Another Dennis Benjamin Appeal

And, this one is not a win, but sort of a half-win. It’s one of those cases where the Court of Appeals says that the district court applied incorrect reasoning, but reached the right result anyway. So, even though Dennis’ reasoning and analysis were correct, and the district court did make a mistake, his client is going to get no relief. State v. Wegner, decided yesterday, is about jurisdiction – both the jurisdiction of a district court to accept a guilty plea from a juvenile waived to adult court for an offense that may have occurred before the juvenile’s 14th birthday (the district court can do that) and the district court’s jurisdiction to hear a motion to withdraw a guilty plea made years after the case has become final but which is based on allegations of lack of subject matter over the original offense. The district court can do that too. Wegner is a case to pay attention to if you either have a juvenile charged with offenses that may have occurred before his/her 14th birthday or you have any client who wants to withdraw a plea no matter how old on the grounds that the district court had no subject matter jurisdiction in the first place.