People v. English CA5

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 20, 2014
DocketF064895
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. English CA5 (People v. English CA5) 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. English CA5, (Cal. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Filed 3/20/14 P. v. English CA5

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE, F064895 Plaintiff and Respondent, (Kern Super. Ct. No. BF135310A) v.

AQUEELAH ENGLISH, OPINION Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Kern County. Colette M. Humphrey, Judge. Laurie Wilmore, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Catherine Chatman and John W. Powell, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. -ooOoo- INTRODUCTION Appellant/defendant Aqueelah English turned herself in at the courthouse in Mojave, Kern County, because she had two no-bail misdemeanor warrants for driving under the influence. The deputies took her into custody and conducted an inventory of her personal property. She had $287 in cash. The cash was placed in a money envelope in her property bag. The deputies maintained custody of the property bag and defendant did not have access to it. A few hours later, the deputies transported her to the Central Receiving Facility (CRF) jail in Bakersfield, and her property bag was given to the receiving deputies. A receiving deputy signed for defendant and her property after she arrived. When the booking deputy later examined defendant’s property bag and opened the money envelope, there was only $187 in cash. The senior deputy immediately decided to conduct a “visual body cavity search” of defendant to look for the missing cash – even though defendant never had access to the property bag, and the receiving deputy disavowed having actually received defendant or examined her property bag. The senior deputy told defendant they were going to conduct the strip search, asked if she would “cooperate,” and defendant said yes. Defendant removed all her clothes, and two female deputies examined her body without touching her. They saw a plastic bag concealed between her buttocks which contained marijuana, and also recovered an amount of methamphetamine concealed on her body. The missing cash was never found. Defendant was charged with count I, unauthorized possession of methamphetamine in jail (Pen. Code,1 § 4573.6), and count II, unauthorized possession of marijuana in jail. Defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence and argued the visual body cavity search was unreasonable given the nature of her misdemeanor offenses and the lack of any evidence that she could have taken her own money after it had been counted and placed in the property bag. Defendant also filed a motion pursuant to Pitchess v. Superior Court (1974) 11 Cal.3d 531 (Pitchess), for disclosure of the confidential personnel records of two deputies at the Bakersfield jail: Deputy Warmerdam, who

1 All further statutory citations are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated.

2. signed as the receiving deputy but later claimed he never received or checked her property; and Deputy Deval, who participated in the search. Defendant requested discovery of any records recording dishonesty. The superior court found defendant’s Pitchess motion established good cause to review the confidential records for Deputy Warmerdam but not for Deputy Deval. The court conducted an in camera hearing, reviewed Warmerdam’s files, and advised defendant there was no discoverable information. The court then conducted an evidentiary hearing on the validity of the search, found defendant consented to the search when she agreed to “cooperate,” and denied the suppression motion. Thereafter, defendant pleaded no contest to count II, unauthorized possession of marijuana in jail, and she was placed on probation. On appeal, defendant raises several issues, primarily that the court should have granted her suppression motion because the visual body cavity search was unreasonable under the circumstances, and her agreement to “cooperate” did not constitute consent. Defendant also asks this court to review Deputy Warmerdam’s confidential personnel records which were before the superior court during the in camera Pitchess hearing, and determine whether the court abused its discretion and any records should have been disclosed. We find the deputies did not have reasonable suspicion to conduct the visual body cavity search, defendant did not voluntarily consent to the search, the suppression motion should have been granted, and the judgment must be reversed. We also address the procedural aspects of the Pitchess review because of our concerns about that issue in reference to any future proceedings.

3. FACTS2 At 7:00 p.m. on January 18, 2011, Deputy Aaron Warmerdam of the Kern County Sheriff’s Department was on duty at the CRF in Bakersfield. Warmerdam testified he was responsible for booking inmates into the jail. Warmerdam testified defendant arrived at the jail that evening. She was already an inmate in custody. She had been booked in Mojave by another deputy, and she was transported to Kern County. She was still wearing her own clothes. Warmerdam testified that when defendant was taken into custody in Mojave, a deputy counted the money she had on her person and wrote the amount on a form. The money was transported to Kern County in a property bag. When defendant arrived at the Kern County jail, the data entry officer recounted the money in defendant’s presence and determined the amount of cash was $100 less than the amount in the report. The data entry officer advised Warmerdam about the discrepancy.3 At the preliminary hearing, Warmerdam was asked who recounted the money in Bakersfield. Warmerdam replied: “It was someone from the squad before me, so I do not know. [Defendant] said it was a pretty white deputy. That’s how she explained it.” Deputy Warmerdam testified Senior Deputy Burnett and Detention Deputy Deval (female deputies) conducted a “strip search” of defendant to determine if she hid the money on her body.4 Warmerdam conceded the money had never been given back to

2 There are several different versions of what happened in this case. The following facts are from the preliminary hearing transcript. There was additional evidence about defendant’s custodial status contained in her Pitchess motion, and introduced during the evidentiary hearing for her suppression motion. We will address these facts below. 3As we will explain below, Deputy Warmerdam testified at the suppression hearing about a different sequence of events when defendant arrived at the Bakersfield jail. 4 The parties alternatively describe the search in this case as both a “visual body cavity search” and a “strip search.” As we will discuss in issue I, post, section 4030

4. defendant after she was taken into custody, and the cash had been placed in the property bag in Mojave. Deputy Warmerdam testified Deputies Burnett and Deval found a white piece of plastic between defendant’s buttocks which contained marijuana. They also found a package concealed in her body which contained 0.81 grams of methamphetamine. On cross-examination, defense counsel asked Deputy Warmerdam if his report about the incident required any corrections.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Edgerly v. City and County of San Francisco
599 F.3d 946 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
Bumper v. North Carolina
391 U.S. 543 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Bell v. Wolfish
441 U.S. 520 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Florida v. Royer
460 U.S. 491 (Supreme Court, 1983)
Florida v. Jimeno
500 U.S. 248 (Supreme Court, 1991)
Florida v. Bostick
501 U.S. 429 (Supreme Court, 1991)
United States v. Drayton
536 U.S. 194 (Supreme Court, 2002)
Harry M. Honeycutt v. Aetna Insurance Company
510 F.2d 340 (Seventh Circuit, 1975)
United States v. Oswald G. Blake, Leonard Eason
888 F.2d 795 (Eleventh Circuit, 1989)
United States v. Augustin Gonzalez
71 F.3d 819 (Eleventh Circuit, 1996)
People v. Jenkins
997 P.2d 1044 (California Supreme Court, 2000)
Pitchess v. Superior Court
522 P.2d 305 (California Supreme Court, 1974)
Bull v. City and County of San Francisco
595 F.3d 964 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
People v. James
561 P.2d 1135 (California Supreme Court, 1977)
People v. Watson
299 P.2d 243 (California Supreme Court, 1956)
People v. Gaines
205 P.3d 1074 (California Supreme Court, 2009)
People v. Wade
208 Cal. App. 3d 304 (California Court of Appeal, 1989)
Haggerty v. Superior Court
12 Cal. Rptr. 3d 467 (California Court of Appeal, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
People v. English CA5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-english-ca5-calctapp-2014.