exchange information about noncustodial parents who owe child support and are on state assistance. She testified that her office keeps a criminal history record in the file of an obligor only if there is in fact a criminal history, and that there is no information in defendant’s file indicating that, during the relevant time, defendant was incarcerated or on public assistance or unable to pay his child support obligation.
We are required to assume that Washington County followed its ordinary business practice of conducting quarterly searches of law enforcement databases in search of information about defendant and exchanging information with other states concerning public assistance, and that the absence of information in the file means that Washington County found no information indicating that defendant was incarcerated or on public assistance during the relevant time. OEC 311(l)(m). Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the state, the absence of that information permits an inference that defendant was not incarcerated or on public assistance.
In any event, there is other evidence that supports the trial court’s finding that defendant acted “without lawful excuse.” Defendant’s ex-wife testified that defendant was qualified to work in several different trades and that he made child support payments in 1988 and 1989. She testified that, to the best of her knowledge, during the relevant time period *360of 1992 to 1994, defendant was not imprisoned, incapacitated, involuntarily committed, or in a drug or alcohol treatment program. There is circumstantial evidence from which it could be found that defendant moved frequently and that he was attempting to avoid his child support obligation. I would conclude that the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the state, supports the inference that defendant was capable of working during the relevant time, that he earned money during that time, and that he had no lawful excuse for failing to pay child support. Accordingly, I would affirm defendant’s conviction.