State v. Barkley, 846 P.2d 390 (Or. 1993)

Cases | State v. Barkley, 846 P.2d 390 (Or. 1993) | 2018

The defendant was convicted of three counts of sodomy in the first degree and one count of rape in the first degree. On appeal, the defendant argued that the trial court erred in imposing a fine, payable to the victim’s mother, as compensation for wages lost due to having to take her child to court. The court of appeals vacated the compensatory fine because the mother was not a “victim;” she had not suffered the direct physical injury required by ORS § 137.101. On appeal to the supreme court, the court held that under ORS § 137.101 a victim need not have suffered a “direct physical injury” by the defendant to receive compensation. It further held that the compensatory fine was a form of special damages resulting from the defendant’s criminal activities and therefore was statutorily permissible. However, ORS § 137.101 requires the fine to be recoverable in a civil action to be permissible; the court found no theory of civil liability which would allow the mother to recover such damages against the defendant. The compensatory fine was vacated, and the case remanded to the circuit court for resentencing.