In Re White

97 Cal. App. 3d 141, 158 Cal. Rptr. 562, 1979 Cal. App. LEXIS 2159
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 24, 1979
DocketCrim. 4360
StatusPublished
Cited by123 cases

This text of 97 Cal. App. 3d 141 (In Re White) 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 White, 97 Cal. App. 3d 141, 158 Cal. Rptr. 562, 1979 Cal. App. LEXIS 2159 (Cal. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinions

Opinion

HOPPER, J.

In this habeas corpus proceeding petitioner (White) seeks to be free from certain conditions of probation imposed on her as a result of her plea in municipal court to a violation of Penal Code section 647, subdivision (b), soliciting an act of prostitution, which took place on November 14, 1978. In granting probation to White for a two-year term the trial court imposed, and White accepted, inter alia, the following condition:

4. Not to be present within the following designated areas at any time, day or night, or be present upon either side of any street which is a border of such area:

Clinton Avenue on the north, Olive Avenue on the south, North Parkway Drive on the west, and Weber on the east. (North Control Area 1.)

Fresno Street on the north, Ventura Street on the south, “E” Street on the west, and “H” Street on the east. (Central Control Area 2.)

[144]*144East California Avenue on the north, West Church Avenue on the south, Golden State on the west, and South East Avenue on the east. (South Control Area 3.)

As part of the written conditions White received a map of the three control areas. (For convenience these areas are sometimes hereafter referred to as “map areas.”)

The municipal judge asked White if any condition would constitute a hardship. White told the judge that she had been living within one of the “map areas” for approximately three months. She was given three weeks to move out of the “map areas” which she did. An additional condition of probation was that White perform a certain amount of community service. The facility at which she was to perform this community service was within one of the “map areas” and consequently she was reassigned to another facility.

While on probation White was arrested January 5, 1979, on a charge of solicitation. While released on bail on that charge she was observed on January 18, 1979, parked alone on a street in one of the “map areas.” On January 25, 1979, she was sentenced to 90 days for violation of probation. On February 5, 1979, she pled guilty to the January 5, 1979, charge and was sentenced to a 90-day jail term to run concurrently with the time received on the revocation of probation. The superior court denied her petition for habeas corpus as to the map condition.

Statistics introduced at the habeas corpus hearing in the superior court established that the three map areas constituted major areas of arrest for prostitution activity in the City of Fresno. A fourth area of prostitution activity existed along Blackstone Avenue (which was not in any map area) and an increase in such activity was noted as occurring after restriction from the “map areas” was utilized as a condition of probation.

White claimed that she had friends or relatives who lived in map area No. 1, and that, furthermore, before probation she had patronized three restaurants within the same map area. She further claimed that before probation she took the Greyhound bus frequently which she was unable to do under probation because the depot is within map area No. 2. White also testified that it was most difficult for her to take her children to the local park and zoo because it bordered one of the “map areas.”

[145]*145Officer Robert Rodriguez, a detective in the vice division with the Fresno Police Department, testified that since the “map” was imposed in July of 1978 the “visibility of prostitutes on the street is down.” Additionally, Rodriguez stated that the actual crimes reported to the Fresno Police Department are down, as far as crimes that are normally associated with prostitution activity. Rodriguez also testified that a number of persons he knew to' be prostitutes are no longer seen in the “map area”; instead, they are all seen in another area of town.

In terms of enforcement of the “map” Rodriguez said that if a person who is on formal probation for soliciting prostitution is seen in this area he would make an arrest without a warrant. The only reason for the arrest would be that person’s presence in a proscribed area.

White contends that the map condition violates her rights of free speech, free association, privacy, her right to be free of unreasonable seizures, her rights to travel, and that the condition does not comport with the California probation law and that it is an improper banishment.

The relevant statute is Penal Code section 1203.1 which provides in pertinent part: “The court . . ., in the order granting probation, may suspend the imposing, or the execution of sentence . . . upon such terms and conditions as it shall determine. [1Í] The court may impose and require any . . . reasonable conditions, as it may determine are fitting and proper to the end that justice may be done, that amends may be made to society for the breach of the law, for any injury done to any person resulting from such breach and generally and specifically for the reformation and rehabilitation of the probationer,. . .” (italics added.)1

Under that section a sentencing court has broad discretion to describe conditions of probation to foster rehabilitation and to protect the public to the end that justice may be done. (People v. Richards (1976) 17 Cal.3d 614, 619 [131 Cal.Rptr. 537, 552 P.2d 97]; In re Martinez (1978) 86 Cal.App.3d 577, 580 [150 Cal.Rptr. 366]; People v. Keller (1978) 76 Cal.App.3d 827, 831 [143 Cal.Rptr. 184].) In the Keller case, the court commented upon this discretion in probation sentencing by stating: “The [146]*146discretion granted is not boundless. In the first place, the authority is wholly statutory; the statute furnishes and limits the measure of authority which the court may thus exercise [citations]. [If] Secondly, the discretion to impose conditions of probation as granted by Penal Code section 1203.1 is further circumscribed by constitutional safeguards. Human liberty is involved. A probationer has the right to enjoy a significant degree of privacy, or liberty, under the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution [citations].” (People v. Keller, supra, 76 Cal.App.3d 827 at p. 832.)

Quoting from the landmark case of People v. Dominguez (1967) 256 Cal.App.2d 623, 627 [64 Cal.Rptr. 290], our California Supreme Court has set out the standard in People v. Lent (1975) 15 Cal.3d 481, 486 [124 Cal.Rptr. 905, 541 P.2d 545] as follows; “A condition of probation will not be held invalid unless it ‘(1) has no relationship to the crime of which the offender was convicted, (2) relates to conduct which is not in itself criminal, and (3) requires or forbids conduct which is not reasonably related to future criminality . . . .’ [Citation.]”

There is an overall requirement of reasonableness in relation to the seriousness of the offense for which a defendant is convicted (People v. Keller, supra, 76 Cal.App.3d 827, 839-840). “. . . The Constitution, the statute, all case law, demand and authorize only ‘reasonable’ conditions, not just conditions ‘reasonably related’ to the crime committed.” (Keller, at p. 839.)

Careful scrutiny of an unusual and severe probation condition is appropriate (United States v. Pastore (2d Cir.

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Bluebook (online)
97 Cal. App. 3d 141, 158 Cal. Rptr. 562, 1979 Cal. App. LEXIS 2159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-white-calctapp-1979.