Criminal Court Case Could Affect Municipal Fine Revenue
A recent decision by Texas' highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, will affect certain municipal court actions involving more than one charge against a defendant. State v. Crook holds that when multiple criminal actions are joined together for a single criminal trial, only one payable fine may result. This is true regardless of how many separate fines are actually issued by the judge or jury. Fines must run "concurrently" rather than "stacked," as is done under current law.
Here’s an example: a defendant is ticketed by police for both speeding and a seat belt violation during the same traffic stop. The municipal prosecutor may, and often does, elect to try both charges at the same trial. (Incidentally, the defendant has always had the right to "sever" those offenses into separate trials.) Before Crook was decided, fines for convictions of both offenses had to be paid in full. If the fine was $100 for the speeding violation, and $75 for the seat belt violation, the defendant would owe $175. After Crook, however, the defendant would owe just $100, as the smaller fine is subsumed by the bigger fine.
While this opinion will have some effect on fine revenue stemming from garden variety municipal court cases--traffic tickets, disorderly conduct, and so forth--the greatest potential effect may be on so-called environmental offenses stemming from violations of municipal ordinances. If a dilapidated building is causing a dangerous nuisance, for example, municipal prosecutors pre-Crook had the option of charging the building's owner with a $2,000 per day violation until the owner fixed the nuisance. Now, after Crook, the owner of such a building might choose to let the nuisance go unremedied, knowing that the maximum fine faced at a consolidated criminal trial is just a single payment of $2,000.
A TML legislative policy committee will examine this issue prior to the 2009 legislative session. Other levels of government that prosecute criminal offenses are sure to be concerned about the opinion, as well.