People v. Bunn

• Citation: 115 Cal.Rptr.2d 192,27 Cal.4th 1,37 P.3d 380
• Decision Date: 10 January 2002
• Docket Number: No. S086128.,S086128.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court (California)
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Ronald Stacy BUNN, Defendant and Respondent.

115 Cal.Rptr.2d 192

27 Cal.4th 1

37 P.3d 380

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Ronald Stacy BUNN, Defendant and Respondent.

No. S086128.

Supreme Court of California.

January 10, 2002.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, David P. Druliner, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Assistant Attorney General, W. Scott Thorpe and Janet Gaard, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Appellant.

Peter Dodd, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Respondent.

BAXTER, J.

In 1994 and thereafter, the Legislature established and amended a special supplementary statute of limitations for certain sex crimes against minors. (Pen.Code, § 803, subd. (g) (section 803(g)).)¹ Under specified circumstances, the 1994 law, as more recently refined, revives the limitations period for such offenses after the usual statute of limitations has expired, even if both the crime, and expiration of the usual limitations period, occurred before 1994. We found that these retroactive features did not offend either ex post facto or due process principles in People v. Frazer (1999) 21 Cal.4th 737, 88 Cal. Rptr.2d 312, 982 P.2d 180 (Frazer) (cert, den. sub nom. Frazer v. California (2000) 529 U.S. 1108, 120 S.Ct. 1960, 146 L.Ed.2d 792, rehg. den. (2000) 530 U.S. 1284, 120 S.Ct. 2765,147 L.Ed.2d 1023).

We granted review in this case and its companion, People v. King, 27 Cal.4th 29, 115 Cal.Rptr.2d 214, 37 P.3d 398 (2002) (King), to consider an additional narrow issue presented by this legislation. In 1996 and 1997, section 803(g) was amended to authorize, in certain circumstances, the filing of a molestation charge even where an accusatory pleading involving the same offense was previously dismissed as time-barred by the courts. The question is whether, and to what extent, the separation of powers clause of the California Constitution (art. III, § 3) precludes application of such a refiling provision.² Following Plant v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc. (1995) 514 U.S. 211, 115 S.Ct. 1447, 131 L.Ed.2d 328 (Plant), which we find both consistent with California law and persuasive for state separation of powers purposes, we conclude that refiling legislation cannot be applied retroactively to reopen court cases that had already been dismissed, if the dismissals had become final judgments, under the law of finality which then pertained, before the refiling provision became effective. In this sense, and for separation of powers purposes, such prior judgments are sacrosanct. On the other hand, as Plant itself explained, any dismissal that was already subject to a particular refiling law at the time the dismissal was entered or finally upheld cannot, to that extent, be deemed a final judgment immune from legislative interference. Hence, the refiling provision, as it existed at the time the dismissal was entered or finally upheld, may constitutionally permit reopening of the case.

As demonstrated here and in King, supra, 27 Cal.4th 29, 115 Cal.Rptr.2d 214, 37 P.3d 398, the relevant statutory provisions survive separation of powers scrutiny depending upon the particular circumstances of the case. In the present matter, the reinstituted complaint satisfied the requirements of the 1996 refiling provision that was already in effect when the Court of Appeal finally upheld the prior dismissal. Hence, prosecution of the instant case under the refiled complaint is not barred by the separation of powers clause. We reach the opposite conclusion, however, and do find a constitutional violation in King. There, the complaint was refiled under conditions that complied only with the 1997 version of section 803(g) not yet in effect when the prior judgment dismissing the same counts became final.

I. Procedural Background

This case tracks the history of section 803(g), which we described in Frazer, supra 21 Cal.4th 737, 743-749, 751-753, 88 Cal.Rptr.2d 312, 982 P.2d 180, and distill as necessary here.

Before 1994, felony sex crimes against children were governed solely by the statutes of limitation in section 799 et seq. These provisions require such prosecutions to commence within either three years (§ 801), or six years (§ 800), after commission of the crime. (See §§ 804, subds. (a) & (b) [providing that prosecution commences when the accusatory pleading is filed], 805, subd. (a) [basing the applicable limitations period on the maximum statutory punishment].)

In first enacting section 803(g) (Stats. 1993, ch. 390, § 1, p. 2226), the Legislature found that the limitation periods in sections 800 and 801 were inadequate in child molestation cases. Reliable accusations purportedly went unpunished "because the victim—who may `now [be] an adult'—had waited to report the crime until after the existing statute of limitations had expired." (Frazer, supra, 21 Cal.4th 737, 763, fn. 24, 88 Cal.Rptr.2d 312, 982 P.2d 180.) Lawmakers cited the difficulty children have in recalling and recounting sexual abuse, and their vulnerability to adults in positions of authority and trust. (Id, at pp. 744, 763, fn. 24, 773, 88 Cal.Rptr.2d 312, 982 P.2d 180.)

Effective January 1, 1994, section 803(g) (the 1994 version or law) allowed a criminal complaint to be filed "within one year of the date of a report to a law enforcement agency by a person of any age alleging that he or she, while under the age of 18 years, was the victim of one or more specified serious sex offenses. The 1994 law applied only where: (1) the limitation period specified in section 800 or 801 had expired, (2) the crime involved substantial sexual conduct, and (3) independent evidence clearly and convincingly corroborated the victim's allegation.³ Because the statute of limitations in section 800 or 801 must first expire, the one-year period "serves to prolong, rather than shorten," the time for prosecuting enumerated crimes. (Frazer, supra, 21 Cal.4th 737, 752,88 Cal.Rptr.2d 312,982 P.2d 180.)

In a complaint filed January 25, 1995, and amended March 3, 1995 (the 1995 complaint), Ronald Stacy Bunn (defendant) was charged in Lake County Municipal Court with five counts of forcible rape of a person under age 18 (§ 261, subd. (a)(2)), and one count of oral copulation with a person under age 18 (§ 288a, subd. (b)(1)). Attached to the 1995 complaint and incorporated therein were investigative materials compiled by the local sheriffs department stating that the victim reported the crime on December 14, 1994. The charging documents also indicated that the crimes occurred between February and August 1981, that the victim was defendant's daughter, that she was 15 and 16 years old at the time of the crimes, and that relatives and friends could corroborate her account in certain respects. Based on this information, the 1995 complaint alleged that it satisfied the requirements of section 803(g) as originally constituted in 1994.

Defendant demurred on the ground any postcrime increase in the maximum six-year period applying under section 800 when the crimes allegedly occurred violated the federal and state Constitutions, including ex post facto guarantees. (See U.S. Const., art. I, § 10; Cal. Const., art. I, § 9.) The magistrate accepted the ex post facto claim, sustained the demurrer, and dismissed the case. The superior court denied the People's motion to reinstate the 1995 complaint.

The People appealed and lost. The Court of Appeal held that "at the time of its enactment," there was "no clear expression of legislative intent that section 803(g) would apply to revive charges—such as the ones in this case—as to which the statute of limitations expired before January 1, 1994." (People v. Bunn (1997) 53 Cal. App.4th 227, 230-231, 61 Cal.Rptr.2d 734 (Bunn I).) The court further opined that even assuming section 803(g) applied retroactively under a 1996 amendment that took effect while the appeal was pending (see post, fn. 7), defendant's prosecution was barred on ex post facto grounds. This conclusion was based on Collins v. Youngblood (1990) 497 U.S. 37, 42, 110 S.Ct. 2715, 111 L.Ed.2d 30 (Collins), limiting postcrime withdrawal of a "`defense available . .. when the act was committed,'" and on Falter v. United States (2d Cir. 1928) 23 F.2d 420, 425-426 (Falter), condemning postcrime "reviv[als of] a prosecution already dead." Thus, on February 28, 1997, the Court of Appeal affirmed the order denying reinstatement of the 1995 complaint. (Bunn I, supra, 53 Cal. App.4th at p. 239,61 Cal.Rptr.2d 734.) We denied review on May 21, 1997. (Ibid.)

The 1997 decision in Bunn I was not the first of its kind. Several Court of Appeal opinions filed in 1995 and 1996⁴—only one of which now appears in the California Official Reports⁵—refused to apply the 1994 version of section 803(g) where the prosecution was already time-barred under existing laws on January 1, 1994, when section 803(g) became effective. Much like Bunn I, supra, 53 Cal.App.4th 227, 61 Cal.Rptr.2d 734, these decisions stressed the lack of express "retroactivity" and "revival" language in the 1994 law (see § 3), and claimed a contrary construction would violate the ban on ex post facto legislation. However, at least one Court of Appeal opinion originally published around the same time rejected these conclusions on both statutory and constitutional grounds.⁶

In response to the 1995 and 1996 appellate decisions declining to give the 1994 version of section 803(g) retroactive effect, the Legislature decided to revise the statute so that it could be used regardless of when the molestation occurred, or whether the limitations period in section 800 or 801 had run before 1994. (Frazer, supra, 21 Cal.4th 737, 752-753, 88 Cal.Rptr.2d 312, 982 P.2d 180.) Because the Courts of Appeal were divided on the point, lawmakers found no clear ex post facto bar against making such a change. (Ibid.)

Hence, a 1996 amendment to section 803(g) took effect January 1, 1997. (Stats. 1996, ch. 130, § 1 (the 1996 version or law).)⁷ Another amendment occurred on an...