Court Opinion

ID: 9736676
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:02:21.839472+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:08.016615
License: Public Domain

*355D. F. Walsh,. J.
(dissenting). I must dissent. Defendant, Mary Ann Longmier, was charged with violating the terms of her probation. Specifically, she was charged with failing to report in accordance with the terms of the probation order. It was also alleged that the probation office had no knowledge of her whereabouts.
Defendant had a hearing on the petition for revocation of probation at which she was represented by counsel. The court found, and stated explicitly on the record, that the defendant had violated the terms of her probation because "she did not report and therefore does not warrant further probation from me”. The evidence introduced at the hearing supports the court’s finding.
At the hearing, however, there were presented on behalf of the defendant, in the form of testimony and argument, various excuses for her failure to report. The court simply did not believe the excuses. As I read the record, the court’s remarks about the defendant’s use of drugs amounted to no more than an expression of the court’s belief that the real reason the defendant failed to report was that she had reverted to the use of drugs and made no effort to comply with the terms of her probation. The fact that the court rejected the defendant’s exculpatory testimony and argument and believed instead that drugs were the cause of her unwillingness or inability to adhere to the conditions upon which she was allowed to avoid incarceration does not transform the court’s clearly stated finding that the defendant had violated her probation because she failed to report into a finding that she violated her probation because she was using drugs. It seems to me that we have not yet reached the point where every remark made by a trial court on the record must be accepted by this Court as a finding of fact upon *356which the trial court based whatever action it took in the case, especially where the record contains, as it does in this case, clear and explicit statements to the contrary.
The keystone of any probationary program is the continued supervision of the defendant by an officer of the court. The requirement that the probationer report to the probation agent, therefore, is absolutely essential to the effectiveness of the order of probation. Mary Ann Longmier killed a man. The court accepted a plea of guilty to attempted manslaughter and placed her on probation. She reported a few times between November, 1978, and January 10, 1979. Thereafter she did not report and her whereabouts were unknown to the court for more than a year. In my judgment, the court properly revoked probation and did so solely on the basis of the violation charged in the warrant. I would affirm.