Alleging a “Commit No Criminal Offense” Probation Violation

Can a probationer be revoked for a violation of the “commit no criminal offense” probation condition if the violation report alleges only that the person has been charged with a crime? A violation of the “commit no criminal offense” probation condition set out in G.S. 15A-1343(b)(1) is one of the two things for which a person’s probation may be revoked (the other is absconding). A frequently asked question over the years is whether the defendant must be convicted of that new criminal offense before the probation court may consider it as a violation. As discussed elsewhere, I think the court may act on a criminal offense violation before conviction if it makes independent findings of the criminal behavior. What I want to focus on today, however, is the wording of the violation report. It is clearly wrong for a judge to revoke a defendant’s based solely on the fact that a person has been charged with a crime, without further investigation of and findings related to the criminal behavior itself. State v. Guffey, 253 N.C. 43 (1960). Does it follow that a violation report  is invalid if it mentions only the pendency of a new charge without any express allegation of the underlying criminal behavior? No. In State v. Lee, 232 N.C. App. 256 (2014), the defendant’s probation was revoked based on a “commit no new criminal offense” violation that was alleged like this: The defendant argued that the court did not have jurisdiction to act on the violation because it was [...]