People v. Bloomfield

221 Cal. Rptr. 3d 128, 13 Cal. App. 5th 647, 2017 Cal. App. LEXIS 631
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal, 5th District
DecidedJuly 20, 2017
DocketA148919
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 221 Cal. Rptr. 3d 128 (People v. Bloomfield) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal, 5th District primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Bloomfield, 221 Cal. Rptr. 3d 128, 13 Cal. App. 5th 647, 2017 Cal. App. LEXIS 631 (Cal. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

Margulies, Acting P.J.

*650Defendant Violet Felecity Bloomfield appeals from an order denying her petition for relief under Proposition 47. Defendant contends the trial court erred in refusing to reduce her convictions for two counts of access card forgery from felonies to misdemeanors. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

A complaint filed on February 7, 2014, charged defendant with nine offenses, including, among others, felony counts of access card forgery ( Pen. Code, 1 § 484f, subd. (a) ; counts 1, 5, 9) and one misdemeanor count of petty theft (§ 484, subd. (a); count 2).

The following facts regarding the access card forgery offenses at issue in this appeal (counts 1 & 5) are taken from the probation report. In January 2014, a taxi driver reported to police he had picked defendant up and driven her to several locations in Marin County. Defendant attempted to pay the $73.53 cab fare with a prepaid debit card, but the charge did not go through. When police searched defendant, they located a Green Dot prepaid Visa card with defendant's name and another individual's name embossed on it.

A week later, defendant attempted to purchase dinner at a fast food restaurant. A store employee contacted police because he remembered defendant from an earlier incident when she attempted to purchase food using a stolen credit card. When the police searched defendant's car, they located several credit cards with numbers removed or altered. Several cards had defendant's name on them.

*651Defendant pled guilty to two felony counts of access card forgery (counts 1 & 5), the misdemeanor petty theft, and a second degree burglary charge in exchange for dismissal of the remaining counts and other cases. In December 2015, defendant filed a resentencing petition, seeking to reduce her two felony convictions for access card forgery to misdemeanors pursuant to section 1170.18, subdivision (a).2 The trial court denied the *131petition as to the access card forgery charges, but granted it as to the petty theft conviction. Defendant timely appealed.

II. DISCUSSION

Defendant contends the trial court erred in denying her petition to resentence her access card forgery offenses as misdemeanors under Proposition 47. She also argues exempting access card forgery from Proposition 47 relief violates her rights under the equal protection clauses of the United States and California Constitutions.

A. Eligibility for Misdemeanor Sentence

We first address defendant's argument the trial court erred by denying her resentencing petition because her access card forgery offenses should have been reduced to misdemeanors under section 473, subdivision (b).

In November 2014, the California electorate passed Proposition 47, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. ( People v. Rivera (2015) 233 Cal.App.4th 1085, 1089, 183 Cal.Rptr.3d 362.) "Proposition 47 was intended to ensure prison spending is focused on violent and serious offenders, to maximize alternatives for nonserious, nonviolent crimes, and to invest the savings generated thereby into educational, social, and mental health causes. [Citation.] To this end, Proposition 47 reduced most possessory drug offenses and thefts of property valued at $950 or less to straight misdemeanors." ( People v. Brown (2017) 7 Cal.App.5th 1214, 1217, 213 Cal.Rptr.3d 371.) The initiative also allowed defendants currently serving felony sentences for such offenses to petition the court for resentencing. (§ 1170.18.)

Prior to Proposition 47, all forgery offenses were "wobblers," meaning they could be charged and punished either as a felony or a misdemeanor. (§§ 17, subd. (b)(1), 473, subd. (a) ["Forgery is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170."].) Proposition 47 amended section 473 to *652add a new subdivision (b) (section 473(b)), which states, in relevant part: "Notwithstanding subdivision (a), any person who is guilty of forgery relating to a check, bond, bank bill, note, cashier's check, traveler's check, or money order, where the value of the check, bond, bank bill, note, cashier's check, traveler's check, or money order does not exceed nine hundred fifty dollars ($950), shall be punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year.... This subdivision shall not be applicable to any person who is convicted both of forgery and of identity theft, as defined in Section 530.5."

Defendant was convicted of access card forgery under section 484f, subdivision (a) ( section 484f(a) ).3 She argues section 473(b) must be construed to apply not just to forgery by means of the seven instruments explicitly listed in the statute, but to all forgery offenses (including hers) where the value of the instrument is less than $950. Defendant asserts such an interpretation is consistent both with established principles of statutory construction and with the intent of the voters to reduce penalties for nonserious, nonviolent crimes. We disagree.

When interpreting a voter initiative, as with a statute, we look first at the *132plain language of the enactment, giving the words their ordinary meaning. ( People v. Rizo (2000) 22 Cal.4th 681, 685, 94 Cal.Rptr.2d 375, 996 P.2d 27.) " 'If the language is unambiguous, there is no need for further construction. If, however, the language is susceptible of more than one reasonable meaning, we may consider the ballot summaries and arguments to determine how the voters understood the ballot measure and what they intended in enacting it.' " ( People v. Gonzales (2017) 2 Cal.5th 858, 868, 216 Cal.Rptr.3d 285, 392 P.3d 437 ( Gonzales ).)

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
221 Cal. Rptr. 3d 128, 13 Cal. App. 5th 647, 2017 Cal. App. LEXIS 631, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-bloomfield-calctapp5d-2017.