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STATE OF MINNESOTA IN SUPREME COURT A08-1630

Court of Appeals

Gildea, J.

State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Timothy Clyde Askland, Defendant, Howe Bonding, Appellant. ________________________ Lori Swanson, Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota; and Kristen Nelsen, Mower County Attorney, Jeremy Clinefelter, Assistant County Attorney, Austin, Minnesota, for respondent. Frank Arend Schulte, St. Paul, Minnesota, for appellant. ________________________ SYLLABUS In considering a petition for reinstatement and discharge of a bail bond, the prejudice-to-the-State prong of the Shetsky factors relates to the adverse effect, if any, the defendant's absence has on the State's prosecution of the defendant. Because the district Filed: June 24, 2010 Office of Appellate Courts

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court erred in its application of this factor, the court erred in denying appellant's petition for reinstatement and discharge of its bail bond. Reversed and remanded with instructions. OPINION GILDEA, Justice. This appeal arises from a district court's denial of Howe Bonding's petition for reinstatement and discharge of a forfeited $10,000 bail bond. At issue is whether the district court erroneously applied the Shetsky factors--the test we articulated for determining whether a forfeited bond should be reinstated. See In re Shetsky, 239 Minn. 463, 471, 60 N.W.2d 40, 46 (1953). Because we conclude that the district court erred, we reverse and remand with instructions. Timothy Askland, charged with two counts of felony failure to pay child support, failed to appear at his November 2006 arraignment. Askland was later apprehended, but was released after he posted a $10,000 bail bond executed by appellant, Howe Bonding. On May 24, 2007, Askland again failed to appear at a scheduled hearing. Because of Askland's failure to appear, the district court issued an order on June 14, 2007, forfeiting Askland's bail bond and ordering Howe Bonding to pay the court $10,000 within 90 days. On September 14, 2007, the court granted Howe Bonding's request for a 45-day extension to pay the $10,000. Howe Bonding's request included assertions that bounty hunters were actively tracking Askland. After the expiration of the extension on October

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29, 2007, Howe Bonding had still not apprehended Askland, and it paid $10,000 to the district court.1 Later, Howe Bonding's bounty hunters located Askland in Louisiana and were able to return him to the Mower County District Court by early December 2007. On December 7, 2007--177 days after the district court ordered the bond to be forfeited-- Howe Bonding petitioned the court for reinstatement and discharge of the bond. The district court denied the petition in a one-sentence handwritten note stating "[r]einstatement and discharge is denied." Howe Bonding appealed the denial to the court of appeals, which dismissed the appeal when the parties stipulated to a remand so the district court could make findings. Pursuant to that dismissal order, the district court held an evidentiary hearing regarding Howe Bonding's petition on June 27, 2008. At the hearing, Howe Bonding called two witnesses who testified about the steps the bonding company took to track, apprehend, and deliver Askland to Mower County. Howe Bonding entered an exhibit showing that it spent $3,135.19 to apprehend Askland. The State did not offer any evidence at the hearing, nor did it refute any testimony of Howe Bonding's witnesses. But the State did assert that the victim was prejudiced by the length of time Askland was a fugitive, though it did not explain precisely how.

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Some time in late 2007, the district court disbursed the $10,000 forfeited-bond amount to Mower County and the county apparently thereafter gave this amount to the mother of Askland's child. As both parties recognize, the release of the forfeited bond amount in this case contravened Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 702(g), which states that all forfeited bail money must be deposited in the state treasury. 3

The district court again denied Howe Bonding's petition for reinstatement of the bond, making findings of fact and writing a memorandum. In the memorandum, the court evaluated the Shetsky factors and concluded that prejudice to the government outweighed Howe Bonding's good-faith efforts to apprehend Askland. The prejudice to the government found by the district court was that the court had disbursed the $10,000 bond amount to Mower County and that it would be difficult for the county to pay this money back to the court. The court of appeals affirmed the district court's denial, holding that the district court did not abuse its discretion. State v. Askland, No. A08-1630, 2009 WL 2366141, at *5 (Minn. App. Aug. 4, 2009). The court of appeals also addressed the fact that the district court considered, in its weighing of the Shetsky factors, its disbursement of the $10,000 bond amount to the county, but the appeals court concluded that the disbursement constituted a harmless error. Id. at *3-5. Howe Bonding appealed, and we granted review. The sole issue in this case is whether the district court erred in its denial of Howe Bonding's petition for reinstatement of its bail bond. We review a denial of a petition for reinstatement of a forfeited bail bond for abuse of discretion. State v. Storkamp, 656 N.W.2d 539, 541 (Minn. 2003) (citing Shetsky, 239 Minn. at 471, 60 N.W.2d at 46). A district court abuses its discretion when it bases its conclusions on an erroneous view of the law. Storkamp, 656 N.W.2d at 541 (citing Almor Corp. v. County of Hennepin, 566 N.W.2d 696, 701 (Minn. 1997)). State statute and court rule address the question of reinstatement of a forfeited bail bond. Minnesota Statutes

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