People v. Bauer

211 Cal. App. 3d 937, 260 Cal. Rptr. 62
California Court of Appeal·Decided June 23, 1989·No. A040940·Published·Cited by 85 cases

Opinion

211 Cal.App.3d 937 (1989)
260 Cal. Rptr. 62

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
MARK ANTHONY BAUER, Defendant and Appellant.

Docket No. A040940.

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

June 23, 1989.

*939 COUNSEL

Mark Anthony Bauer, in pro. per., and Joseph Allen for Defendant and Appellant.

John K. Van de Kamp, Attorney General, Steve White, Chief Assistant Attorney General, John H. Sugiyama, Assistant Attorney General, Martin S. Kaye and Matthew P. Boyle, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

[Opinion certified for partial publication.[*]]

OPINION

KLINE, P.J. —

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

The District Attorney of San Mateo County charged Mark Anthony Bauer, the appellant, with six offenses. Count 1 alleged kidnapping (§ 207);[1] counts 2 and 3 alleged assault with a firearm (§ 245, subd. (a)(2)); count 4 charged possession of brass knuckles (§ 12020, subd. (a)); count 5 alleged false imprisonment (§ 236); and count 6 alleged burglary with the intent to kidnap (§ 459). In addition, counts 1, 2 and 3 included special allegations of personal use of a firearm, threat of great bodily harm, and furnishing a *940 firearm to another for the purpose of aiding and abetting a felony. (§§ 12022.5, 1203.06, subd. (a)(1), 12022.4.) Codefendant Norman Saunders was charged with the same crimes, but tried separately.

Appellant pleaded not guilty and denied the enhancement allegations. A jury found him guilty of false imprisonment and simple assault. The trial court granted the district attorney's motion to dismiss the remaining counts. On January 4, 1988, the trial court suspended imposition of sentence and placed appellant on probation for both counts.

.... .... .... .... .... .[*]

VI.

Conditions of Probation

As conditions of probation, the court required appellant, inter alia, to obtain his probation officer's approval of his residence and to submit to searches and seizures at any time, without regard to probable cause. (1a), (2a) Appellant argues these conditions are not reasonably related to his crime or rehabilitation and unduly infringe on his constitutional rights. (He does not challenge other probation requirements that he not possess a gun or dangerous weapon, abstain from all intoxicants, submit to drug and alcohol testing, and participate in psychiatric counseling.)

(3a) Section 1203.1 provides the court broad discretion to determine conditions of probation that will promote rehabilitation and protect the public. (People v. Pointer (1984) 151 Cal. App.3d 1128, 1136 [199 Cal. Rptr. 357], citing People v. Richards (1976) 17 Cal.3d 614, 619 [131 Cal. Rptr. 537, 552 P.2d 97].) (4) A defendant may refuse probation if the conditions are too harsh. (In re Bushman (1970) 1 Cal.3d 767, 776 [83 Cal. Rptr. 375, 463 P.2d 727], overruled on another ground by People v. Lent (1975) 15 Cal.3d 481, 486 [124 Cal. Rptr. 905, 541 P.2d 545].) However, the ability to refuse probation does not bar appellant from accepting it and then contesting on appeal a condition he believes is unduly restrictive. (In re Bushman, supra, 1 Cal.3d at p. 776; In re White (1979) 97 Cal. App.3d 141, 146 [158 Cal. Rptr. 562].)

(3b) The court's power to condition probation "is not boundless.... Human liberty is involved. A probationer has the right to enjoy a significant *941 degree of privacy, or liberty, under the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution." (People v. Keller (1978) 76 Cal. App.3d 827, 832 [143 Cal. Rptr. 184].) Nevertheless, if necessary to effect the goals of probation, its conditions may limit constitutional rights. (People v. Pointer, supra, 151 Cal. App.3d at p. 1137.)

The seminal case prescribing the criteria for evaluating contested conditions of probation is People v. Dominguez (1967) 256 Cal. App.2d 623 [64 Cal. Rptr. 290]. However, although our Supreme Court has consistently followed Dominguez it has along the way created some confusion about what the opinion in that case means.

In order to determine whether a challenged condition is "reasonable" within the meaning of section 1203.1 of the Penal Code[3] the Dominguez court established the following test: "A condition of probation which (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 does not serve the statutory ends of probation and is invalid." (People v. Dominguez, supra, 256 Cal. App.2d at p. 627, italics added.)

The first two Supreme Court cases quoting and purporting to follow the Dominguez test are In re Bushman, supra, 1 Cal.3d 767, 776-777 and People v. Mason (1971) 5 Cal.3d 759, 764 [97 Cal. Rptr. 302, 488 P.2d 630]. In each of these cases, however, the court articulated the test slightly but nonetheless significantly different from the way it had been stated in Dominguez. The Bushman and Mason version of the test is as follows: "A condition of probation imposed pursuant to Penal Code section 1203.1 is invalid if it (1) has no relationship to the crime of which the defendant is convicted, (2) relates to conduct that is not itself criminal, or (3) requires or forbids conduct that is not reasonably related to future criminality. [Citation to Dominguez.]" (Bushman, supra, at pp. 776-777; Mason, supra, at p. 764, italics added.)

Thus under the original formulation of the test in Dominguez, which used the conjunctive "and" rather than the disjunctive "or," a condition of probation was invalid only if it met all three criteria, which unfortunately were stated in the negative (i.e., it had no relationship to the crime, related *942 to conduct not in itself criminal, and required or forbade conduct not reasonably related to future criminality). Stated positively, and perhaps more comprehensibly, Dominguez required that a valid condition of probation must (1) be related to the crime of which the defendant was convicted, or (2) relate to conduct that is criminal, or (3) require or forbid conduct that is reasonably related to future criminality.

Under the Bushman/Mason formulation, on the other hand, a probation condition was seemingly invalid if it merely conformed to one of the three negative criteria. Thus, for example, a condition that was related to the crime for which the defendant was convicted and to future criminality was nonetheless invalid if it did not also relate to conduct that was itself criminal.

The Supreme Court's apparently unintentional misstatement of the Dominguez test was first called to its attention by Justice Sims in In re Mannino (1971) 14 Cal. App.3d 953, 960, footnote 4 [92 Cal. Rptr. 880, 45 A.L.R.3d 996]. Thereafter, in People v. Lent, supra, 15 Cal.3d 481, the Supreme Court sought to clarify the situation. After quoting the origi

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People v. Bauer, 211 Cal. App. 3d 937, 260 Cal. Rptr. 62 (Cal. Ct. App. 1989).

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