Cases | State v. Cabrera, 163 P.3d 707 (Utah Ct. App. 2007) | 2018
The defendant pled guilty to two counts of class A misdemeanor Driving Under the Influence with injuries after striking the victims’ vehicle, injuring a mother and her daughter. He was sentenced to sixty days in jail and probation for thirty-six months. The conditions of probation included a requirement that the defendant pay restitution to the victim, the amount of which was to be determined at a later hearing. However, after serving his jail sentence, the defendant argued that the restitution order was discharged through federal bankruptcy proceedings, which had occurred sometime between the accident and the filing of charges and order of restitution. The trial court dismissed the order, but later reversed itself when the defendant notified it of the federal bankruptcy court ruling. The State appealed and the court reversed itself and ruled that the restitution order had not been discharged in bankruptcy. On appeal, the defendant argued that the restitution order violated federal bankruptcy law. The court of appeals held that because the Supreme Court has held that the conditions imposed by a state court are exempted from discharge, the trial court’s decision to order restitution was well within the court’s discretion and did not contravene federal bankruptcy law. The judgment was affirmed in part and reversed in part on other grounds.