People v. Pettersen

268 Cal. App. 2d 263, 73 Cal. Rptr. 693, 1968 Cal. App. LEXIS 1302
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 16, 1968
DocketCrim. 3368
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 268 Cal. App. 2d 263 (People v. Pettersen) 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. Pettersen, 268 Cal. App. 2d 263, 73 Cal. Rptr. 693, 1968 Cal. App. LEXIS 1302 (Cal. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

FOGG, J. pro tem. *

Defendant was charged by information with a violation of Penal Code, section 4600, in count I (wilful and intentional destruction of property of California Rehabilitation Center) and in count II with a violation of Penal Code, section 404.6 (urging riot). After denial of his motion to set aside the information, defendant pleaded not guilty as to both counts. Defendant waived a jury trial, and the Superior Court of Riverside County found him guilty as to count I and dismissed count II.

The trial court denied defendant’s motion for a new trial and motion in arrest of judgment. Probation was denied and the defendant sentenced to state prison for the term prescribed by law. Defendant appeals from the judgment of conviction.

Edward L. Wiggs was employed as a correctional officer at the California Rehabilitation Center (Center) at Norco, California, on January 1 and 2, 1968. His duty position on the night in question was located at the pedestrian gate leading to the women’s unit.

Officer Wiggs first observed appellant at 11:15 or 11:20 p.m. on January 1, 1968, as appellant was coming around from the *265 side of the landscape building located within the confines of the Center. Appellant, at that time, was about 450 feet from the officer and was using a shovel to break windows in the building. At this time Officer Wiggs also noticed that there were other inmates in the vicinity and breaking windows. Officer Wiggs had observed the above destruction through binoculars.

The entire area is well lighted with outside lights on the eaves of the building which lighted the entire area where appellant was first seen by Officer Wiggs.

Officer Wiggs next saw appellant about 10 or 15 minutes later standing about 3 feet in front of him at the gate house. Appellant had just broken a window in the gate house with the same shovel. At the time of this second incident there were approximately 12 people with appellant. Prior to this entire incident Officer Wiggs had never seen appellant.

Approximately 16 days after the above riot, Officer Wiggs was shown about a dozen photographs by his supervisor for the purpose of identifying the participants in the riot. Two or three of the pictures were of Caucasians; the remaining photographs were of Mexican-Americans and Negroes. Officer Wiggs identified appellant from a photograph as the person he had seen breaking the windows.

Officer Wiggs stated that he would have been able to identify appellant without the aid of the photograph.

Defendant makes the following contentions on appeal:

I— The trial court erred in denying his motion under Penal Code, section 995, and also his motion in arrest of judgment.
II— The trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion for a new trial.

I

Section 4600 of the Penal Code provides: “Every person who wilfully and-intentionally breaks down, pulls down, or otherwise destroys or injures any jail or prison, is punishable by fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), and by imprisonment in the state prison not exceeding five years,

Defendant contends that his motions under Penal Code, section 995, and in arrest of judgment should have been granted since the information charged him with destroying property of the Center which was a hospital and not the “jail or prison” mentioned in section 4600. He cites In re De La O. 59 Cal.2d 128 [28 Cal.Rptr. 489, 378 P.2d 793, 98 A.L.R.2d 705], as authority for his assertion that the Center at Norco is *266 a hospital and not a prison. However, a careful reading of this case reveals that the Supreme Court is dealing with the type of commitment under Penal Code, sections 6450 and 6451, providing for the confinement of narcotics addicts in the Center. This decision in no way attempts to define the Center as a hospital ’ ’; instead it holds that a commitment under Penal Code, section 6450 and related sections, does not impose criminal penalties for an illness-narcotics addiction—and, therefore, does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment within the meaning of Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660 [8 L.Ed.2d 758, 82 S.Ct. 1417]. In other words, In re DeLaO, supra, holds that a narcotics commitment to the Center is civil, not penal, in nature.

Section 4600 is found in part III of the Penal Code. Section 3305 of the Welfare and Institutions Code provides as follows: “The supervision, management and control of the California Rehabilitation Center and the responsibility for the care, custody, training, discipline, employment and treatment of the persons confined therein are vested in the Director of Corrections. The provisions of Part 3 of the Penal Code apply to said institution as a prison under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and to the persons confined therein insofar as such provisions may be applicable. ’’ (Italics added.)

We believe that the Attorney General is correct in maintaining that in dealing with this question whether Center is a hospital or prison, a distinction must be made between the status of the inmate and the physical structure itself. We must, therefore, consider the question whether Center is a prison insofar as this defendant is concerned. The plaintiff contends that a person committed under a civil commitment for hospital-type treatment may not be serving a sentence but still be confined to a prison. We believe this is an obvious conclusion to be drawn not only from the physical characteristics of the Center, but also because the legislative intent to consider the Center as a prison is clear.

In creating the Deuel Vocational Institution (formerly California Vocational Institution) in 1945 the Legislature provided in section 2041 of the Penal Code as follows: ‘ The provisions of Part 3 of this code [fn. omitted] apply to the Deuel Vocational Institution and to the persons confined therein so far as such provisions may be applicable. ...”

In criticizing the ‘ ‘ ambiguous characterization ’ of this institution in section 2041, the appellate court in People v. Romo, 256 Cal.App.2d 589 [64 Cal.Rptr. 151], held that Penal *267 Code, section 4501 (assault with deadly weapon by state prison inmate) and Penal Code, section 4502 (possession of a weapon by such a person) did not apply to Youth Authority wards in Deuel. The court stated at page 592 that ‘ ‘ [H] aving abstained from calling the institution a prison, the Legislature adopted various special provisions characterizing it in relationship to allied statutes.” But in the act creating the Center in 1965 we find that the Legislature added the words, “as a prison,” in a provision similar to Penal Code, section 2041, supra. (See Welf. & Inst. Code, § 3305, supra.)

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
268 Cal. App. 2d 263, 73 Cal. Rptr. 693, 1968 Cal. App. LEXIS 1302, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-pettersen-calctapp-1968.