Ohio Criminal Appeals Lawyer Blog

In a frustrating loss for the Ottawa County Prosecutor's Office, the Ottawa County Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court's ruling that a defendant's right to a speedy trial was violated. The defendant was incarcerated so the time in which he had to be brought to trial was within 90 days of his arrest. Before the scheduled trial date, the defendant and prosecutor reached a plea bargain. A date was set for a plea hearing. That would be enough to toll the time for speedy trial purposes. But no journal entry spelling this all out was ever filed. There was only a notation in the docket that "trial cancelled after juror notices." It was the prosecutor's job to make sure a proper journal entry was filed. Appellee's criminal defense lawyer filed a motion to dismiss on speedy trial grounds before the plea hearing. The trial court granted the motion. The Court of Appeals affirmed as you can read here.

If you are accused of a crime or have been convicted already, contact me if you can afford to hire a private criminal defense lawyer. Otherwise, contact your county or state public defender to see if they can help.

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Ohio law requires that a person charged with a felony must be brought to trial within 270 days of the person's arrest. R.C. 2945.71. A Ross County man ran his car into a hotel on July 11, 2009, but he was not brought to trial within 270 days of that date. The Fourth District Court of Appeals for Ross County just decided that the trial court erred when it denied the defendant's motion to dismiss the case on statutory speedy trial grounds. The court of appeals said that the State knew all it needed to know to charge the defendant with felony vandalism when the defendant was arrested on July 11, 2009, as you can read here.

If you are accused of a crime or have been convicted already, contact me if you can afford to hire a private criminal defense lawyer. Otherwise, contact your county or state public defender to see if they can help.

While Evelio Sanchez's case was pending, it was transferred from Judge Wolaver's docket to Judge Campbell's docket "to promote docket efficiency and calendar control." Sanchez filed a motion to dismiss on speedy trial grounds and a hearing was held. The trial court overruled Sanchez's motion to dismiss on speedy trial grounds because it found that time was tolled for speedy trial purposes from the date of the transfer to the date of trial. But on appeal, the Second District Court of Appeals of Greene County determined that the time was not tolled because the explanation given in the journal for the transfer was not sufficient pursuant to State v. Mincy (1982), 2 Ohio St.3d 6. The Second District wrote, "[t]here was nothing in the record either setting a trial date, or continuing a trial date, until Sanchez filed his motion to dismiss on January 7, 2009, by which time, the statutory speedy-trial time had already expired." Read the decision here.