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Privette v. Maryland10/9/1990
We are requested to answer three questions in this case: (1) whether a circuit court has original jurisdiction to try a defendant on a charge of driving without insurance; (2) whether the trial court erred in preventing the defendant from arguing to the jury the Motor Vehicle Administration's (MVA) duties regarding uninsured motorists as set forth in Maryland Code (1987 Repl.Vol.), § 17-106 of the Transportation Article; and (3) whether the trial court
improperly admitted hearsay testimony and thereby committed prejudicial error.
The facts are not complicated. William Harrison Privette, Petitioner, was involved in a fatal automobile accident on January 16, 1985. On April 30, 1985, Petitioner was charged by indictment in the Circuit Court for Harford County with manslaughter by motor vehicle, homicide by motor vehicle, homicide by motor vehicle while intoxicated, driving under the influence of alcohol, reckless driving, negligent driving, and failure to yield the right of way. As a result of the investigation after the accident, a copy of the title record of the vehicle was obtained from the MVA. It indicated that there was no insurance coverage on the vehicle Privette had been driving when the accident occurred. As a result of this fact, Privette was charged on September 11, 1985, by information, with driving without insurance in violation of Maryland Transp.Code Ann. § 17-107. On that same date, the State filed a motion to consolidate the two cases.
Both cases were called for trial on October 6, 1988 in the Circuit Court for Harford County (Waldron, J.). The court denied the motion to consolidate, and trial proceeded only on the indicted offenses. On January 3, 1989, trial began in the Circuit Court for Harford County (Whitfill, J.) on the charge of driving without insurance. It is from the judgment entered after this trial that this appeal was taken.
In the January 3rd trial, Privette filed a motion to dismiss, maintaining that driving without insurance is a misdemeanor over which the District Court has exclusive jurisdiction by statute. That motion was denied on the ground that the insurance charge arose out of the same circumstances as the manslaughter offense which was proceeding in circuit court. The trial court further determined that pursuant to Md.Code (1974, 1989 Repl.Vol.), Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, § 4-302(f), the District Court had been divested of jurisdiction. The trial court reasoned that because the jurisdiction of the circuit court had been invoked regarding some of the charges arising from the accident, all
charges arising from that accident, including those which would otherwise be within the exclusive jurisdiction of the District Court, were within the jurisdiction of the circuit court.
After all the evidence had been received, the trial court refused to give a jury instruction requested by Privette dealing with the MVA's duties once it receives notification of a termination or lapse of insurance coverage. Privette objected to the denial of this instruction. Subsequently, he attempted to address these same statutory duties during closing argument. The State objected, and at a bench conference the judge refused to allow Privette to argue the statute to the jury.
He was found guilty of driving without insurance and was sentenced to one year with all but six months suspended. He appealed to the Court of Special Appeals, and we granted certiorari on our own motion before argument in that court.
I
Privette contends that the insurance charge is wholly unrelated to the accid
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