People v. Bishopp CA4/3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 26, 2021
DocketG058089
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Bishopp CA4/3 (People v. Bishopp CA4/3) 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
People v. Bishopp CA4/3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

Filed 5/26/21 P. v. Bishopp CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent, G058089

v. (Super. Ct. No. 16WF1256)

SEAN ERIC BISHOPP, OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

Appeal from an order of the Superior Court of Orange County, Gary S. Paer, Judge. Reversed. Paul R. Kraus for Defendant and Appellant. Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, A. Natasha Cortina and Melissa Mandel, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. * * * Police officers arrested Sean Eric Bishopp while he sat in a vehicle parked near a store waiting for his wife and mother-in-law to return from their attempt to steal the store’s merchandise. Bishopp’s mother-in-law ran toward his car carrying stolen loot pursued by the store’s loss prevention officers. A physical altercation ensued when one of the officers attempted to stop her. Meanwhile, one of the officers spotted Bishopp’s wife videotaping Bishopp’s arrest with her cell phone. Officers arrested her, seized the phone, and booked it into evidence. Bishopp was charged with felony resisting arrest, conspiracy to commit theft, grand theft, and an Estes robbery. (People v. Estes (1983) 147 Cal.App.3d 23, 27- 28 (Estes); see also People v. Robins (2020) 44 Cal.App.5th 413, 415, 418 [use of force or fear to keep possession of the victim’s property is sometimes referred to as an “Estes robbery”].) Bishopp told his trial attorney he did not resist officers when arrested and he believed the cell phone video his wife took would support his claim. Bishopp’s trial attorney, however, failed to file a formal motion to obtain the cell phone video or conduct any investigation on what, if anything, happened to the cell phone after it was booked into evidence at the police department. Bishopp decided to accept the prosecutor’s plea agreement after his trial attorney told him the video was not part of the discovery and “nothing ever came of [the issue].” Bishopp pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft, grand theft, and felony resisting arrest in exchange for dismissal of the robbery count. Bishopp was placed on three years’ formal probation on condition he serve 364 days in jail. Bishopp’s new attorney filed a motion to withdraw Bishopp’s guilty plea based on his trial attorney’s constitutionally inadequate representation. Bishopp’s motion counsel asked the trial court to enforce his subpoena of the police department’s custodian of records so he could obtain the cell phone video or present evidence it had been destroyed. The court declined to enforce the subpoena and denied Bishopp’s motion.

2 Bishopp contends the trial court denied his right to a fair hearing when it refused to enforce the subpoena of the custodian of records. We agree and reverse the order denying Bishopp’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea. I FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY A. Bishopp’s Arrest and Prosecution In June 2016, Bishopp’s wife, Rosita Bishopp, and her mother, Nellie Saenz (Saenz)—both codefendants—collected fashion merchandise valued around $4,000 and then left a department store without paying. Two of the store’s loss prevention employees pursued Saenz when she left the store with the merchandise. Once outside, Saenz ran toward a parked car with false license plates, idling at a location not designated for parking. Bishopp sat in the driver’s seat and Saenz’s husband sat in the rear passenger seat. A struggle ensued when the employees caught up with Saenz outside the vehicle’s front passenger door as Saenz held onto the merchandise While the employees struggled to handcuff Saenz, Costa Mesa Police Department Officers Tripp and Gallardo, who had arrived on the scene earlier, contacted Bishopp and Saenz’s husband as they sat in their vehicle. According to Tripp’s preliminary examination testimony five months later, Bishopp obeyed an initial command to turn off the engine but refused to get out of the car and started yelling at the officers. Tripp claimed Bishopp disobeyed three or four commands to exit the vehicle before Gallardo opened the door to pull him out. According to Tripp, Bishopp resisted Tripp’s efforts to remove him from the car. Tripp spotted Rosita standing outside the car and it appeared as if she had videotaped Bishopp’s arrest with her cell phone. Tripp seized the phone and booked it into evidence without watching the video. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office filed a complaint charging Bishopp, Rosita, and Saenz with grand theft, Saenz with misdemeanor battery on a store employee, and Bishopp with misdemeanor resisting arrest. At the preliminary hearing,

3 Tripp testified about the events underlying the charges. Bishopp was held to answer and a week later the prosecutor charged Bishopp with a felony resisting count involving both Officers Tripp and Gallardo. Sixteen months later, in April 2018, the prosecutor added an Estes robbery count against Bishopp and Rosita. Bishopp faced the following felony charges: second degree robbery (Pen. Code, §§ 211, 212.5, subd. (c); count 1; all further undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code); conspiracy to commit theft (§ 182, subd. (a)(1); count 2); grand theft (§ 487, subd. (a); count 3); and resisting Officers Tripp and Gallardo (§ 69; count 4).) Before pleading guilty, Bishopp received pretrial discovery materials that included the department store’s video footage of the theft, but did not include Rosita’s cell phone video. At Bishopp’s motion to withdraw his plea, Bishopp’s trial attorney testified he verbally requested the phone video from the prosecutor, but the prosecutor verbally replied “there was no video” because “it didn’t exist anymore or there wasn’t anything on the phone anymore.” Counsel also believed Tripp had been “involved in an incident . . . involv[ing] a video that turned up [showing] the officers that conducted that incident . . . were lying,” but did not file a Pitchess motion for officer personnel records after the prosecutor told him that no Brady material for Tripp existed. Counsel also failed to file a formal motion requesting production of the video. Bishopp and his trial counsel reviewed the discovery materials provided, including police reports and the store’s surveillance videos. Counsel did not discuss with Bishopp the possibility of a Pitchess motion, but on multiple occasions Bishopp and trial counsel discussed the video on Rosita’s phone. According to Bishopp, trial counsel first advised “he would get [the video],” before reporting “he [had] tried,” and would “try again.” Bishopp later testified that when deciding whether to accept the plea bargain, counsel told him “nothing ever came of [the issue],” and advised that “everything we have is what [the prosecution] gave us.”

4 B. Bishopp’s Guilty Plea On the first day of trial, the prosecutor reached a plea agreement with both Bishopp and Rosita. Although Bishopp told his trial attorney he wanted to go to trial, he followed his counsel’s advice and pleaded guilty to counts 2, 3, and 4: conspiracy to commit theft, grand theft, and felony resisting arrest. Bishopp’s counsel read the guilty plea form with him, which Bishopp initialed and signed.

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People v. Bishopp CA4/3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-bishopp-ca43-calctapp-2021.