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A trial court must hold a hearing to determine whether the state can show good cause for the delay in a probation revocation hearing, the Court of Appeals of Indiana ruled in a Wednesday reversal.
In March 2020, Spencer Turner was released from the Indiana Department of Correction’s New Castle Correctional Facility to a two-year term of parole after having executed a portion of his underlying sentence.
A year later, the state alleged a new criminal allegation against Turner of Level 1 felony child molesting. Those charges are still pending.
Turner’s parole agent issued a parole violation warrant in March 2021 due to the new criminal allegations. He turned himself in the same day and waived his right to a preliminary hearing before the Parole Board.
No action was taken on his alleged parole violations, and he remained incarcerated without a hearing on those alleged violations.
In December 2022, the state served Turner with the warrant on the new criminal charges.
Turner then filed his petition for post-conviction relief, alleging that he had been held in custody only on the alleged parole violations between March 19, 2021, and Dec. 9, 2022, and that being held for that length of time without a hearing was contrary to his statutory and constitutional rights.
The state responded with a motion for summary disposition of Turner’s petition on the ground that he had been held on both the alleged parole violations and the new criminal allegations. Thus, the state argued, the Parole Board had no statutory or constitutional obligation to act on the alleged parole violations while the new criminal allegations were pending.
The Henry Circuit Court agreed with the state and granted its motion for summary disposition, denying Turner’s petition for post-conviction relief.
Turner appealed, and the COA agreed that the post-conviction court erred when it granted the state’s motion.
Judge Paul Mathias wrote that the detention was contrary to law.
“Indiana Code section 11-13-3-10(a)(1) (2020) required the Parole Board to hold Turner’s revocation hearing on the alleged parole violations within sixty days of him having surrendered himself on March 19, 2021, which the Parole Board did not do,” Mathias wrote. “Accordingly, the post-conviction court erred when it granted the State’s motion for summary disposition of Turner’s petition on the theory that he had been simultaneously held on both the alleged parole violations and the new criminal allegations during the timeframe in question.”
The appellate court thus reversed the post-conviction court’s summary disposition of Turner’s petition and remanded for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the state can show good cause for the delay in Turner’s revocation hearing, or whether he is entitled to have the alleged parole violations dismissed.
Judges Patricia Riley and Terry Crone concurred in Spencer Turner v. Mark Sevier, 23A-MI-1053.
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