I can hear the doors slamming in the political and bureaucrat offices all the way over to the next valley. An enterprising lawyer could follow this right back to the people who signed the contract. I bet they have a whopper of an insurance policy.

http://www.isc.idaho.gov/opinions/sccivil.htm

Issued 8 July.

The opinion says only that the argument was abandoned at argument, so the Supremes skipped over it. As a general rule, an appellate court addresses only the issues the parties raise and does not go looking to solve issues that are not in dispute.

The briefing submitted to the court would contain the specific argument that was made before Allied gave up on it.

At least one judge has tabled a probation violation in recognition of the possible unconstitutionality of the probation system in place here in Ada County.

I don’t think this eliminates probation violations entirely. A court likely has an inherent authority to allow probation, either unsupervised or supervised through reviews with the sentencing judge. If you violated something the court specifically ordered – classes, fines, jail, etc. – that would still be a violation of the terms the court imposed.

If you have a PV pending, raise the following issues with your attorney or court appointed attorney. Note that these are potential defenses and a defense doesn’t avoid the PV warrant. I’ll address that at the end.

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TIME LIMTS.
Most judgments don’t impose a time limit for completing a class, or enrolling in the class. If you have 12 months of probation and 16 hours of class, NOTHING says you must complete it in 4 months. You aren’t on notice of the time limit. The prosecutor cannot just make up a time limit.

And if your PV is just about a class, you probably have enough time after your arrest and before your hearing to complete the class. Get into the class. Being in the class is also a reason for the judge NOT to put you in jail. Does not work all the time, however.

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INTENTIONAL? WILLFUL?
“If a knowing and intentional probation violation has been proved, a district court’s decision to revoke probation will be reviewed for an abuse of discretion. However, if a probationer’s violation of a probation condition was not willful, or was beyond the probationer’s control, a court may not revoke probation and order imprisonment without first considering alternative methods to address the violation. Sanchez, 149 Idaho 102 (2009) (quoting Leach, 135 Idaho 525, 529 (Ct.App.2001)).

With the state of the economy, this comes up with anything that requires money. Fines. Classes. UAs. (Really do not try this with UAs because it will look like you are hiding stuff. On a PV, a judge likely can order you to UA when you come to court and if you are hot, you better have your toothbrush with you.)

With a fine agreement, pay what you can. If the monthly payment is $50 and you have $30, pay the $30. If you pay nothing, that isn’t good. Borrow money if you can. Your Aunt can’t put you in jail but the judge CAN.

Classes implicate money and time limits. If you did the class but they won’t give you proof because you haven’t paid, that is BS. Tell your attorney because they can issue a subpoena to the facility. If this was court ordered and you did it and the contract requires them to notify the court or probation, and they fail, in theory you might have a civil action against them for breach of contract. If you get arrested – that’s an injury for which might have a remedy in civil court. The cost of your surety bond would be an injury also. (This might apply if the class is the ONLY allegation. If you also skipped out on SILD, you have problems.)

If your PV is about money, don’t pick up a DUI when you are on probation. A DUI normally means you spent your money on gas and booze instead of fines and class. Don’t show up to court with a new tattoo or having your nails done yesterday. (And cover up those tattoos. Women, cover up your boobs, please.)

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DID THE JUDGE ORDER IT?
There is a disconnect between the judgment and the terms and conditions of probation. In theory, if the judge didn’t order it, you don’t have to do it. If the judge didn’t ORDER UAs and if the judge didn’t ORDER you to cooperate with ACMPS’s terms, then an allegation might not be true.

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WARRANT FOR PV?

Idaho Criminal Rules 4 (new charges) and 5.3 (probation violations). ICR establishes a preference for a summons, in an initial prosecution. ICR 5.3 is specific to PVs and does not contain such preference. It does refer to ICR 4, however, and it seems completely reasonable that the preference in ICR 4 should apply equally in ICR 5.3. A common duty of anyone on probation is to notify the court of your address.

If you have a warrant you MIGHT try writing to the court and requesting a summons and quashing the warrant. Or file something when you move so the court knows your address. The potential downside is that if they issue a warrant they’ll know your address.

One of the things the prosecutors and courts are doing is issuing warrants for PVs for not paying court fines. You owe the court $250 and it costs $200 to bail out or you wait for your PV hearing 6 weeks down the road. Does that make ANY sense?

I am not providing anyone with legal advice. As first indicated, share these issues with your own attorney.

Well I guess I should thank Rick and Vern for sticking their heads in the sand and not doing anything about this probation office sooner after the MANY issues that were unveiled. Thank you for what could potentially turn into the biggest traffic jam in the misdemeanor courts Idaho’s ever seen and in the BIGGEST county in Idaho no less.
If you had given these people any credence before maybe they wouldn’t of felt they needed to find other alternatives to get Nancy out of her cash cow business.
Sharon, any idea on how many probation violations could now be in limbo and what the cost could potentially be to tax-payers?

I have many converstations on tape with her “yelling” at me almost to the point of hitting me. I even asked if that is what she was going to do. Myself and many other former ACMPS employees have been asked on many occasions “who do you think you are” “GOD”!! Which I also have her on tape asking me. We have spoken to a attorney and all have brought our “pearl harbor” files and we will see what happens!! It really does take allot of guts to come forward! We were all in a VERY hostile work inviroment it is almost like a abusive marriage!! It was very odd to see her email come out saying she loves each and everyone of her employees!! I’m sure they were all wondering where that came from…