State v. Carpio, 294 N.C. App. 465 (Jun. 18, 2024)

In this Dare County case, defendant appealed her conviction for reckless driving, arguing the superior court lacked jurisdiction to enter judgment due to a fatally defective citation, and error in instructing the jury on reckless driving that created a fatal variance between the citation and the jury charge. The Court of Appeals held the superior court had jurisdiction and found no error. 

In March of 2021, defendant was driving a van on a highway in Dare County, and she made several aggressive gestures and movements towards another vehicle. Eventually, after speeding along the highway for several miles, defendant pulled in front of the other vehicle and “intentionally brake-checked” the other driver, leading to a collision. Slip Op. at 3. Defendant was cited for reckless driving, and at district court defendant was found guilty. On appeal to the superior court, defendant moved to dismiss the charge, arguing the citation failed to include specific factual details. The superior court denied the motion, and during trial at superior court, body cam footage from the responding officer showed defendant admitted to intentionally brake-checking the other driver. During the charge conference, defendant objected, arguing the alleged conduct in the instruction was not present in the pleading. The superior court denied the motion and defendant was subsequently found guilty by the jury. 

Taking up defendant’s first argument that the citation lacked specific descriptions of the actions, the Court of Appeals explained that under G.S. 15A-922, a defendant charged by a citation may move to be charged with a new pleading. However, the appropriate venue for the motion is the district court division. Here, defendant failed to make a motion before the district court, and “[p]er North Carolina law . . . for a defendant to properly object to a trial by citation, [they] must make such objection before the court of original jurisdiction.” Id. at 8. Because defendant made her motion before the superior court, she waived her right to appeal the issue. 

Moving to defendant’s argument regarding a fatal variance between the citation and the jury charge, the court first explained that defendant failed to preserve the argument and the standard of review was plain error. Here, defendant argued that the specific conduct of slamming on her brakes was not mentioned in the citation. The court pointed out that the citation specifically incorporated the officer’s crash report which contained details of the alleged conduct. Based on the reference to the crash report in the citation, and the evidence showing defendant admitted to intentionally brake-checking the other driver, the court found no plain error by the superior court.