State v. Ruiz

Summary

The court held that Ruiz could not be prosecuted for felony theft based on her failure to remit sales taxes collected for her business because the Department of Revenue had no ownership interest in those specific funds and Ruiz therefore did not exercise unauthorized control over property of another. The court also concluded that the Kansas Retailers' Sales Tax Act supplies the governing statutory duties and remedies, and that imprisonment for violating those duties does not violate the constitutional prohibition against imprisonment for debt. The court left the prematurity of multiplicity analysis unresolved because the theft charge failed as a matter of law.