People v. Superior Court (Torres)

• Citation: 67 Cal.App.3d 620,136 Cal.Rptr. 779
• Decision Date: 28 February 1977
• Docket Number: Cr. 28699
• Court: California Court of Appeals
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of California, Petitioner, v. SUPERIOR COURT of the State of California, IN AND FOR the COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, Respondent; Luis Alonzo TORRES, Real Party in Interest. PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Pedro MAGALLON, Defendant and Respondent. Civ. 49080,

Page 779

136 Cal.Rptr. 779

67 Cal.App.3d 620

PEOPLE of the State of California, Petitioner, v. SUPERIOR COURT of the State of California, IN AND FOR the COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, Respondent;

Luis Alonzo TORRES, Real Party in Interest.

PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Pedro MAGALLON, Defendant and Respondent.

Civ. 49080, Cr. 28699.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 5, California.

Feb. 28, 1977.

John K. Van De Kamp, Dist. Atty. of Los Angeles County Donald J. Kaplan, Eugene D. Tavris and Sterling S. Suga, Deputy Dist. Attys., for plaintiff and appellant in 2d Civ. 49080 and 2d Crim. 28699.

Bernard F. Kemper, Los Angeles, for Luis Alonzo Torres, real party in interest in 2d Civ. 49080.

No appearance for respondent Court in 2d Civ. 49080.

Wilbur F. Littlefield, Public Defender of Los Angeles County, Harold E. Shabo, Michael Adelson and G. Keith Wisot, Deputy Public Defenders for Pedro Magallon, defendant and respondent in 2d Crim. No. 28699.

KAUS, Presiding Justice.

Torres and Magallon were charged as codefendants with two counts of robbery. (Pen.Code, § 211.) In case No. 28699 the People have appealed (Pen.Code, § 1238(a)) from the order granting Magallon's motion to dismiss (Pen.Code, § 995); in case No. 49080 they have petitioned for a writ of mandate (Pen.Code, § 1538.5(o)) to overturn the order granting Torres' motion to suppress evidence. The motion to suppress was submitted on the preliminary hearing transcript, thus the facts in both of the matters before us are identical, although the standards for reviewing the trial court's actions differ. (People v. Superior Court, 3 Cal.App.3d 476, 488, 83 Cal.Rptr. 771; People v. Reynolds, 276 Cal.App.2d 825, 84 Cal.Rptr. 331.)

Audrey Sheedy and Glenda Foster testified that they were walking together on 6th Street in Los Angeles at about 10:20 p.m., February 11, 1976, when their purses were snatched by two males of Latin descent. Both witnesses identified Torres as one of their assailants. They had previously identified him in a lineup the day after they were robbed. Neither could identify Magallon at the lineup or at the preliminary hearing. Sheedy identified People's Exhibit 1 as a photograph of the wallet she had had in her purse at the time of the robbery and People's Exhibit 2 as some rosary beads which were also in her purse when it was taken. Foster testified that the purse taken from her was depicted in People's Exhibit 3. She identified People's Exhibit 4 as a wallet which was in the purse at the time of the robbery. Torres and Magallon were passengers in the rear seat of an automobile which was stopped by Beverly Hills police officers because it lacked rear license illumination. ¹ Upon approaching the car, which contained a total of four male occupants, Officer Van Ausdelf observed a child's small wooden baseball bat on the front seat between two of the car's occupants. He saw a bicycle chain with a taped handle and a wire loop on the rear floorboard. The officer knew that such chains were used as weapons, the wire loop fitting over the user's wrist and the tape being affixed to prevent cutting the user's hand. There was also an iron bar about a foot long on the rear floorboard. When the driver was asked for his license he opened the car door. A regulation size baseball bat fell out of the car. Because of the variety of potential weapons available in the car, Van Ausdelf and his partner requested all of the occupants to get out, conducted a pat down search and asked them all for identification. The only one who had identification was the driver.

The officers observed a lady's wallet on the rear seat and asked if any of the occupants knew whose wallet it was. No one answered. Van Ausdelf then reached into the car and got the wallet (People's Exh. 4) to see if there was any identification inside. It contained an I.D. card with a woman's picture and the name Glenda Foster. The officer then questioned the individuals as to their reason for being in the area. They were arrested on suspicion of robbery after giving what the officer deemed conflicting responses. A search of the car disclosed the set of rosary beads (People's Exh. 2) in the heater hose. The wallet belonging to Sheedy (depicted in People's Exh. 1) was taken from Magallon during booking. Foster's purse (depicted in People's Exh. 3) was found in the trunk of the car.

The trial court granted Magallon's section 995 motion on the ground that the officers lacked probable cause to arrest him. It ordered People's Exhibits 2, 3 and 4 suppressed. ² The court also ruled that testimony regarding the victims' observation of Torres in the lineup which followed the arrest would be inadmissible.

In ruling on the motion to suppress, the trial court found that the initial detention for the traffic violation was justified, that in view of the potential weapons in the car the officers were justified in ordering the occupants out, and that they were reasonable in concluding that People's Exhibit 4 was a lady's wallet. The court held, however, that these facts did not justify their seizing and examining People's Exhibit 4 or their arresting the car's occupants. We disagree.

People v. Ortega, 2 Cal.App.3d 884, 83 Cal.Rptr. 260, presents a comparable situation. In Ortega officers responded to a 'robbery now' call. At the scene they found a car containing three males. A fourth man was in a nearby phone booth. The officers ordered the three occupants from the car and frisked them. They then observed a wallet on the floor of the car from which a driver's license protruded. The picture on the license was not of any one in the car. Each of the suspects denied ownership of the wallet. An officer seized it and then discovered a gun under the seat. The court ruled that upon learning that the wallet and license did not belong to any of the suspects, the officer had reasonable cause to believe that it had been stolen and he was then justified in reaching into the car to retrieve it. This despite the fact that there was nothing at the scene to tie the suspects to the 'robbery now' call other than their presence in the area.

Defendants seek to distinguish Ortega on the basis of the 'robbery now' call which led to the detention there. ³ The Beverly Hills police officers in the present case had no knowledge of a recent robbery. This factor is immaterial, however, since the only function which the 'robbery now' call served in Ortega was to justify the initial detention. The detention in the present case was justified by the traffic violation. Thereafter the investigation here paralleled that...