State v. Rushton

The mandatory joinder statute, Utah Code 76-1-401, prohibits the State from prosecuting a defendant in separate actions for conduct that may establish separate offenses under a “single criminal episode.” A “single criminal episode” is defined as “all conduct which is closely related in time and is incident to an attempt or an accomplishment of a single criminal objective.” Petitioner filed a motion to dismiss the wage crimes prosecution as barred by the mandatory joinder statute, arguing that the State violated section 76-1-401 by prosecuting him from 2011 to 2012 for wage crimes after having prosecuted and convicted him in 2009 and 2010 for tax crimes. Petitioner argued that the conduct underlying both prosecutions was part of a single criminal episode because it was closely related in time and incident to an attempt of accomplishment of the single criminal objective of misappropriation of money in his business setting. The district court denied the motion, and the court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that Defendant’s conduct did not have a single criminal objective and thus did not constitute a single criminal episode. View "State v. Rushton" on Justia Law