In Re HLR

269 Cal. App. 2d 610, 75 Cal. Rptr. 308
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 11, 1969
DocketCiv. No. 11709
StatusPublished

This text of 269 Cal. App. 2d 610 (In Re HLR) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re HLR, 269 Cal. App. 2d 610, 75 Cal. Rptr. 308 (Cal. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

269 Cal.App.2d 610 (1969)

In re H. L. R., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law. JAMES D. MERCER, as Chief Probation Officer, etc., Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
REDA MAGUIRE et al., Defendants and Appellants.

Civ. No. 11709.

California Court of Appeals. Third Dist.

Feb. 11, 1969.

Ervin F. Vaughan, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendants and Appellants.

Thomas C. Lynch, Attorney General, Doris H. Maier, Assistant Attorney General, Edsel W. Haws and Jack R. Winkler, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

PIERCE, P. J.

Appeal from a judgment declaring appellant H.L.R., a minor, to be a ward of the juvenile court under Welfare and Institutions Code section 602. The judgment rests upon a finding that H.L.R. was in possession of marijuana in violation of Health and Safety Code section 11530. [fn. 1]*613

The basic contention of H.L.R. is that an extrajudicial confession of possession of marijuana was introduced into evidence notwithstanding the absence of any intelligent waiver of the right to counsel at the time the statement was given. A secondary contention is that testimony by others necessary to establish the corpus delicti was the product of the unlawfully obtained confession. Both contentions are sound.

The minor, H.L.R., then 16 years of age, was under the legal custody of his mother, a resident of Sacramento, but when the events with which we are concerned occurred he was residing with his father and stepmother at South Lake Tahoe where he attended high school. His mother also had remarried. Early on a Sunday morning (approximately 5 a.m.) he was taken in to the sheriff's office for a curfew violation. He was released to, and taken by, his father to the latter's home. The father noticed the boy acted strangely, that he talked to himself and had hallucinations. The father phoned a woman who was a family friend. She was also a deputy probation officer. This officer phoned a deputy sheriff. The boy, with the father's consent, was placed in custody again for questioning. Neither the father nor the stepmother was advised of the boy's constitutional rights. The officer who called for the minor formed the opinion that he was under the influence of a drug. He was taken to a sheriff's substation. There he was questioned by the woman probation officer whom the minor's father had phoned. She believed the minor to be under the influence of a drug which she called "Azmidor." [fn. 2] He was described as being "incoherent." He was given food and ate it. He then became more coherent but was still to some degree under the influence of the drug. At some point during the custodial proceeding related above his Miranda rights were read to H.L.R. The record does not establish precisely when. [fn. 3]*614

The several references to Asthmador (see fn. 2) by this witness in her testimony have been noted. (Fn. 3.) The witness also had testified: "Q. Now, do you have any medical training at all as to a person being under the influence of Azmidor, what effect it has, if any, on the person's ability to think or understand? A. No, I have not." [1] We read the evidence (which was admitted over the objection of the minor's attorney) to determine the question whether an extrajudicial statement was made after a knowing and intelligent waiver of a right to remain silent and of a right then to an attorney. The burden of proof is on the prosecution to show that. (People v. Rodriguez (1967) 256 Cal.App.2d 663, 668 [64 Cal.Rptr. 253].) Since the interrogating officer did not know the nature, characteristics and effects of taking Asthmador and no other evidence was offered on this subject by the district attorney at the hearing, we must assume that the juvenile court judge had informed himself and thus took judicial notice thereof under Evidence Code section 452, subdivision (h). Otherwise, the officer's testimony could not have been meaningful. This court was unfamiliar with its characteristics until we resorted to the United States Dispensatory and Physicians' Pharmacology (26th ed.) (Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 67-17443). There we learn that stramonium and belladonna, the active ingredients of Asthmador, are among the sources of atropine, the racemic form of an alkaloid, 1-hyoscyamine. The central effects of atropine may be attributed to central stimulation of the vagus nerve and of the respiratory center. There is also a primary depressant action on certain motor mechanisms. Toxic doses, however, after causing restlessness, disorientation, and delirium, ultimately will produce paralysis of the medulla. Under reference to "Actions and Uses" and a subhead "Respiratory Effects" it is noted that it is used to check hay fever and for bronchial asthma. The effect of overdoses is outlined under "Toxicology," where it is stated: "Atropine poisoning may occur from the ingestion of any of the numerous plants of *615 which it is the active principle, most frequently however, from either belladonna or stramonium. ... The most striking symptom is the delirium. In the early stages this manifests itself simply by profuse and incoherent talkativeness; later there is complete confusion, often with hallucinations, sometimes maniacal in character." [fn. 4]

These are the symptoms which the father, the deputy sheriff and the probation officer had noticed. True, the latter testified that she believed that H.L.R. understood his rights "because he recognized me. He knew me. He spoke to me." [fn. 5] On the basis of that statement the court overruled the objection that the waiver was not an intelligent one.

During the interview which followed the warning, the minor stated that on the previous afternoon he and two 17-year-old boys had shared a marijuana cigarette. He furnished the names of these boys. (He also confessed he had been using marijuana for a considerable period before that.) He also stated to the officer that after the marijuana smoking incident the three boys had purchased 16 capsules of Asthmador. Of these capsules H.L.R. had taken five (at approximately midnight). Then the boys had walked about the streets of South Lake Tahoe. Later H.L.R. had been taken into custody for the curfew violation mentioned.

Following the boy's confession, a petition was filed and the juvenile court proceedings were held from which this appeal is taken.

The Question of Procedural Due Process

[2] "[W]hatever may be their precise impact, neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor the Bill of Rights is for adults alone." (Re Gault (May, 1967) 387 U.S. 1, 13 [18 L.Ed.2d 527, 538, 87 S.Ct. 1428].) In juvenile court hearings which may lead to commitment of a minor to a state institution the proceedings must measure up to the demands of constitutional due process. (Re Gault, supra, pp. 548-563 of 18 L.Ed.2d.) The court in Gault did not directly reach the questions with which we are confronted here. No extrajudicial statement was there involved. The court said (on p. 538 of 18 L.Ed.2d): "[W]e are not here concerned with the procedures or constitutional rights applicable to the pre-judicial stages of the juvenile *616 process. ... We consider only the problems presented to us by this case. These relate to the proceedings by which a determination is made as to whether a juvenile is a 'delinquent' as a result of alleged misconduct on his part, with the consequence that he may be committed to a state institution."

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Nardone v. United States
308 U.S. 338 (Supreme Court, 1939)
Wong Sun v. United States
371 U.S. 471 (Supreme Court, 1963)
Miranda v. Arizona
384 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1966)
In Re GAULT
387 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1967)
Mercer v. Teters
264 Cal. App. 2d 816 (California Court of Appeal, 1968)
People v. Chapman
261 Cal. App. 2d 149 (California Court of Appeal, 1968)
People v. Rodriguez
256 Cal. App. 2d 663 (California Court of Appeal, 1967)
People v. Lara
432 P.2d 202 (California Supreme Court, 1967)
People v. Sesslin
439 P.2d 321 (California Supreme Court, 1968)
People v. M.G.S.
267 Cal. App. 2d 329 (California Court of Appeal, 1968)
Mercer v. Maguire
269 Cal. App. 2d 610 (California Court of Appeal, 1969)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
269 Cal. App. 2d 610, 75 Cal. Rptr. 308, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-hlr-calctapp-1969.