The People v. Bolen CA1/5

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 18, 2013
DocketA135545
StatusUnpublished

This text of The People v. Bolen CA1/5 (The People v. Bolen CA1/5) 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
The People v. Bolen CA1/5, (Cal. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Filed 9/18/13 P. v. Bolen CA1/5

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION FIVE

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent, A135545

v. (Del Norte County Super. Ct. Nos. JOSHUA EUGENE BOLEN, CRF119292, CRF129057

Defendant and Appellant. ____________________________________/

Law enforcement officers found suspected methamphetamine and approximately six “white oval shaped pills” in a car appellant Joshua Eugene Bolen was driving. The People charged him with various crimes, including possession of methadone (Health & Saf. Code, § 11350). At trial — and over appellant’s objection — the court permitted a Walgreen’s pharmacist to testify the pills were methadone. The pharmacist testified he entered the imprint on the pills into a program used by Walgreen’s called “facts and comparisons” and the program generated the chemical composition of the pills: methadone. The pharmacist also testified the picture of the methadone pills in the program was identical to the pills found by law enforcement officers. A jury convicted appellant of various crimes, including possession of methadone, and sentenced him to state prison.

1 On appeal, appellant contends the pharmacist’s testimony was not “appropriate expert opinion” because it was not helpful to the jury and because the pharmacist’s opinion was not “of a type that would reasonably be relied on . . . to establish the chemical composition of a purported prescription drug” under Evidence Code section 801.1 Appellant also argues the prosecutor committed misconduct during closing argument by “shifting the burden of proof.” We affirm. We conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting the pharmacist’s testimony. We also conclude the prosecutor did not commit misconduct. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND We summarize the facts as germane to appellant’s claim regarding his conviction for possessing methadone (Health & Saf. Code, § 11350) and his claim regarding prosecutorial misconduct. The Incident In January 2011, parole agent Caleb Chadwick was looking for appellant, a parolee Chadwick supervised. Chadwick parked his car in the Fort Dick Market in Crescent City. As Chadwick sat in the driver’s seat, writing notes, he saw “movement in the corner of [his] eye” and heard someone say, “‘Oh shit.’” Chadwick looked up and saw appellant in the driver’s seat of a Jeep Cherokee; he told appellant to stay in the car, but appellant “got out of the car and took off running.” Chadwick ran after appellant but could not catch him. As Chadwick walked back to his car, he saw the Jeep Cherokee near the Sea West restaurant. A woman — later identified as Andrea Hupp — was in the front seat. Chadwick ordered Hupp to get out of the car and she complied; Chadwick then searched the car and found a police scanner and a black men’s jacket in the center console. Chadwick had seen appellant wearing the jacket and noticed it smelled of cologne appellant wore.

1 Unless otherwise noted, all further statutory references are to the Evidence Code. 2 As Chadwick searched the jacket, he and another law enforcement officer saw a bag fall out of the jacket. Inside the bag were five smaller bags containing suspected methamphetamine and one bag containing approximately six “white oval shaped pills.” Chemical testing confirmed the five bags contained methamphetamine. The Pharmacist’s Testimony At trial, the prosecution called Walgreen’s pharmacist Brian Greenough to identify the pills. A licensed pharmacist, Greenough had worked in the field for 32 years, most of that time as a pharmacy manager. Greenough testified he is able to identify prescription pills given his extensive experience as a pharmacist. He testified the pills “are Methadone, 10 milligram.” At that point, defense counsel objected, claiming “[i]mproper foundation has been made. He simply said these are Methadone without detailing how he came to that conclusion.” Counsel also objected to the testimony on the grounds it “requires multiple levels of hearsay[.]” As counsel explained, “if [the People] are solely relying on [Greenough] opening up a book and looking at codes, that’s also relied upon multiple levels of hearsay and somebody else’s work in identifying tablets because this substance has not actually been tested by anybody. So I don’t know if it’s actually what it purports to be.” The court overruled the objections, concluding there was “plenty of foundation. He’s been a pharmacist . . . for 32 years. He has training in being able to recognize particular tablets. And [he] says he looked at them [and] they’re Methadone. . . . I think there’s been sufficient foundation laid.” Greenough testified he did not chemically test the pills. On cross-examination, he stated, “I looked it up on the program that I have at my work, and the imprints on the pills identify them as Methadone 10.” On redirect, Greenough explained he used “facts and comparisons,” a program “we have at our work” where the pharmacist puts “the imprint of . . . each drug in the program, [and] it comes up with the name of the medication.” Greenough also printed out a picture of the methadone pills and testified the picture was identical to the pills found on the day of the incident. Nothing about the methadone pills suggested they were counterfeit. On recross-examination, Greenough stated: “I don’t do

3 drug testing. I dispense medications, and I can usually identify them if somebody shows them to me.” Closing Argument During his initial closing argument, the prosecutor stated, “[Y]ou’ll probably hear about Andrea Hupp. Someone is probably going to try to make Andrea Hupp the fall girl here. Where is Andrea Hupp? You didn’t see her up here. If she existed and she was going to be an alibi witness for this gentleman, where is she? She would not necessarily have had to have taken the fall and say it was mine.” Defense counsel objected, noting, “it’s the People’s burden of proof, not the defense.” The court sustained the objection and the prosecutor argued the fact that Hupp might have driven the car was immaterial because “[t]he fact that that drug was moved at all and attributably in the presence of Mr. Bolen satisfies that charge [transporting methodone].” During his closing argument, defense counsel reminded the jury that the People had the burden to prove each element of the charged crimes beyond a reasonable doubt. Defense counsel claimed it was reasonable that Hupp — appellant’s girlfriend — drove the car to the market, not appellant, and that “she’s guilty of transportation,” not appellant. Counsel also repeatedly argued Hupp possessed the drugs, not appellant, stating: “Ms. Hupp is just as likely to have had it in her possession and slid it over there” and “[i]t’s just as likely Ms. Hupp had this [the drugs] and tried to slide this over into the jacket on the center console between . . . both seats and then drove off to Sea West. My client is clearly not guilty of that [possession of methamphetamine].” Defense counsel also stated, “[t]his case is solely centered around the situation where Ms. Hupp could easily, conceivably, reasonably and justifiably have concealed this from Mr. Bolen and been the culprit.” Additionally, counsel demonstrated how Hupp could have driven the car to the market, used the police scanner, and concealed the drugs in the jacket. Finally, defense counsel argued the methadone pills could be counterfeit because “there was no actual test done. None. . . . They could have tested it, but no. Is it a knock-off? Is [it] actually Methadone? . . .

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