People v. Ricardo P. (In Re Ricardo P.)

446 P.3d 747, 251 Cal. Rptr. 3d 104, 7 Cal. 5th 1113
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 15, 2019
DocketS230923
StatusPublished
Cited by189 cases

This text of 446 P.3d 747 (People v. Ricardo P. (In Re Ricardo P.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Ricardo P. (In Re Ricardo P.), 446 P.3d 747, 251 Cal. Rptr. 3d 104, 7 Cal. 5th 1113 (Cal. 2019).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court by Liu, J.

**749 *107 *1115 In People v. Lent (1975) 15 Cal.3d 481 , 124 Cal.Rptr. 905 , 541 P.2d 545 ( Lent ), we held that "a condition of probation which requires or forbids conduct which is not itself criminal is valid if that conduct is reasonably related to the crime of which the defendant was convicted or to future criminality." ( Id. at p. 486, 124 Cal.Rptr. 905 , 541 P.2d 545 .) In this case, juvenile defendant Ricardo P. was placed on probation after admitting two counts of felony burglary. As a condition of his probation, the juvenile court required Ricardo to submit to warrantless searches of his electronic devices, including any electronic accounts that could be accessed through these devices. Although there was no indication Ricardo used an electronic device in connection with the burglaries, the court imposed the condition in order to monitor his compliance with separate conditions prohibiting him from using or possessing illegal drugs.

*1116 Ricardo challenged the electronics search condition as invalid under Lent and unconstitutionally overbroad. Although the Court of Appeal agreed that the condition was unconstitutionally overbroad and should be narrowed for that reason, it held the condition was permissible under Lent because it "is reasonably related to enhancing the effective supervision of a probationer" and thus serves to prevent future criminality. In so holding, the court recognized that its decision conflicted with other decisions holding identical search conditions under similar circumstances invalid under Lent .

We granted review to decide whether an electronics search condition like the one at issue here is " 'reasonably related to future criminality.' " ( Lent , supra , 15 Cal.3d at p. 486, 124 Cal.Rptr. 905 , 541 P.2d 545 .) We hold that the record here, which contains no indication that Ricardo had used or will use electronic devices in connection with drugs or any illegal activity, is insufficient to justify the substantial burdens imposed by this electronics search condition. The probation condition is not reasonably related to future criminality and is therefore invalid under Lent .

I.

In September 2014, the Santa Clara County District Attorney filed a petition under Welfare and Institutions Code section 602 seeking to declare Ricardo a ward of the court. The petition alleged that Ricardo, along with his two adult cousins, committed two felony burglaries in San Jose earlier that year. According to the petition, Ricardo and his cousins were seen entering a house; when a resident entered through the front door, they fled through the back door without taking anything. A few hours later, they entered a different house in San Jose, broke a glass door, and stole costume jewelry worth about $200.

Ricardo admitted the allegations in the petition, and the case was transferred to the Alameda County juvenile court. In December 2014, Ricardo was declared a ward of the court and placed on probation. The juvenile court imposed various probation conditions, including drug testing, prohibitions on using illegal drugs and alcohol, and prohibitions on associating with people *108 whom Ricardo knew to use or possess illegal drugs. Ricardo objected to the drug-related conditions, noting that "there's no indication there were any drugs associated with this crime." Dismissing the objection, the court cited the probation report, which stated that Ricardo had told a probation officer that "he wasn't thinking" when he committed the offense and that "he stopped smoking marijuana after his arrest because he felt that [it] did not allow him to think clearly."

One of the probation conditions requires Ricardo to "[s]ubmit ... electronics including passwords under [his] control to search by Probation *1117 Officer or peace office[r] with or without a search warrant at any time of day or night." Ricardo challenged this condition, arguing that it "is not reasonably related to the crime or preventing future crime." The court said: "I think the law is very clear that [such a condition] is appropriate ... particularly [for] minors or people that are [Ricardo's] age. I find that minors typically will brag about their marijuana usage or drug usage, particularly their marijuana usage, by posting on the Internet, showing pictures of **750 themselves with paraphernalia, or smoking marijuana. It's a very important part of being able to monitor drug usage and particularly marijuana usage." Based on Ricardo's statements that "he wasn't thinking" when he committed the offense and that smoking marijuana "did not allow him to think clearly," the court found that Ricardo "himself has made reference to the fact that marijuana was involved in the commission of this offense."

Ricardo appealed from the juvenile court's order imposing probation, arguing among other things that the electronics search condition is unreasonable under Lent and unconstitutionally overbroad. The Court of Appeal rejected Ricardo's argument that the condition runs afoul of Lent . The court "agree[d] with Ricardo that there is nothing in the record permitting an inference that electronics played a role in his crimes." But the court reasoned that the electronics search condition "is reasonably related to enabling the effective supervision of Ricardo's compliance with his other probation conditions," namely, the various drug-related conditions. While the court apparently "share[d] some of Ricardo's skepticism about the prevalence of minors' boasting on the Internet about marijuana use," it declined to reject the juvenile court's findings as "speculative." The court acknowledged that its decision conflicted with a recent decision by a different division of the same Court of Appeal,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
446 P.3d 747, 251 Cal. Rptr. 3d 104, 7 Cal. 5th 1113, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-ricardo-p-in-re-ricardo-p-cal-2019.