State v. Sanderson

Syllabus

Convicted, following a conditional plea of nolo contendere, of risk of injury to a child, the defendant appealed. He claimed that the trial court improp- erly denied his motion to dismiss, in which he alleged that his right to due process under article first, §§ 8 and 9, of the state constitution was violated because of an approximately twenty year delay between the commission of the crime and the date of his arrest. Held: The trial court properly denied the motion to dismiss, as the defendant did not establish that the prearrest delay caused him actual and substantial prejudice, which he was required to demonstrate under State v. McFarland (353 Conn. 169) to establish a violation of his right to due process under the state constitution. This court declined the defendant's invitation to create an exception to the rule in McFarland that would permit him to establish prejudice based on the mere passage of time between his conduct and the time of his arrest, as the court in McFarland squarely held that a defendant must establish actual and substantial prejudice when making a prearrest due process claim under the state constitution. Argued January 15—officially released June 2, 2026