People v. Forney

3 Cal. App. 5th 1091, 208 Cal. Rptr. 3d 289, 2016 Cal. App. LEXIS 842
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 4, 2016
DocketA144450
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 3 Cal. App. 5th 1091 (People v. Forney) 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. Forney, 3 Cal. App. 5th 1091, 208 Cal. Rptr. 3d 289, 2016 Cal. App. LEXIS 842 (Cal. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

Opinion

BANKE, J.—

I.

Introduction

Defendant Michael David Forney appeals from a judgment entered pursuant to a no contest plea to unlawful oral copulation (Pen. Code, § 288a, subd. (b)(2)) 1 and unlawful sexual intercourse (§ 261.5, subd. (d)). In accordance with the terms of a negotiated disposition, the trial court suspended imposition of sentence and placed defendant on three years’ formal probation. Defendant challenges three conditions of his probation: (1) that he waive his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and submit to polygraph examinations as part of a sex offender management program; (2) that he not contact any minor without prior approval of his probation officer; and (3) that he not reside near or be any place where minors congregate.

The validity of the sex offender management program Fifth Amendment waiver and polygraph requirement—a probation condition statutorily required under section 1203.067, subdivision (b)(3)—is currently on review by our Supreme Court. (People v. Rebulloza, review granted June 10, 2015, S225503; People v. Klatt, review granted July 16, 2014, S218755; People v. Friday, review granted July 16, 2014, S218288; People v. Garcia, review granted July 16, 2014, S218197.)

Binding United States Supreme Court precedent holds that a probationer cannot be compelled to relinquish his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and in our view, this authority also makes clear the choice between agreeing to the mandatory Fifth Amendment waiver as a condition *1096 of probation or facing immediate incarceration is an impermissibly coercive one. (Minnesota v. Murphy (1984) 465 U.S. 420, 435-437 & fn. 7 [79 L.Ed.2d 409, 104 S.Ct. 1136] (Murphy); see also McKune v. Lile (2002) 536 U.S. 24, 35 [153 L.Ed.2d 47, 122 S.Ct. 2017] (McKune) [holding consequences of prison inmate’s refusal to waive 5th Amend, and participate in sexual abuse treatment program did not rise to impermissible “compulsion” to incriminate himself; however, if consequences did “combine to create a compulsion that encumber[ed] the constitutional right,” the state could not “continue the program in its present form”].) We therefore order the Fifth Amendment waiver struck from the first of the challenged probation conditions. However, under this same high court authority, as well as California precedent, the polygraph requirement, shorn of the compelled Fifth Amendment waiver, is valid.

As for the no contact with minors, residency, and location probation conditions, the Attorney General largely agrees they should be modified. We also agree and order appropriate modifications of these conditions.

II.

Discussion 2

The Fifth Amendment Weaver caul Polygraph Testing Requirement

1. The Fifth Amendment Weaver Is Unconstitutionally Coercive

As required by section 1203.067, subdivision (b)(3), defendant was ordered, as a condition of probation, to “[w]aive[] . . . any privilege against self-incrimination and participat[e] in polygraph examinations, which shall be part of the sex offender management program.” He contends this condition violates his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and is over-broad in any event. In our view, the United States Supreme Court’s decisions in Murphy, supra, 465 U.S. 420 and McKune, supra, 536 U.S. 24 are controlling on the Fifth Amendment issue and compel the conclusion that the statutorily required waiver cannot stand.

In Murphy, the defendant was subject to a probation condition that he participate in a sex offender treatment program, report to his probation officer as directed, and be truthful with the probation officer “ ‘in all matters.’ ” (Murphy, supra, 465 U.S. at p. 422.) In his treatment program, the defendant admitted a prior rape and murder. (Id. at p. 423.) These admissions were *1097 communicated to his probation officer, who then asked the defendant to meet with her; she told him she intended to convey any incriminating information he provided to the police. (Id. at p. 424.) The defendant admitted the crimes to the probation officer, which resulted in the filing of new criminal charges. In the new case, he sought to suppress the admissions. (Id. at pp. 424-425.)

The specific issue before the Supreme Court was whether the defendant’s failure to actually invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination could be excused on the ground that his admissions to the probation officer had been “compelled.” (Murphy, supra, 465 U.S. at p. 434.) Generally, the Fifth Amendment is not “self-executing” and must be invoked in order to obtain its protection. (Murphy, at p. 431.) There are, however, several exceptions, one of which is when the consequences of invoking the right are so severe the individual is effectively compelled to incriminate himself. (Id. at pp. 434-435.) This exception, developed in a line of cases referred to as the “ ‘penalty’ cases,” applies where “the State not only [has] compelled an individual to appear and testify, but also [has] sought to induce him to forgo the Fifth Amendment privilege by threatening to impose economic or other sanctions ‘capable of forcing the self-incrimination which the Amendment forbids.’ [Citation.]” (Id. at p. 434.)

The high court explained “[t]he threat of punishment for reliance on the privilege distinguishes cases of this sort from the ordinary case in which a witness is merely required to appear and give testimony. A State may require a probationer to appear and discuss matters that affect his probationary status; such a requirement, without more, does not give rise to a self-executing privilege. The result may be different if the questions put to the probationer, however relevant to his probationary status, call for answers that would incriminate him in a pending or later criminal prosecution. There is thus a substantial basis in our cases for concluding that if the State, either expressly or by implication, asserts that invocation of the privilege would lead to revocation of probation, it would have created the classic penalty situation, the failure to assert the privilege would be excused, and the probationer’s answers would be deemed compelled and inadmissible in a criminal prosecution.” (Murphy, supra, 465 U.S. at p. 435.)

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
3 Cal. App. 5th 1091, 208 Cal. Rptr. 3d 289, 2016 Cal. App. LEXIS 842, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-forney-calctapp-2016.