State v. Bryce

Reed, A.C.J.

(dissenting)—I dissent. In my view State v. Sass, 94 Wn.2d 721, 670 P.2d 79 (1980) was wrongly decided and, in any event, has been given an inappropriately expansive reading by the majority.

RCW 74.08.331 defines the crime of welfare fraud and provides that one violating its provisions "shall be guilty of grand larceny and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in the state penitentiary for not more than fifteen years." In Sass, after carefully stating at page 722 that "[t]he sole question is what is the appropriate penalty," the court held that the Washington…