Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca9-11-50005/USCOURTS-ca9-11-50005-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
John Dennis Apel
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

No. 11-50003 Plaintiff-Appellee,

D.C. No. v. 

2:10-cr-00830-

JOHN DENNIS APEL,

JFW-1

Defendant-Appellant. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

No. 11-50004 Plaintiff-Appellee,

D.C. No. v. 

2:10-cr-00869-

JOHN DENNIS APEL,

JFW-1

Defendant-Appellant. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  No. 11-50005

Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No.

v.  2:10-cr-00831-

JFW-1 JOHN DENNIS APEL,

Defendant-Appellant. OPINION 

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Central District of California

John F. Walter, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted

April 13, 2012—Pasadena, California

Filed April 25, 2012

4413

 Case: 11-50005, 04/25/2012, ID: 8152345, DktEntry: 31-1, Page 1 of 3
Before: Barry G. Silverman and Johnnie B. Rawlinson,

Circuit Judges, and John R. Tunheim, District Judge.*

Per Curiam Opinion

COUNSEL

André Birotte Jr., Robert E. Dugdale, and Mark R. Yohalem

*The Honorable John R. Tunheim, United States District Judge for the

District of Minnesota, sitting by designation. 

4414 UNITED STATES v. APEL

 Case: 11-50005, 04/25/2012, ID: 8152345, DktEntry: 31-1, Page 2 of 3
(argued), United States Attorney’s Office, Los Angeles, California, for the plaintiff-appellee.

Erwin Chemerinsky, Selwyn Chu, law student (argued), and

Matthew Plunkett, law student (argued), Appellate Litigation

Clinic, University of California Irvine School of Law, Irvine,

California, for the defendant-appellant.

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

[1] Appellant John Apel, who was subject to a pre-existing

order barring him from Vandenberg Air Force Base, was convicted of three counts of trespassing on the base in violation

of 18 U.S.C. § 1382. After his convictions became final in

district court, we decided United States v. Parker, 651 F.3d

1180 (9th Cir. 2011). Parker held that because a stretch of

highway running through Vandenberg AFB is subject to an

easement “granted to the State of California, which later relinquished it to the County of Santa Barbara,” the federal government lacks the exclusive right of possession of the area on

which the trespass allegedly occurred; therefore, a conviction

under 18 U.S.C. § 1382 cannot stand, regardless of an order

barring a defendant from the base. 651 F.3d at 1184.

[2] Although we question the correctness of Parker, it is

binding, dispositive of this appeal, and requires that Apel’s

convictions be REVERSED.

UNITED STATES v. APEL 4415

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