People v. Workman

209 Cal. App. 3d 687, 257 Cal. Rptr. 753, 1989 Cal. App. LEXIS 330
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 11, 1989
DocketF008490
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 209 Cal. App. 3d 687 (People v. Workman) 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. Workman, 209 Cal. App. 3d 687, 257 Cal. Rptr. 753, 1989 Cal. App. LEXIS 330 (Cal. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinions

Opinion

FRANSON, P. J.

The important question presented by this appeal is whether, when the magistrate suppresses evidence at the preliminary hearing, the prosecutor can dismiss the complaint and relitigate the issues after filing a second complaint rather than seeking review of the unfavorable ruling. The issue involves reconciling subdivisions (d) and (j) of Penal Code section 1538.5.1 We conclude subdivision (j) applies under the facts of this case, and the second filing and issue relitigation were proper. We further hold the trial court erred in finding that appellants had standing to challenge the search of codefendant Stuart’s business, and we reject appellants’ contentions of sentencing error. We affirm the judgments.

Statement of the Case

Appellants Michael Wayne Matlock, Harry Ralph Workman and Charles M. Petrillose, together with three other defendants, John Stuart, Kenneth Ward and Jerry Hardiman, were charged with numerous thefts arising from an oil stealing scheme. The prosecutor filed a 25-count complaint and commenced a preliminary examination in April 1985. After nine weeks of testimony, the magistrate granted motions to suppress by Petrillose and Stuart. Upon motion by the prosecutor, the case was dismissed without prejudice as to all defendants.

[691]*691The district attorney filed a second complaint alleging 70 counts based on the same transactions as the counts in the original complaint. Appellants challenged the propriety of the second filing and, pursuant to section 1538.5, subdivision (d), urged the magistrate at the second preliminary hearing to give collateral estoppel effect to the first magistrate’s orders granting the motions to suppress. The second magistrate rejected the arguments and denied renewed motions to suppress. At the conclusion of the second preliminary hearing, appellants were held to answer.

The district attorney filed an 80-count information in superior court. Appellants brought a section 995 motion challenging the People’s refiling and the second magistrate’s failure to give collateral estoppel effect to the first magistrate’s orders on the suppression motions. The court allowed all defendants to join the motions. The motions were denied.

Eventually, appellants reached a plea agreement with the district attorney. Matlock and Petrillose pleaded no contest to four counts of grand theft (§ 487) and admitted the allegations pursuant to section 12022.6, subdivision (b) and section 1203.045, subdivision (a) (loss exceeding $100,000). Workman pleaded no contest to three counts of grand theft and admitted the special allegation of section 12022.6, subdivision (a) (loss exceeding $25,000). All defendants understood their pleas were “unconditional,” and the court, in sentencing them, could consider all counts alleged in the information other than those alleged in the alternative. The men were sentenced to state prison for terms ranging from three years and eight months to six years.

Statement of Facts

The following facts are pertinent to resolution of the procedural and sentencing issues. The evidence at the second preliminary hearing showed that in 1984, Southern California Gas Company received information regarding alleged oil thefts from their Honor Rancho facility at Valencia, California. At the time, Matlock was the facility supervisor. Workman was one of four shift supervisors overseeing crews manning the facility twenty-four hours a day. Petrillose was a Mobil Oil Company representative selling lubricating products to Honor Rancho for its machinery and vehicles. Stuart was a Mobil Oil distributor doing business as Stuart’s Petroleum in Bakersfield, California. Ward owned a road construction business, and Hardiman worked for Ward driving his trucks and other machinery.

For a two-year period between 1982 and 1984 on over one hundred fifty occasions, Matlock arranged with Ward to drive a truck to the facility, fill it with oil from an Honor Rancho storage tank and take the oil to Bakersfield. [692]*692Workman assisted in the loading of the oil, Ward and Hardiman drove the oil tanker from Honor Rancho to Bakersfield, and Stuart sold the oil. Petrillose arranged for Stuart to sell the product, acted as trouble shooter and facilitated payment for each person in the operation. Workman told Mr. Percival, the security guard at the Honor Rancho gate, that the tanker was cleaning “the muck out of the bottom of the tanks.”

To document their transactions, Petrillose generated bills of lading or invoices which indicated that the oil came from “Canyon Refining and Brokerage” rather than Southern California Gas Company. Workman supplied the invoices to Ward or Hardiman when they took a load of oil from the Honor Rancho facility. The truck drivers delivered one copy of the invoice to Stuart. Stuart indicated on the invoice that the oil was received by “Reliance.” He knew “Reliance” was a fictitious name.

John Brady, vice-president of transmissions and storage for Southern California Gas, testified that the oil stored at the Honor Rancho facility was shipped via metered pipelines to refineries for the account of Texaco. No supervisor or employee had authority to contract for the sale of oil or the removal of “tank bottoms” (settlement in the bottom of the tanks consisting of water, brine and oil) from the facility. The tank bottoms did not require cleaning.

Discussion

Part I

Relitigation of the Suppression Motions Procedural Issues:

1. Appellants’ failure to obtain a certificate of probable cause does not preclude review of this issue.

Because appellants pleaded nolo contendere, they assumed they needed a certificate of probable cause to raise the collateral estoppel issue. They acknowledged their failure to obtain certificates but argued the court should address the merits of their claim on judicial economy grounds. We asked for further briefing on whether section 1538.5, subdivision (m) authorized their challenge.

That section provides in pertinent part: “A defendant may seek further review of the validity of a search or seizure on appeal from a conviction in a [693]*693criminal case notwithstanding the fact that such judgment of conviction is predicated upon a plea of guilty. Such review on appeal may be obtained by the defendant providing that at some stage of the proceedings prior to conviction he or she has moved for the return of property or the suppression of the evidence.”

California Rules of Court, rule 31(d) states: “If the appeal from a judgment of conviction entered upon a plea of guilty or nolo contendere is based solely upon grounds . . . involving a search or seizure, the validity of which was contested pursuant to section 1538.5 of the Penal Code, the provisions of section 1237.5 . . . are inapplicable.”

Under section 1538.5, subdivision (m) and California Rules of Court, rule 31(d), appellants’ claim is cognizable despite their lack of a certificate of probable cause if their claim is construed as a request for “review of the validity of a search or seizure” or “involving a search or seizure.”

Criminal statutes must be construed in favor of the defendant. The defendant is entitled to the benefit of every reasonable doubt as to the true interpretation of words or the construction of language used in a statute. (In re Tartar (1959) 52 Cal.2d 250, 257 [

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Bluebook (online)
209 Cal. App. 3d 687, 257 Cal. Rptr. 753, 1989 Cal. App. LEXIS 330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-workman-calctapp-1989.