Virginia Supreme Court Reverses Court of Appeals
Virginia Supreme Court Reverses Court of Appeals
On January 13, 2011, the Virginia Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals in the case of Bottoms v. Commonwealth. This case was argued by Horace F. Hunter of the law firm of Hunter & Lipton, PC, and involved the issue of withdrawing a guilty plea.
The case arose out of the Dinwiddie County Circuit Court where William Bottoms was charged with two counts of construction fraud. The primary allegation against Mr. Bottoms was that he committed construction fraud with respect to major renovations to the Eleven Oaks Baptist Church in Dinwiddie, Virginia. The proposed project was to cost $75,000 and Bottoms was paid an advance of $45,000. After receiving the advance, Bottoms purchased materials, hired laborers, and commenced work on the renovations to the church. In fact, he completed the roof and the majority of the siding. Several weeks into the project, the building inspector put a stop work order on the project due to licensing issues with Bottoms’ construction company. Ultimately the work was not completed and Bottoms did not return the advance. Subsequently, was charged with construction fraud.
Bottoms originally pleaded guilty to the charges. However, he subsequently hired Horace Hunter and he moved to withdraw his guilty plea on the basis that he could not be found guilty of construction fraud based on the evidence. The trial court denied the motion on the basis that the guilty plea had been entered into freely and voluntarily. It did not appear to matter to the trial court that Bottoms had an absolute defense to the charges. The problem for the trial court was that the Virginia Supreme Court expressly rejected the “freely and voluntary” basis as the only basis for withdrawing a plea of guilty. In fact, the standard is whether there is a reasonable defense to the charges and the motion to withdraw a guilty plea is not made merely for the purpose of delay. The trial court missed this as did the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals applied the correct standard, however they missed the fact that Bottoms had an absolute defense to the charges. This was very curious in light of the fact that the defense offered by Bottoms was clearly an absolute defense and the Court never addressed the fact that the trial court used the wrong standard when it denied Bottoms’ motion.
Fortunately, the Virginia Supreme Court corrected this egregious error and remanded the case back to Dinwiddie Circuit Court. It is bitter sweet however because the larger question remains of how two courts could have been so wrong on an issue that is very straight forward.
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“This Week In Richmond Criminal Defense is a blog written by Horace F.
Hunter, founder and owner of Hunter & Lipton, PC. The blog contains articles written by him which focus on issues relevant to the criminal
justice system. To the extent that the articles discuss cases in which
Horace F. Hunter was personally involved as counsel, they are not intended to predict a similar outcome in future cases.”
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