Facts: After being charged with possession of stolen property and multiple counts of identity theft in the Superior Court for Pierce County, petitioner Kevin Hendrickson was convicted of some of the identity theft charges after a trial in which the trial court dismissed the other identity theft charges with prejudice and after the jury failed to reach a verdict with regard to the possession of stolen property charge. Following Hendrickson’s sentencing, the state moved to dismiss the possession of stolen property charge without prejudice and the trial court accepted the motion. The state subsequently moved to amend this motion after realizing that it had been poorly drafted and appeared to dismiss all of the charges against Hendrickson and the trial court accepted the amended motion. Hendrickson appealed the trial court’s decision, asserting that the trial court’s earlier order granting the state’s motion to dismiss all of the charges against Hendrickson could not be amended. The Washington Court of Appeals dismissed one of Hendrickson’s convictions for identity theft but did not address the issue of whether the trial court erred in accepting the amended motion. Hendrickson appealed this decision to the Supreme Court of Washington.

Question(s): Did the trial court err in retroactively amending its previous order dismissing all of the charges against Hendrickson?

Conclusion: Justice Stephens’ opinion for a unanimous Court affirmed the trial court, concluding that while a court may not retroactively correct an error of law, it may retroactively correct a clerical error. Thus, as the trial court’s intent in accepting the state’s original motion was to dismiss only the possession of stolen property charge rather than to dismiss all of the charges, the Court held that the trial court was within its discretion to correct its mistake.

Docket No. 80245-9 (from Court of Appeals Division II Case No. 34445-9)

Petitioner: Hendrickson

Respondent: State

Briefs:

Argument: Thursday, October 30, 2008 9:00am

[Source: TVW, http://tvw.org]

Decided: Thursday, January 15th, 2009

Prevailing Party: State (Respondent)

Vote: 9-0

Citation: Pending

Alexander

Johnson

Madsen

Sanders

Chambers

Owens

Fairhurst

Johnson

Stephens
(Majority)