Johnston v. Iowa Department of Transportation
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The Supreme Court reaffirmed its holding in Schilling v. Iowa Department of Transportation, 646 N.W.2d 69 (Iowa 2002), that a deferred judgment counts as a "final conviction" for purposes of mandatory license revocation under Iowa Code 321.209 and noted that its intervening decision in State v. Tong, 805 N.W.2d 599 (Iowa 2011), did nothing to erode the Schilling.
At issue was the use of a deferred judgment as one of the underlying convictions counted by the Iowa Department of Transportation to revoke Appellant's status as a habitual offender. Appellant's driver's license was revoked under section 321.209 for Appellant's having garnered three enumerated convictions in a six-year period, making him a habitual offender under Iowa Code 321.555(1). Appellant argued that the deferred judgment he received on the eluding charge was not a "final conviction" and could not be counted as one of the predicate convictions. The district court upheld the agency's decision, and the court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the lower courts correctly declined to depart from Schilling.
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