In Re JP

170 Cal. App. 4th 1292, 89 Cal. Rptr. 3d 17
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 7, 2009
DocketA118858
StatusPublished

This text of 170 Cal. App. 4th 1292 (In Re JP) 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 JP, 170 Cal. App. 4th 1292, 89 Cal. Rptr. 3d 17 (Cal. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

170 Cal.App.4th 1292 (2009)

In re J.P., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.
THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
J.P., Defendant and Appellant.

No. A118858.

Court of Appeals of California, First District, Division Five.

January 7, 2009.

*1293 Richard Such, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Assistant Attorney General, Laurence K. Sullivan and Martin S. Kaye, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

NEEDHAM, J. —

Appellant J.P. was adjudged a ward of the juvenile court under Welfare and Institutions Code section 602 after he admitted an allegation of nonforcible oral copulation with a person under 18 years of age in violation of Penal Code section 288a, subdivision (b)(1).[1] He appeals from *1294 an order denying his motion to be relieved of the requirement that he register as a sex offender under sections 290 and 290.008.[2] Relying on People v. Hofsheier (2006) 37 Cal.4th 1185 [39 Cal.Rptr.3d 821, 129 P.3d 29] (Hofsheier), appellant contends that mandatory registration would deny him equal protection under the law because there is no such requirement for similarly situated offenders convicted or adjudicated of committing unlawful intercourse with a person under 18 under section 261.5, subdivision (a). We agree.

I. BACKGROUND

In June 1998, when he was 12 years old, appellant contacted the Child Protective Services crisis line and reported that he was doing "nasty things" to his little brother. An investigation revealed that appellant was having frequent sexual contact with his five-year-old brother and seven-year-old sister. A juvenile wardship petition was filed in the Mendocino County Superior Court alleging one count of lewd contact with a child under 14 years of age on his sister (§ 288, subd. (a)) and one count of forcible oral copulation on his brother (§ 288a, subd. (c)).

As part of a negotiated disposition, the petition was amended to add a third count of nonforcible oral copulation of a person under 18 under section 288a, subdivision (b)(1), which appellant admitted in exchange for a dismissal of the original charges. He was removed from his parents' custody, placed on probation, and spent the next two years in a variety of out-of-home placements. In August 2000, appellant was committed to the California Youth Authority (now the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Facilities)[3] following his fourth probation violation. His commitment was twice extended on the ground that his release "would be physically dangerous to the public because of [a] mental or physical deficiency, disorder, or abnormality that causes [him] to have serious difficulty controlling his ... behavior. . . ." (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 1800, subd. (a).)

In a third proceeding to extend appellant's commitment, a mistrial was declared after the jury was unable to agree that he posed a continuing danger to the public. The prosecution dismissed the petition and appellant was discharged from the Division of Juvenile Facilities in September 2006. Under section 290.008, subdivision (a), "Any person who, on or after January 1, 1986, is discharged or paroled from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to the custody of which he or she was committed after having been adjudicated a ward of the juvenile court pursuant to Section 602 of the *1295 Welfare and Institutions Code because of the commission or attempted commission of any offense described in subdivision (c) shall register in accordance with the [Sex Offender Registration] Act." Section 290.008, subdivision (c) provides in relevant part, "Any person described in this section who committed an offense in violation of any of the following provisions shall be required to register pursuant to the Act: [¶] . . . [¶] (2) Any offense defined in . . . Section 288, . . . paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of, or subdivision (c) or (d) of, Section 288a...." A violation of section 261.5, which penalizes unlawful intercourse with a minor, is not an offense triggering mandatory registration. (§ 290.008, subd. (c).)

In March 2007, appellant, now an adult, was charged in Sonoma County with two counts of failing to register as a sex offender in violation of section 290. In June 2007, appellant filed a motion in the Mendocino County juvenile case to set aside the sex offender registration requirement. He relied on Hofsheier, supra, 37 Cal.4th 1185, in which the Supreme Court held that because registration is not mandated for persons convicted of unlawful, nonforcible intercourse with a minor (§ 261.5, subd. (a); see §§ 290, subd. (c) & 290.008, subd. (c)), it would violate equal protection to mandate registration for similarly-situated persons convicted of unlawful, nonforcible oral copulation with a minor. (Hofsheier, at pp. 1193, 1198-1207.) The district attorney opposed the motion, arguing that Hofsheier's equal protection analysis had been based on the disparate treatment of adult offenders committing two equivalent types of consensual sexual acts (intercourse and oral copulation) against victims who were 16 or 17 years old, whereas appellant's oral copulation victims were much younger and could not be compared to a 16- or 17-year-old who engages in consensual intercourse. (See Hofsheier, supra, 37 Cal.4th at pp. 1198.)

The juvenile court denied appellant's motion to set aside the registration requirement. It concluded that Hofsheier was distinguishable because the victim in that case was 16 years old, whereas appellants' victims were five and seven years old.[4] This appeal follows.

II. DISCUSSION

The starting point of our analysis is Hofsheier itself, in which the 22-year-old defendant pled guilty to oral copulation with a 16-year-old victim in *1296 violation of section 288a, subdivision (b)(1), the same offense admitted by appellant in this case. (Hofsheier, supra, 37 Cal.4th at p. 1198.) Under that section, "Except as provided in Section 288, any person who participates in an act of oral copulation with another person who is under 18 years of age shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison, or in a county jail for a period of not more than one year." (§ 288a, subd. (b)(1).) Under section 290, subdivisions (b) and (c), the sex offender registration statute applicable to adult offenders, any person convicted of violating section 288a, among other specified offenses, must register as a sex offender for the rest of his or her life. The defendant challenged this requirement on appeal, arguing that it denied him equal protection because a person convicted of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor under section 261.5 under the same circumstances would not be subject to the mandatory registration requirements. (Hofsheier, supra, 37 Cal.4th at p. 1198.) The Supreme Court agreed. (Id. at pp. 1206-1207.)

(1) As with any equal protection challenge, the threshold question was whether the state had adopted a classification that affected two or more similarly situated groups differently. (Hofsheier, supra, 37 Cal.4th at p.

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170 Cal. App. 4th 1292 (California Court of Appeal, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
170 Cal. App. 4th 1292, 89 Cal. Rptr. 3d 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-jp-calctapp-2009.