William Olson v. Kaprelian, 202 Wis. 2d 377, 550 N.W.2d 712 (Ct. App. 1996)
For Olson: Terry W. Rose
Issue: Whether bail posted under a bond in a seprate criminal case may be forfeited in order to satisfy a restitution obligation.
Holding:
In regards to this jurisdictional question, Olson … argues that a trial court has no jurisdiction to simply issue an order that assigns funds directly from a bond to the crime victim.We agree and thus hold that the trial court’s order is void as a matter of law. A trial court does not have authority to use a criminal bond to satisfy a restitution award. State v. Cetnarowski, 166 Wis.2d 700, 710, 480 N.W.2d 790, 793 (Ct. App. 1992). There, the defendant argued that the bond he posted could not be reduced by restitution awards imposed as part of his sentence. Id. at 703, 480 N.W.2d at 790. We examined the bail statutes and concluded that they intentionally excluded restitution awards as expenses which could be applied to the defendant’s bond. See id. at 710, 480 N.W.2d at 793. The trial court’s order is therefore void because it violates the rule in Cetnarowski that bonds may not be used to satisfy unpaid restitution.
