State v. Walton

The state in this case charged defendant with nine counts of contempt of court for acts that, as alleged, were both contempts and probation violations. The trial court granted defendant’s motion to dismiss on the grounds that the state cannot seek punitive contempt sanctions for conduct that also constitutes a probation violation and that, even if it can, in this case the prosecutor chose to avail himself of that more onerous option not by reference to consistently applied permissible criteria, but rather in a haphazard, standardless manner, thereby violating Article I, section 20, of the…