Filed 4/8/15 P. v. Lander CA5 

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS 

California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for 

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or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115. 

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE, 

 Plaintiff and Respondent, 

 v. 

MICHAEL ANTHONY LANDER, 

 Defendant and Appellant. 

F067365 

(Super. Ct. No. BF145621A) 

OPINION

THE COURT

 APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Kern County. Thomas S. 

Clark, Judge. 

 Jennifer A. Mannix, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and 

Appellant. 

 Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney 

General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Carlos A. Martinez and Marcia 

A. Fay, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. 

-ooOoo- 

 

 Before Levy, Acting P.J., Kane, J., and Smith, J. 
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 A jury convicted appellant, Michael Anthony Lander, of second degree burglary 

(Pen. Code, § 460, subd. (b)) and petty theft (Pen. Code, § 488). On May 28, 2013, the 

court sentenced Lander to a three-year local term. 

 On appeal Lander contends the court abused its discretion and denied him certain 

constitutional rights when it denied his request to recall a witness. Lander also asks this 

court to review the sealed transcript of an in camera hearing to determine if the trial court 

erred in withholding documents the defense had subpoenaed. We affirm. 

FACTS 

 At Lander’s trial, Tyler Work testified that he was employed as an Asset 

Protection Specialist at a Target store in Kern County. As part of his duties he monitored 

from his office over 150 cameras that are located inside and outside of the store in order 

to locate people attempting to steal from Target and to apprehend them. Sometimes 

Work also walked the floor. 

 On December 7, 2012, at approximately 9:25 p.m., he was viewing cameras in his 

office when he saw Lander whom he recognized from having seen him in the store on at 

least 15 previous occasions. As Work watched Lander he saw him go to the electronics 

department and put a Blu-ray Player in his cart. Next Lander went to where the 

televisions were located and placed a 37-inch flat screen television in his cart. Lander 

then took the cart to a fire exit and left the store through the exit, triggering an alarm. A 

video camera outside the store showed Lander running from the Target store and a white 

vehicle driving off in the same direction as Lander. 

After Work testified and was cross-examined by the defense, he was excused 

subject to being recalled. After a break, defense counsel asked the court for permission 

to recall Work in order to cross-examine him with personnel records he received from 

Target regarding a reprimand Work received for an incident on December 4, 2012. 

According to defense counsel’s offer of proof, on that date, while following a theft 
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suspect on the surveillance cameras, Work failed to maintain constant surveillance of the 

suspect. When the suspect was stopped he was not in possession of any Target 

merchandise.1 

When asked by the court why the reprimand was relevant defense counsel argued 

that it showed “that when looking at surveillance, Mr. Work makes errors.” 

In denying the request the court stated, 

“I’m going to deny the request to call Mr. Work for that purpose for 

two reasons: Number one, I find it irrelevant; number two, it’s something 

that could have been gone into in cross-examination. Counsel, while not 

disclosing that information to the People, elected, for whatever reason, not 

to go into it, so I would also deny the request to produce that evidence 

because it was not disclosed in a timely basis.” 

Bakersfield police officer Scott Roberts then testified, in pertinent part, that he 

responded to the report of a theft at the Target store. Work told Officer Roberts that 

Lander committed the theft and provided a description of him. The officer showed Work 

a picture of a man and Work identified the man as Lander. 

DISCUSSION 

The Recall of Witness Work 

 Lander contends that the reprimand Work received from Target was relevant as 

impeachment evidence because it had the potential to demonstrate to the jury that Work 

 

1 The reprimand indicates that on December 4, 2012, Work was involved in the 

surveillance and apprehension of a suspected shoplifter who was detained outside the 

store and found not to be in possession of any store merchandise. During the surveillance 

Work lost sight of the suspect when he entered aisle B16. According to the reprimand 

this violated the store’s policy that required that prior to any “productive merchandise 

recovery” certain steps should be “completed” including maintaining sufficient 

observation of a suspect. By not doing so, Work “failed to ensure that the [suspect] did 

not dispose of, or remove, merchandise from their person that had been previously 

concealed.” The reprimand also indicates that after being contacted, the suspect 

explained to Work that he had removed the merchandise in the aisle where Work lost 

sight of him. Work went to the location indicated by the suspect and found the 

merchandise there. 
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was not proficient at his job and incorrectly accused another person of theft. Lander 

further contends that the reprimand had a direct bearing on Work’s credibility with 

respect to his identification of Lander as the man who took the Blu-ray Player and the 

television from the store. Thus, according to Lander, by denying his request to recall 

Work the court effectively denied him his constitutional rights to present a defense, to 

confront witnesses, to a fair trial, and to due process. Lander further contends that 

because Work was the main witness for the prosecution and he identified Lander as the 

man who took merchandise from the store, Lander was prejudiced by the court’s denial 

of his request to recall Work. Alternatively, he contends his defense counsel denied him 

effective representation by his failure during cross-examination to impeach Work with 

the reprimand. We will reject these contentions. 

“The abuse of discretion standard of review applies to any ruling by 

a trial court on the admissibility of evidence. [Citation.] This standard is 

particularly appropriate when, as here, the trial court’s determination of 

admissibility involved questions of relevance .... [Citation.] Under this 

standard, a trial court’s ruling will not be disturbed, and reversal of the 

judgment is not required, unless the trial court exercised its discretion in an 

arbitrary, capricious, or patently absurd manner that resulted in a manifest 

miscarriage of justice. [Citation.]” (People v. Guerra (2006) 37 Cal.4th 

1067, 1113.) 

“‘Relevant evidence’ means evidence, including evidence relevant to 

the credibility of a witness or hearsay declarant, having any tendency in 

reason to prove or disprove any disputed fact that is of consequence to the 

determination of the action.” (Evid. Code, § 210.) 

The main issue in the instant case was whether Lander was the man Work saw on 

December 7, 2012, taking Target property out of the store through an emergency exit. 

Work’s earlier failure to maintain sufficient visual surveillance of a suspect to ensure he 

still possessed store merchandise when apprehended did not involve dishonesty. It also 

did not have the tendency to prove or disprove that Work was incorrect in his 

identification of Lander as the man who stole the Blu-ray Player and television. Thus, we 
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agree with the trial court that the reprimand Work received was not relevant to any issue 

before the court. 

Lander contends that evidence of the reprimand was relevant “because it had the 

potential to demonstrate to the jury that Mr. Work was not proficient at his job and 

incorrectly accused another person of theft.” Lander is wrong. All the reprimand shows 

is that on one occasion Work was involved in a merchandise recovery incident that was 

not successful because Work failed to maintain continuous surveillance of a suspected 

shoplifter. It does not necessarily follow from this one reprimand that Work was not 

“proficient at his job” as Lander contends. In any event, Lander fails to explain how 

Work’s failure to maintain continuous surveillance of a suspected shoplifter on one 

occasion undermined his identification of Lander, whom he had seen in the store on 

numerous previous occasions. Therefore, since the reprimand Lander sought to crossexamine Work about was not relevant, the court did not abuse its discretion when it 

denied Lander’s request to recall Work; nor did the court’s ruling deny Lander his 

constitutional rights to present a defense, to confront witnesses, to a fair trial, or to due 

process. 

There is also no merit to Lander’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim. “‘[I]n 

order to demonstrate ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must first show 

counsel’s performance was “deficient” because his “representation fell below an 

objective standard of reasonableness ... under prevailing professional norms.” 

[Citations.] Second, he must also show prejudice flowing from counsel’s performance or 

lack thereof. [Citations.] Prejudice is shown when there is a “reasonable probability that, 

but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been 

different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in 

the outcome.” [Citations.]’ [Citation.]” (In re Avena (1996) 12 Cal.4th 694, 721.) “If it 

is easier to dispose of an ineffectiveness claim on the ground of lack of sufficient 
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prejudice, which we expect will often be so, that course should be followed.” (Strickland 

v. Washington (1984) 466 U.S. 668, 697.) 

Since we have already concluded that the evidence of Work’s reprimand was not 

relevant to any issue before the court, it follows that Lander was not prejudiced by the 

failure of defense counsel to cross-examine Work regarding this reprimand. 

Accordingly, we also reject Lander’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim. 

Review of the In Camera Proceedings 

On March 28, 2013, Lander filed a Motion for Release of Records to Defense of 

Materials and Documents Sought by Subpoena Duces Tecum seeking the release of 

Work’s personnel records Lander subpoenaed from Target. 

 On April 11, 2013, the court agreed to review the records in camera and release to 

the defense any relevant records. At an in camera hearing on April 16, 2013, the court 

ordered all the records released to the defense. 

 Lander asks this court to conduct an independent review of the sealed transcript of 

the in camera hearing during which the court released Work’s personnel records to 

defense counsel to determine if the court erred in withholding any of the subpoenaed 

records. (Cf. People v. Mooc (2001) 26 Cal.4th 1216 [explains procedure to be followed 

for discovery of police personnel records].) The record, however, indicates that the court 

provided defense counsel all the records that were produced pursuant to defense 

counsel’s subpoena and that the April 16, 2013, in camera hearing was not transcribed. 

Thus, there is nothing for this court to review. 

DISPOSITION 

The judgment is affirmed.