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State v. Taylor5/8/1998
APPEAL FROM: District Court of the Eighteenth Judicial District, In and for the County of Gallatin, The Honorable Frank Davis, Judge presiding.
Submitted on Briefs: March 19, 1998
The defendant, Edwin A. Taylor, was charged by information in the District Court for the Eighteenth Judicial District in Gallatin County with three counts of felony theft based on workers' compensation claims that he had filed. Taylor moved to dismiss the information for unconstitutional pre-indictment delay. The District Court denied that motion. Taylor pled guilty to one count of theft and now appeals the denial of his motion to dismiss. We reverse the order and judgment of the District Court.
The sole issue on appeal is whether pre-indictment delay violated Taylor's constitutional right to due process.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Edwin A. Taylor was employed by the Montana Highway Department in 1990. On March 30, 1990, Taylor reported to the State Fund a work-related injury that he alleged had occurred on February 26, 1990. The State Fund accepted liability and paid Taylor $5,591.64 for disability benefits and $17,161.70 for medical benefits. Taylor had surgery on his neck in July, but returned to work in September 1990. His treating surgeon was Dr. James Johnson.
Taylor claimed that a second work-related injury occurred on November 15, 1990. He received $274.47 for medical expenses related to that claim. Finally, Taylor claimed that a third work-related injury occurred on March 4, 1991. The State Fund paid approximately $36,000.00 for disability benefits and $18,000.00 for medical expenses related to that claim. Although Taylor had not returned to work, the State Fund terminated Taylor's benefits in April 1994.
In May 1991, the State Fund began an investigation into Taylor's claims after it received reports that they were fraudulent. In August of that year, the State Fund referred the matter to the Department of Justice, Criminal Investigation Bureau, for further investigation. The State contends that the CIB referred the investigation to the Gallatin County Attorney on April 22, 1992. Taylor contends that the decision to refer the case to the Gallatin County Attorney was made on January 31, 1992.
After the County Attorney's office reviewed the matter, it contacted the CIB agent, Brian Costigan, on September 8, 1992, to request that he conduct further investigation. The County Attorney's office received Costigan's report on approximately October 6, 1992. In April 1993, Deputy County Attorney Jane Mersen was appointed to prosecute the case, although she was on maternity leave from May until July of that year. Mersen contacted Costigan again in October 1993, to request further investigation. Shortly thereafter, the County Attorney hired Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Horsman-Wiitala to prosecute this case, and she was appointed special counsel for that purpose on December 13, 1993.
The State Fund remained in frequent contact with the County Attorney's office about its progress in the matter, since it continued to pay Taylor's benefits and apparently deferred its investigation of his claims in favor of the investigation by the County Attorney's office. In addition, Taylor and his attorney were in contact with the County Attorney's office and other investigators to facilitate resolution of the matter. On January 13, 1994, Taylor's counsel wrote Horsman-Wiitala about, among other things, the effect of the delay on Taylor, their past and ongoing desire to cooperate in the investigation, and the perceived violation of his client's constitutional rights.
On March 9, 1994, Horsman-Wiitala filed
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