Constitutional – Procedural Due Process – Revocation of Suspended Sentence

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Washington v. Commonwealth (VLW No. 017-7-274, 12 pp.) (Decker, J.) Appealed from Hampton Circuit Court (Taylor, J.) Va. App. Unpub.

Holding:  Following defendant’s arrest for violating his probation by using drugs, the drug treatment court held a hearing terminating him from a treatment program, the continuation of which was a condition to receiving a two-year suspended sentence under a previous plea agreement.  The circuit court subsequently held hearings on the revocation of the suspension and resentencing, following which the court imposed the two-year suspended sentence.

The defendant claims on appeal that the process he received leading up to the resentencing violated his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights.

We disagree. Here the record established that defendant did not prove a Fourteenth Amendment due process violation that occurred in the drug treatment court and entitled him to relief in the circuit court revocation proceeding. Additionally, defendant received his due process rights to notice and a hearing in the circuit court revocation proceeding regarding his earlier termination from the drug treatment court program. Finally, to the extent that he may have been able to assert an entitlement to more process in the circuit court revocation proceeding, he failed to make a contemporaneous objection that the level of process he received in that proceeding was insufficient.

Revocation of defendant’s two-year suspended sentence affirmed.