State v. Peed, ___ N.C. App. ___, 810 S.E.2d 777 (Feb. 6, 2018)

The trial court did not have jurisdiction to revoke the defendant’s probation. Four days before his 30 months of probation was to expire, the trial court entered an order extending the defendant’s probation for 12 months with the defendant’s consent. The purpose of the extension was to allow the defendant time “to complete Substance Abuse Treatment.” During the 12-month extension the defendant violated probation and after a hearing the trial court revoked probation. The defendant appealed. The court began by rejecting the State’s argument that the defendant’s appeal was moot because he had already served the entire sentence assigned for the revocation. Turning to the merits, the court held that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to revoke the defendant’s probation because his probationary period was unlawfully extended. In order to extend an individual’s probationary period, the trial court must have statutory authority to do so. No statue authorizes a trial court to extend the defendant’s probation to allow him time to complete a substance abuse program. The court rejected the State’s argument that because the statutes allow an extension of probation for completion of medical or psychiatric treatment ordered as a condition of probation, the trial court’s extension was proper. It reasoned, it part, that the General Assembly did not intend for a probation condition to complete “substance-abuse treatment” to be synonymous with, or a subset of, a probation condition to complete “medical or psychiatric treatment.”