STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff-Appellee, vs. BRENDA LEE ROGERS, Defendant-Appellant.
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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
No. 9-1021 / 09-0954
Filed December 30, 2009
STATE OF IOWA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
vs.
BRENDA LEE ROGERS,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________________________________________________
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Henry County, Cynthia H.
Danielson (guilty plea) and William J. Dowell (sentencing), Judges.
The defendant appeals from the judgment and sentence entered upon her
conviction of forgery. AFFIRMED.
Mark C. Smith, State Appellate Defender, and Shellie L. Knipfer, Assistant
State Appellate Defender, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Jean C. Pettinger, Assistant Attorney
General, and Darin Stater, County Attorney, for appellee.
Considered by Eisenhauer, P.J., Potterfield, J., and Huitink, S.J.*
*Senior judge assigned by order pursuant to Iowa Code section 602.9206 (2009).
2
HUITINK, P.J.
Brenda Lee Rogers appeals from the judgment and sentence entered
upon her conviction of forgery. She contends the court erred in accepting her
guilty plea because there was not a factual basis for it. We review her claim for
the correction of errors at law. Iowa R. App. P. 6.907.
Rogers was arrested and charged with forgery after cashing two checks
made out to her boyfriend, Jeremy Miller, on an account owned by his aunt and
grandmother. Miller had made the checks out to himself and told Rogers to cash
them, which she did.
The checks were taken without the permission of the
account holders.
Rogers contends there was no factual basis for accepting her guilty plea. 1
Before accepting a guilty plea, the district court must establish on the record a
factual basis for the plea.
State v. Schminkey, 597 N.W.2d 785, 788 (Iowa
1999). In deciding whether a factual basis exists, the court may consider the
entire record, including any of the defendant’s statements, facts related by the
prosecutor, the presentence report, and the minutes of testimony. Id. Rogers
claims there was no showing she intended to defraud anyone or that she knew
1
Rogers failed to file a motion in arrest of judgment. While such motions are normally
required before a plea may be challenged on appeal, the requirement does not apply if a
defendant was improperly advised of the necessity of such a motion during the plea
proceedings. State v. Meron, 675 N.W.2d 537, 540 (Iowa 2004). Rogers contends the
district court failed to properly advise her filing a motion in arrest of judgment before
challenging the plea on appeal. In the alternative, she contends her trial counsel was
ineffective in allowing her to enter a plea without a factual basis. Because it is
dispositive of both issues, we address the issue of the whether a factual basis for the
plea exists without making a determination as to whether Rogers was properly advised
of the necessity of filing a motion in arrest of judgment.
3
the check given to her by her boyfriend was forged as required by Iowa Code
section 715A.2 (2005).
At the guilty plea hearing, Rogers was asked to explain in her own words
what she had done. She stated:
Jeremy told me that his aunt went to Iowa City for a heart attack
and she told him to write out two checks, one for 60 and one for
600 for college, and told me to cash it and I did. I did. You know,
he signed it. . . . I did not know that they had not given him
permission.
However, when considering the entire record, there is a sufficient factual basis to
support the guilty plea. The minutes of testimony include the following:
Lt. Ron Archer will . . . testify as to the results of his
investigation into the theft and subsequent forgery of checks
belonging to Mary Downey or Signa Brandmeyer . . . . Further, he
will testify that Jeremy Miller and Brenda Rogers admitted to taking
the checks and to writing the checks using the name of Mary
Downey or Signa Brandmeyer, as payor, that they did not have
permission to take the checks or to use them and further, that they
received cash or merchandise in exchange for the checks.
Rogers acknowledged to the court that if a trial was held, the witnesses listed in
the minutes would testify accordingly.
Because there was a sufficient factual basis for Rogers’s plea, we affirm.
AFFIRMED.
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