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State v. Donner11/16/2004
s assertion that the statutes cannot be read together and that they necessarily conflict with one another, we would be left with the absurd result that the Legislature has mandated a specific condition of the sentence which cannot be a condition of probation, but has also afforded the court discretion to impose probation. In such an event, we would be obligated to conclude that the specific requirement of § 83-1,127.02 that Donner's operator's license be revoked for 15 years would prevail over the general requirement of § 29-2263 that no conditions of her probation could exceed 5 years. See In re Interest of Valentin V., 12 Neb. App. 390, 674 N.W.2d 793 (2004) (to extent two statutes conflict, specific statute prevails over general statute). In that event, we would be forced to conclude that the district court's error was in sentencing Donner to probation, not in revoking her operator's license for 15 years.
Finally, we further note that the Legislature has demonstrated that when it so desires, it can clearly indicate a distinction between the mandatory operator's license revocation period imposed when the court sentences a convicted defendant to prison and when the court sentences a convicted defendant to probation. In Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-6,196(2)(d) (Supp. 2003), for example, the Legislature mandated that when the court sentences a defendant convicted of third-offense driving under the influence, also a Class IV felony, the court shall impose a 15-year operator's license revocation. The Legislature further mandated, however, that if the court, in its discretion, sentences the defendant to a term of probation, the operator's license revocation shall be one of the conditions of probation and shall be for a period of 1 year. Thus, we interpret the Legislature's failure to make a similar provision in § 83-1,127.02 to indicate that the Legislature did not intend the operator's license revocation under that statute to be a condition of probation or for the revocation to be subject to a shortened time period when probation is imposed.
As such, we conclude that the applicable principles of statutory construction all suggest that the 15-year operator's license revocation in the present case was not only appropriate, but mandated by the language of § 83-1,127.02. The Legislature chose to use the mandatory term "shall" in requiring the court to impose such a revocation, and a reading of all the applicable statutes together suggests that in this setting, the operator's license revocation is to be a punishment in addition to the sentence imposed by the court exercising its discretion under § 28-105. Donner's assertions of error to the contrary are without merit.
V. CONCLUSION
We find no error by the district court in revoking Donner's operator's license for 15 years while placing her on probation for 60 months. The sentence of the district court is affirmed.
Affirmed.
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