State v. Lindsey
State v. Lindsey
Opinion
*641 Defendant appeals an order requiring him to enroll in North Carolina's sex offender satellite-based monitoring ("SBM") program. Because defendant raised no objection under the Fourth Amendment at the SBM hearing and the issue was not implicitly addressed or ruled upon by the trial court, it was not preserved for appellate review. In our discretion, we decline to grant review under Rule 2 since the law was well-established at the time of the hearing and the State was not on notice of the need to address Grady issues due to defendant's failure to raise any constitutional argument. Since defendant raised no other argument about the SBM order, we affirm.
I. Background
In 2009, defendant pled guilty to taking indecent liberties with a child.
See
State v. Lindsey
, --- N.C. App. ----,
On 30 March 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued its per curiam ruling in
Grady v. North Carolina
, holding that SBM is a search under the Fourth Amendment and therefore is subject to the constitutional requirements of the Fourth Amendment.
See
Grady
, --- U.S. ----,
The United States Supreme Court held that despite its civil nature, North Carolina's SBM program "effects a Fourth Amendment search." Grady v. North Carolina , 575 U.S. ----, ----, [135 S.Ct. 1368 , 1371]191 L.Ed. 2d 459 , 462 (2015) (per curiam). However, since "[t]he Fourth Amendment *642 prohibits only unreasonable searches[,]" the Supreme Court remanded the case for North Carolina courts to "examine whether the State's monitoring program is reasonable-when properly viewed as a search ...."Id. at ----, [135 S.Ct. at 1371 ]191 L.Ed. 2d at 463 .
State v. Grady
, --- N.C. App. ----, ---- - ----,
Defendant's hearing on remand, as directed by
Lindsey I
, was held on 8 November 2016, over a year after the United States Supreme Court's ruling in
Grady
.
See generally
Grady
,
II. Petition for Writ of Certiorari
Although defendant timely filed a written notice of appeal after entry of the SBM order, he failed to specifically designate this Court as the court he was appealing to in the notice. Because of the defect in his notice of appeal, defendant filed a petition for certiorari with this Court due to his failure to designate this Court as the court he was appealing to in his notice of appeal. The State has claimed no prejudice on appeal due to defendant's failure to note he was appealing to this Court. In our discretion, we grant defendant's petition for certiorari to ensure his appeal is properly before us.
See generally
Luther v. Seawell
,
III. Waiver
Defendant raises only one issue on appeal and argues that "[t]he [S]tate failed to meet its burden of proving that imposing SBM on Mr. Lindsey is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment." The State contends that defendant has waived his Fourth Amendment argument by his failure to raise the issue. The State, citing
State v. Stroessenreuther
, --- N.C. App. ----, ----,
*643
Defendant argues in his reply brief that the Fourth Amendment was implicitly raised, contending,
"[t]he rule that constitutional questions must be raised first in the trial court is based upon the reasoning that the trial court should, in the first instance, 'pass[ ] on' the issue." State v. Kirkwood ,229 N.C. App. 656 , 665,747 S.E.2d 730 , 737 (quoting State v. Tirado ,358 N.C. 551 , 571,599 S.E.2d 515 , 529 (2004) ), appeal dismissed ,367 N.C. 277 ,752 S.E.2d 487 (2013). Consequently, when the record shows that "the trial court addressed and ruled upon" a constitutional issue, the "issue is properly before this Court" for review, despite any possible default by the appellant in preserving the issue. Id. at 665-66,747 S.E.2d at 737 ; accord In re Hall ,238 N.C. App. 322 , 329 n.2,768 S.E.2d 39 , 44 n.2 (2014) ("[S]ince the record supports a determination that the trial court reviewed and denied petitioner's ex post facto argument [regarding sex offender registration], we will review petitioner's contentions on appeal."); State v. Woodruff , No. COA13-812 [232 N.C.App. 186 ]2014 WL 218397 , at *1 (N.C. Ct. App. Jan. 21, 2014) (unpublished) (reviewing double jeopardy claim, despite defendant's failure to "explicit[ly] mention" issue at trial, when "trial court possibly addressed and ruled upon" issue). Here, as in Kirkwood , Hall , and Woodruff , Mr. Lindsey's Grady argument is "properly before this Court" for review because the trial *644 court, consistent with the fundamental *347 goal of Rule 10, "addressed and ruled upon" the issue in the first instance. Kirkwood ,229 N.C. App. at 665-66 ,747 S.E.2d at 737 . The state's waiver argument should be rejected.
In addition, defendant has requested we invoke Rule 2 of the Rules of Appellate Procedure to consider his constitutional issue.
This Court addressed a similar situation recently in
State v. Bursell
, --- N.C. App. ----, ----,
The Bursell Court noted that
generally, constitutional errors not raised by objection at trial are deemed waived on appeal. However, where a constitutional challenge not clearly and directly presented to the trial court is implicit in a party's argument before the trial court, it is preserved for appellate review.
readily apparent from the context that his objection was based upon the insufficiency of the State's evidence to support an order imposing SBM, which directly implicates defendant's rights under Grady to a Fourth Amendment reasonableness determination before the imposition of SBM.
We have also reviewed the transcript of the SBM hearing in this case, as compared to the portions of the transcript noted in
Bursell
, and even considering this case in accord with
Bursell
, here defendant
*645
simply did not raise any constitutional objection, either explicity or implicitly. In
Bursell
, the SBM hearing was the initial hearing held immediately after sentencing.
At the beginning of the hearing, the prosecutor called the matter for a SBM hearing and defendant agreed "this is a call-back hearing[:]"
MS. HAWKINS: William Lindsey, number 207 on the calendar he is on for a Satellite Base Monitoring hearing.
In Mr. Lindsey's hearing I have my probation officer here. I believe for purposes of time that the defendant will stipulate to the letter and to the service of that letter, and that he did indeed receive that letter; is that correct, Mr. Wilson?
MR. WILSON: Yes, your Honor, this is a call-back hearing. 1
*348
With no further discussion of the purpose of the hearing, the State presented its evidence. The hearing was very brief and no evidence regarding a Fourth Amendment search analysis was presented. The State called only one witness, a probation officer, not defendant's, and admitted only one exhibit, a Static 99 risk assessment. Consistent with the directive of this Court in
Lindsey I
, the main focus of the hearing was whether defendant should be subject to SBM as "the highest possible level of
*646
supervision and monitoring, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-208.40B(c)[.]"
After the testimony of the probation officer, the trial court asked to review "the investigative file that the DA may have in their possession in regards to the background, more detailed background of the charges and disposition[,]" and defendant had no objection to the trial court's review of this file. The trial court then adjourned the hearing until two days later to have "the opportunity to look at the investigative file" before making its decision. We are uncertain of the purpose of the trial court's review of the entire investigative file from defendant's 2009 prosecution, since it is well-established that SBM decisions must be based only upon the
elements
of the crime for which the defendant was convicted, whether by plea or trial, and not upon the facts alleged by the State in its prosecution.
2
See
State v. Santos
,
But whatever the purpose of the trial court's review of the file, a file from a 2009 prosecution would not contain the information needed for a Grady hearing. Yet the trial court used this information, as well as evidence from the hearing, to determine that defendant should be enrolled in SBM. In announcing its ruling, the trial court specifically referred to "the investigative report" at least twice and noted, "As I said the Court has reviewed the investigative report and indicated a series of sexual indiscretions with this minor age child. The defendant was aware of her age, but continued to take-have sexual activities with her." The trial court's "ADDITIONAL FINDINGS" attached to the order were:
*647 1. The defendant, when he became aware that the victim was under age, continued his sexual activity with her.
2. At the time of conviction, the defendant had 9 prior record points and was record level IV.
3. It is reasonable for public safety and justified that the defendant be placed on satellite based monitoring for a period of 5 years.
4. The defendant is be to given credit toward that 5 year period for any previous time that the defendant has been subject to satellite based monitoring.
None of the additional findings address a Grady analysis or issues under the Fourth Amendment, but instead only address the trial court's reasons for requiring SBM as "the highest possible level of supervision and monitoring." Thus, the constitutional issues related to Grady were neither raised by defendant nor ruled upon by the trial court as defendant contends, so this issue has not been preserved for appellate review.
*349
Defendant's request for review under Rule 2 remains to be considered. Again,
Bursell
is helpful to our analysis. In
Bursell
, this Court determined the
Grady
issue had been implicitly addressed in the trial court and was preserved. --- N.C. App. at ----,
In State v. Bishop , this Court noted that the defendant's Grady argument from his SBM hearing was also not preserved:
Indeed, Bishop concedes that the argument he seeks to raise is procedurally barred because he failed to raise it in the trial court. We recognize that this Court previously has invoked Rule 2 to permit a defendant to raise an unpreserved argument concerning the reasonableness of satellite-based monitoring. But the Court did so in Modlin because, at the time of the hearing in that case, neither party had the benefit of this Court's analysis in Blue and Morris . In Blue and Morris , this Court outlined the procedure defendants must follow to preserve a Fourth *648 Amendment challenge to satellite-based monitoring in the trial court.
This case is different from Modlin because Bishop's satellite-based monitoring hearing occurred several months after this Court issued the opinions in Blue and Morris . Thus, the law governing preservation of this issue was settled at the time Bishop appeared before the trial court. As a result, the underlying reason for invoking Rule 2 in Modlin is inapplicable here and we must ask whether Bishop has shown any other basis for invoking Rule 2.
He has not. Bishop's argument for invoking Rule 2 relies entirely on citation to previous cases such as Modlin , where the Court invoked Rule 2 because of circumstances unique to those cases. In the absence of any argument specific to the facts of this case, Bishop is no different from countless other defendants whose constitutional arguments were barred on direct appeal because they were not preserved for appellate review.
State v. Bishop
, --- N.C. App. ----, ----,
This case differs from other cases in which Rule 2 review has been allowed only in its procedural posture, and that difference does not favor defendant. The law regarding
Grady
was well-established by the time of defendant's bring-back hearing, but he made no constitutional objection.
See generally
Grady
,
*649 IV. Conclusion
We decline to grant review under Rule 2 to consider defendant's constitutional argument which he waived. As defendant makes no other argument regarding the SBM order, we affirm.
AFFIRMED.
Judges ZACHARY and ARROWOOD concur.
In
Lindsey I
, this Court noted, "The trial court held a 'bring-back hearing' on 14 July 2015 to determine defendant's eligibility for satellite-based monitoring. ... When conducting a bring-back hearing under
We also note that the State's investigative file-which was apparently crucial to the trial court's decision-is not in the record before us, and defendant raises no argument regarding use of this file.
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