People v. Rodriguez

251 Cal. Rptr. 3d 538, 38 Cal. App. 5th 971
California Court of Appeal, 5th District·Decided August 16, 2019·No. E069339·Published·Cited by 24 cases

Opinion

MILLER, J.

*974FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On March 3, 2005, defendant and appellant Jorge A. Millan Rodriguez pled guilty to unlawful intercourse by a person over 21 under Penal Code 1 section 261.5, subdivision (d). Defendant, as a person over 21, admitted to having sex with a person under the age of 16. The trial court sentenced defendant to formal probation for 36 months.

*541*975On June 7, 2005, defendant was taken into custody by the Immigration and Naturalization Service pending resolution by an immigration judge whether defendant would be removed from the United States. That same year, defendant was ordered removed.

On November 6, 2007, defendant admitted to violating his probation. The trial court added 60 days to defendant's sentence, to be served on a work release program to commence on December 14, 2007, and reinstated defendant's probation. On September 10, 2008, defendant admitted a violation of a term of his probation requiring defendant to report to probation. The court then reinstated probation.

"On December 16, 2016, defendant filed a petition for dismissal under ... section 1203.4, and a petition for a reduction of his felony conviction to a misdemeanor under ... section 17, subdivision (b). As mitigation, defendant provided in his petition that he married the victim and had two children with her. Moreover, defendant noted that both violations of probation occurred because he was in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and was deported so he was unable to meet his probation officer or check in for his weekend custody obligation." ( People v. Rodriguez , case No. E067686, p. 2, 2017 WL 2570896).) The trial court denied both of defendant's motions. ( Ibid. )

On January 30, 2017, defendant filed an appeal. On June 14, 2017, we affirmed the trial court's order denying defendant's motions, "but without prejudice to defendant's right to file a motion for relief under newly-enacted ... section 1473.7; effective January 1, 2017." ( People v. Rodriguez , supra , case No. E067686 at p. 7.)

On January 1, 2017, section 1473.7 went into effect. Among other things, section 1473.7 permits a defendant to challenge a conviction based on a guilty plea where prejudicial error affected the defendant's ability to understand the immigration consequences of the plea.

On July 10, 2017, following the filing of our opinion in defendant's first appeal, defendant, in pro. per., filed a motion to vacate his conviction under section 1473.7. On August 10, 2017, the trial court denied defendant's motion without defendant or defense counsel present.

On October 4, 2017, defendant filed a timely notice of appeal. The next day, the trial court granted defendant's request for a certificate of probable cause. On February 23, 2018, defendant filed a request for judicial notice of the record in case No. E067686. On March 20, 2018, we granted defendant's request for judicial notice. On February 13, 2019, the *976People filed a request for leave to file a supplemental respondent's brief and a request for judicial notice. On February 21, 2019, we granted the People's motions to file a supplemental brief and for judicial notice of the documents attached to the motion, and directed the clerk to file the People's supplemental respondent's brief. We also ordered that defendant may serve and file a supplemental reply brief. On March 12, 2019, defendant filed his supplemental reply brief. On May 29, 2018, the People filed another motion for judicial notice of "Senate Committee on Appropriations, Bill Analysis of Assembly Bill 813 (2015-2016 Reg. Sess.) as of June 29, 2016," which the People attached to its request. On June 13, 2018, we reserved ruling on the request, to be considered with the appeal. We hereby grant the People's request for judicial notice.

DISCUSSION

A. THE TRIAL COURT ABUSED ITS DISCRETION IN DENYING DEFENDANT'S SECTION 1473.MOTION

Defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to vacate his *542conviction under section 1473.7. The People contend that the court's ruling should be affirmed because defendant "failed to allege a prima facie case of timeliness."2 For the reasons set forth post , we find that the trial court abused its discretion in denying defendant's motion.

1. LEGAL BACKGROUND

Section 1473.7 permits a defendant to move to vacate his conviction where prejudicial error affected his ability to understand the immigration consequences of his guilty plea. As pertinent here, to prevail on this motion, the defendant must establish the following: (1) the defendant is no longer imprisoned or restrained; and (2) the conviction is legally invalid due to a prejudicial error damaging the defendant's ability to meaningfully understand, defend against, or knowingly accept the actual or potential adverse immigration consequences of a guilty plea. (§ 1473.7, subd. (a).) Moreover, the motion must be filed with "reasonable diligence" after either (1) the date the defendant receives a notice to appear in immigration court or other notice from immigration authorities that asserts the conviction or sentence as a basis *977for removal; or (2) the date the removal order against the defendant, based on the existence of the conviction or sentence, becomes final, whichever event occurs last. (§ 1473.7, subd. (b).)

2. STANDARD OF REVIEW

The People contend that we should review the court's order for an abuse of discretion, citing decisions involving section 1018 (See, e.g., Ponte v. County of Calaveras (2017) 14 Cal.App.5th 551, 555, 222 Cal.Rptr.3d 498 ; People v. Foss (2007) 155 Cal.App.4th 113, 126, 65 Cal.Rptr.3d 790 ; Paterno v. State of California (1999) 74 Cal.App.4th 68, 102, 87 Cal.Rptr.2d 754 ). Section 1018, however, does not implicate the defendant's constitutional rights.

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People v. Rodriguez, 251 Cal. Rptr. 3d 538, 38 Cal. App. 5th 971 (Cal. Ct. App. 2019).

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