The People v. Matelski
| Decision Date | 31 July 2000 |
| Citation | 98 Cal.Rptr.2d 543,82 Cal.App.4th 837 |
| Parties | (Cal.App. 4 Dist. 2000) THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. HERMINIA MATELSKI et al., Defendants and Respondents. E025259 Filed |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
APPEAL from the Superior Court of San Bernardino County. James C. McGuire, Judge. Reversed.
Andrew E. Rubin, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Respondent Herminia Matelski.
Susan S. Bauguess, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Respondent Raymond Matelski.
Dennis L. Stout, District Attorney, Grover D. Merritt, Lead Deputy District Attorney, and Reza Sadeghi, Deputy District Attorney, for Plaintiff and Appellant.
SEE DISSENTING OPINION ATTACHED
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
The People appeal denial of a motion to reinstate a criminal complaint under Penal Code section 871.5.1 (1238, subd. (a)(9).) The People contend that section 871.5 allows a motion for reinstatement when the superior court determines the magistrate erred in granting a suppression motion under section 1538.5. On the merits, the People contend the magistrate erred in finding that the officers acted unreasonably in detaining defendants to determine if they were convicted felons. The People argue the officer's actions were reasonable because the defendants were visiting a probationer who was subject to a probation term that prohibited him from associating with convicted felons. The People also contend that the officers acted reasonably in arresting defendants on outstanding warrants, and in searching them for contraband. The officers found drugs in Mrs. Matelski's purse, and those drugs were the subject of the suppression motion.
Defendants argue their detention was improper because there was no suggestion they were engaged in suspicious activity. Accordingly, they argue that the magistrate properly granted the suppression motion, and the superior court properly denied the motion to reinstate the charges.
Officer Henry testified at the suppression hearing that he went with two other officers to a home in Twentynine Palms on September 8, 1998. The officers went to the home to conduct a probation search of a person named Michael Mitchell. The search was prompted by the fact that the probationer had failed a drug test.
As the officers arrived at the home, they saw defendants walking out the front door. One of the officers ordered defendants to "Come over here." The officers explained to the defendants that a condition of Mr. Mitchell's parole prevented him from associating with persons who were convicted felons. The officer asked defendants for their names and dates of birth in order to determine if they were convicted felons. The information was given to the police dispatcher to check for warrants and criminal history. Both defendants had outstanding arrest warrants. Both were arrested and searched. Methamphetamine and two marijuana pipes were found in Mrs. Matelski's purse. Each defendant told the officers that the methamphetamine belonged to Mr. Matelski.
Defendants were each charged with a violation of Health and Safety Code section 11377, subdivision (a), possession of a controlled substance.
Defendants' suppression motion was based on the argument that the defendants were not engaged in any criminal activity when they were detained, and the officers had no facts indicating even a suspicion of criminal activity. The People responded that it was reasonable to detain defendants to determine if they were convicted felons because, if they were, the parolee would have been in violation of his parole conditions in associating with them.
The magistrate, Judge Swift, applied the standard articulated in People v. Souza (1994) 9 Cal.4th 224. In that case, our Supreme Court held that a person's flight at the sight of an officer or a marked police car "ordinarily is behavior that police may legitimately regard as suspicious, and therefore also can be a key factor in establishing reasonable cause to detain in a particular case."2 (Id. at p. 227.) Our Supreme Court reviewed the United States Supreme Court cases and found them to establish the general principle that "[a] detention is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment when the detaining officer can point to specific articulable facts that, considered in light of the totality of the circumstances, provide some objective manifestation that the person detained may be involved in criminal activity." (Id. at p. 231.) Since the magistrate found that there was no such "objective manifestation" here, the magistrate granted the suppression motion.
The People filed a motion to reinstate the complaint under section 871.5. Under that section a motion to reinstate may be granted only if a superior court judge finds, as a matter of law, that the magistrate erroneously dismissed the action. The trial court, Judge McGuire, denied the motion. The People appeal.
Defendant H. Matelski offers two procedural reasons for not reaching the merits of the People's claim. First, she contends that the People fail to state a claim for relief under section 871.5. Second, she argues the appeal should be dismissed because the basis of the magistrate's ruling dismissing the action was section 1538.5, a section not mentioned in section 871.5, subdivision (a) as a basis for a motion under that section.
We find no merit in these arguments. The first argument is based on the theory that the People are challenging the magistrate's findings, rather than the superior court ruling. However, the notice of appeal clearly states that the appeal is taken from the decision of the superior court pursuant to section 1238, subdivision (a)(9). The People's brief clearly attacks the decision of the superior court on grounds that it should have granted the motion because the magistrate erroneously dismissed the action as a matter of law. ( 871.5, subd. (b).) The fact that the remainder of the brief focuses on the magistrate's decision in order to demonstrate that it is legally erroneous does not convert the appeal into a direct attack on the magistrate's decision. Simply put, if the magistrate's decision was legally wrong, the superior court's decision upholding it was equally wrong.
The second argument is based on the premise that the action was dismissed pursuant to section 1538.5, rather than section 1385, a section mentioned in section 871.5, subdivision (a). The basis for the argument is the contention that the hearings that were held on March 24, 1999, and April 12, 1999, were not part of a preliminary hearing, but rather were hearings pursuant to a section 1538.5 motion to suppress. The assumption underlying this argument is that section 871.5 cannot be used to review the granting of a suppression motion under section 1538.5.
The record displays considerable confusion as to whether the March 24th and April 12th hearings were part of a preliminary hearing, a hearing on the suppression motion, or both. The record shows the following: On March 2, 1999, a prepreliminary conference was held and the preliminary hearing was set for March 24, 1999. A second conference was held on March 23, 1999. The parties agreed that the preliminary hearing would be held the next day, but also agreed that the 1538.5 motions which had previously been filed would also be heard on the next day.3
The clerk's minute orders for March 24th characterizes the hearing as a preliminary hearing, but states that the officer testified in connection with the suppression motion. They further state that the suppression motion was set for April 12, 1999, and the hearing, presumably the preliminary hearing, was also continued to that date.
The April 12th clerk's minutes characterize the hearing as a hearing on the 1538.5 motion, and states that the motion to suppress is granted. They then state that the preliminary hearing is vacated and "[o]n motion of Court, Count(s) 1 dismissed in the interest of justice." A dismissal in the interests of justice is a dismissal under section 1385, and section 1385 is listed in section 871.5, subdivision (a) as a dismissal which may be challenged under that section.
The reporter's transcript of the March 24th hearing characterizes it as a hearing pursuant to section 1538.5, although the court proceeded as if it was conducting a preliminary hearing. For example, counsel stipulated, for preliminary hearing purposes only, that the substances found were methamphetamine. At the close of the hearing, defendants were advised of their rights to a continuous preliminary hearing, and appropriate waivers were obtained. These factors indicate that a preliminary hearing was in progress. However, at the close of the officer's examination, the magistrate asked if counsel was finished on the 1538.5 motion, and the court then heard arguments on the motion and continued the hearing to April 12th.
On April 12th, the reporter's transcript contains a lengthy statement of decision by the magistrate. It concludes with the statement: "[T]he motion is granted." The magistrate then asked the deputy district attorney if he was able to proceed without the evidence, and the deputy replied negatively. The court then said: This colloquy is normally the type of exchange that would be used at the conclusion of a preliminary hearing in which the evidence was found to be insufficient to hold the defendants over for trial. As noted above, the clerk interpreted the latter statement as a dismissal in the interests of justice under section 1385.
The defendants' contention that the hearing was on the suppression motion appears to be a better characterization of the confused proceedings, but that is not enough. It appears that the magistrate was so thoroughly confused that he handled the suppression motion as if it were a...
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