People v. Martinez

• Decision Date: 14 July 2005
• Docket Number: No. S118180.,S118180.
• Citation: 30 Cal.Rptr.3d 779,115 P.3d 62,36 Cal.4th 384
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Victor Manuel MARTINEZ, Defendant and Appellant.

30 Cal.Rptr.3d 779

36 Cal.4th 384

115 P.3d 62

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Victor Manuel MARTINEZ, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S118180.

Supreme Court of California.

July 14, 2005.

Shama H. Mesiwala and Linnéa M. Johnson, Sacramento, under appointments by the Supreme Court, and William D. Farber, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Manuel M. Medeiros, State Solicitor General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Mary Jo Graves, Assistant Attorney General, Patrick Whelan, Janet E. Neeley, Stan Cross and Lee E. Seale, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

KENNARD, J.

A jury convicted defendant of attempting to manufacture methamphetamine. Treating the state agency that disposed of the hazardous substances found at the illegal drug laboratory as a crime victim, the trial court ordered defendant to reimburse the agency for its clean-up costs of $5,402.67. The court did so under Penal Code section 1202.4, subdivision (f), which requires restitution to a crime victim when, "as a result of the defendant's conduct," the victim "has suffered economic loss." We conclude that this statute was an improper basis for the restitution order because the agency was not a direct victim of defendant's criminal conduct. The exclusive statutory basis for reimbursement to the agency is provided by Health and Safety Code sections 11470.1 and 11470.2, which establish special procedures by which public entities such as the Department of Toxic Substance Control, the agency involved here, may recover their costs of cleaning up hazardous substances, or their precursors, at illegal drug manufacturing sites. Because these special procedures were not followed here, the reimbursement order is invalid.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Around 9:30 a.m. on January 7, 2001, Joe Demello of the Fresno County Sheriff's Department stopped defendant as he was driving a Honda hatchback away from a Merced County residence that was under surveillance as a suspected site of an illegal methamphetamine laboratory. After stopping defendant, Demello walked around the hatchback and saw through its large rear window that it contained various objects—including a metal cylinder, bags of ice, and a stained cardboard box—that the officer, based on his experience, believed were associated with methamphetamine manufacture. A later search of the premises revealed a "super lab" capable of manufacturing large quantities of methamphetamine.

Defendant was charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, a controlled substance. (Health & Saf.Code, § 11379.6, subd. (a).) A jury acquitted him of the charged offense, but it convicted him of the lesser included offense of attempt (Pen.Code, § 664) to manufacture a controlled substance (Health & Saf.Code, § 11379.6, subd. (a)). The trial court imposed a prison term of two years and six months and ordered restitution of $5,402.67 to the Department of Toxic Substances Control (Department) under Penal Code section 1202.4, subdivision (f).

Defendant appealed. He challenged the validity of the trial court's restitution order made under Penal Code section 1202.4, arguing that the Department was not a direct victim within the meaning of that statute, and therefore it was not entitled to reimbursement of costs incurred in removing the hazardous waste from the illegal drug laboratory. In response, the Attorney General maintained the order was proper because it reimbursed the government for cleanup costs resulting from defendant's crime, rather than for expenses incurred in investigating or prosecuting him.

The Court of Appeal upheld the order. It noted that the Legislature has expressly directed the Department, once it is notified by a law enforcement agency of the presence of hazardous substances in an illegal drug laboratory, to remove "waste material from the unlawful manufacture of a controlled substance." (Health & Saf. Code, § 25354.5, subd. (b)(1).) The court concluded that the $5,402.67 the Department spent in cleanup costs resulted directly from defendant's criminal conduct, thus making the Department a direct victim and therefore entitled to receive restitution under the direct victim provision of Penal Code section 1202.4.

Defendant petitioned for a rehearing in the Court of Appeal, contending that the court's analysis had overlooked Health and Safety Code sections 11470.1 and 11470.2, which expressly allow the prosecutor, either by means of a civil action or a criminal proceeding, to seek recovery of the costs of destroying controlled substances or their precursors. Defendant asserted that because the Department was not a direct victim of his attempt to manufacture methamphetamine, these Health and Safety Code provisions are the exclusive means through which the Department could recoup its cleanup costs. The Court of Appeal denied defendant's rehearing petition.

In considering the Department to be a direct victim, thus entitling it to restitution under Penal Code section 1202.4, the Court of Appeal created a conflict with two previous Court of Appeal decisions, People v. Narron (1987) 192 Cal.App.3d 724, 237 Cal.Rptr. 693 (Narron), and People v. Brach (2002) 95 Cal.App.4th 571, 115 Cal.Rptr.2d 753 (Brach). Those two cases concluded that Health and Safety Code sections 11470.1 and 11470.2 provide the exclusive remedies for the recovery of costs incurred in disposing of controlled substances. We granted review to resolve the conflict.

II. RELEVANT STATUTES

We begin with a review of the statutes at issue here. On June 8, 1982, the voters of California adopted Proposition 8, an initiative amending our Constitution (Cal. Const., art. I, § 28, subd. (b)) to grant "victims of crime a constitutional right" to receive restitution from defendants convicted of crimes that caused the victims economic loss. (People v. Carbajal (1995) 10 Cal.4th 1114, 1122, 43 Cal.Rptr.2d 681, 899 P.2d 67; People v. Broussard (1993) 5 Cal.4th 1067, 1069, 22 Cal.Rptr.2d 278, 856 P.2d 1134.) In response, the Legislature enacted an array of statutes covering restitution or recovery of expenses by crime victims. Among those statutes are Health and Safety Code sections 11470.1 and 11470.2, as well as Penal Code section 1202.4.

In March 1983, at the urging of the Attorney General, state Senator Barry Keene introduced Senate Bill No. 1121 (1983-1984 Reg. Sess.) to add sections 11470.1 and 11470.2 to the Health and Safety Code. The purpose of the bill was "to require those who engage in illegal drug activities" to repay the costs incurred in seizing and destroying unlawful substances akin to "the charges imposed under existing law for abating other nuisances." (Sen. Com. on Judiciary, Analysis of Sen. Bill No. 1121 (1983-1984 Reg. Sess.) as amended May 16, 1983, p. 2.) The bill sought to alleviate the financial burden on law enforcement agencies—especially those in small rural areas—of eradicating marijuana plants and closing clandestine drug labs. (Assembly, Office of Research, 3d reading analysis, Sen. Bill No. 1211 (1983-1984 Reg. Sess.) as amended August 25, 1983, p. 2.) By permitting law enforcement to recover its cleanup costs, the legislation sought to ensure that "those who engage in illegal drug activities" would "bear the costs of eliminating their abuses." (Sen. Com. on Judiciary, Analysis of Sen. Bill No. 1121 (1983-1984 Reg. Sess.) as amended May 16, 1983, p. 2.) The new legislation took effect on January 1, 1984.

Health and Safety Code section 11470.1 allows a civil action against "[a]ny person who manufactures or cultivates a controlled substance or its precursors." (Health & Saf.Code, § 11470.1, subd. (a)(1).) The action "may be brought by the district attorney, county counsel, city attorney, the State Department of Health Services, or Attorney General." (Id., § 11470.1, subd. (d).)

Instead of bringing a civil action under Health and Safety Code section 11470.1, the prosecution can, under section 11470.2, seek recovery of costs incurred by the governmental entity in removal or destruction of the controlled substances or their precursors by filing a petition for cost recovery in the criminal proceeding "in which the defendant has been charged with the underlying offense." (Health & Saf.Code, § 11470.2, subd. (b).)

Here, the trial court ordered defendant to reimburse the Department for $5,402.67 it had spent in disposing of the toxic substances found at the illegal drug lab site where defendant was working. The court looked to Penal Code section 1202.4's restitution provisions as authority for the award. That Penal Code section, like Health and Safety Code sections 11470.1 and 11470.2, was enacted by the Legislature in 1983 (Stats.1983, ch. 1092, § 320.1, p. 4058) in response to the voters' passage of Proposition 8 described earlier. (Review of 1983 Selected Calif. Legislation (1984) 15 Pacific L.J. 559, 561.) As originally enacted in 1983, Penal Code section 1202.4 provided for restitution to crime victims; it made no mention of restitution to entities, governmental or otherwise, as crime victims. Not until 1994 did the Legislature amend Penal Code section 1202.4 to expressly permit restitution to a "government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality" when it "is a direct victim of a crime." (Pen.Code, § 1202.4, former subd. (p), added by Stats.1994, ch. 1106, § 3, p. 6550, since amended by Stats. 1996, ch. 629, § 3, p. 3468 [moving provision into subd. (k)] & Stats.1999, ch. 584, § 4, [dividing subd. (k) into pars. (1) and (2) and adding par. (3)].)

We apply the statutory scheme in existence in 2001 when defendant committed his crime. In 2001, Penal Code section 1202.4, subdivision (k) provided that for the purposes of the section the term "`victim'" includes "all of the following: [¶] (1) The immediate surviving family of the actual victim. [¶] (2) Any corporation, business trust, estate, trust,...