Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/58/349.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 22:17:25+00:00

Document:
Cornell R. Young for Defendant and Appellant.
Evelle J. Younger, Attorney General, Jack R. Winkler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, S. Clark Moore, Assistant Attorney General, Donald J. Oeser and Penina S. Van Gelder, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., the police-officer detail had the residence under surveillance but observed no activity within the residence nor any person enter or leave it. The plan of operation decided upon was that, at 9 a.m., the officers would effect entry from all doors simultaneously, without knocking. The entry was to be effected by knocking the doors down.
Officer Ortiz and another officer stationed themselves at a dining room door while Officers Barnes and Gripe stationed themselves at the rear door of the premises. The testimony of the officers was that they yelled "police officers" practically simultaneously with kicking in the doors to effectuate a break-in entry.
Defendant's wife and child were found in the master bedroom and defendant was found in the bathroom with a gun in his hand. It was established that the two shots had come from the gun held by defendant.
Officer Gripe testified that, when confronted in the bathroom, defendant had on a T-shirt and a pair of trousers. Officer Mikkelson, who made entry from the front door, testified that he went to the bathroom and found defendant in custody of Officer Gripe and that defendant was wearing a T-shirt and underwear shorts -- not a pair of trousers. Officer Mikkelson also testified that, before breaking the front door to gain admittance, he announced: "Police officers. Open the door"; that he heard officers at the side and rear entrances announcing "police officers" simultaneously with the breaking to gain entry.
Mrs. Carmella Rodriguez testified that she lived two houses away from defendant's residence and that on the morning in question she was in her yard around 9 a.m. and heard the words, "This is the police -- Open up"; that she then ran into her house and, from the inside of her house, heard the same words again and the crash of glass and wood breaking. She estimated that a few minutes elapsed between the demand for entry that she heard and the sound of breaking glass and wood.
Defendant testified in his own defense and admitted firing the first shot intentionally but stated that the second shot went off by accident. Defendant testified that he was asleep and was awakened by his wife indicating that someone was breaking into the house. Defendant denied hearing anyone announce that they were police officers and testified that he had no reason to believe that the breaking was by police when he fired to scare the intruders away.
Defendant made a pretrial motion to suppress evidence under Penal Code section 1538.5. This motion was denied. Defendant's motions for acquittal under Penal Code section 1118.1, made at the conclusion of the prosecution's presentation of evidence and again after both sides had rested, were denied by the trial judge.
 As one ground for reversal, defendant claims error in the issuance by the magistrate of a search warrant containing a "no-knock" provision. Defendant relies upon Parsley v. Superior Court (1973) 9 Cal. 3d 934 [109 Cal. Rptr. 563, 513 P.2d 611], which held that magistrates are without power to give prior authorization in a search warrant for a [58 Cal. App. 3d 354] police officer to violate Penal Code section 1531 by effecting a forcible entry without prior notice to the occupant of his authority and purpose, and a refusal of admittance from the occupant, and that the prosecution may not rely on such advance excusal to justify the officers' failure to comply with section 1531.
The prosecution points out that Parsley was decided subsequent to the dates of issuance and execution of the warrant in the case at bench, and can have no effect unless it be given retroactive application. There appears to be no case law indicating whether or not Parsley is to be given a retroactive application. Although Parsley was decided on August 28, 1973, the search warrant in that case was executed on March 17, 1972. Since the judicial authorization for noncompliance with Penal Code section 1531, declared illegal in Parsley, occurred more than a year prior to the judicial authorization involved in the case at bench, we consider that notions of fairness dictate that Parsley be made applicable to the judicial authorization issued in the case at bench in April 1973. We hold, therefore, that failure of the officers to comply with Penal Code section 1531 cannot be predicated on judicial authorization contained in the search warrant.
The prosecution contends that, even if Parsley is interpreted to render the "no-knock" provisions of the search warrant invalid in the case at bench, the error is harmless because the officers were entitled to make a no-knock entry under the exception set forth in Parsley. It is defendant's position that the police officers' break-in entry did not satisfy the requirements of the exception for an unannounced entry and, therefore, that such officers were not "engaged in the performance of [their] duties" under Penal Code section 245, subdivision (b) -- which precludes defendant's conviction under that section.
 In the case at bench, the prosecution asserts that the facts known to the police officers are substantially similar to the situation presented in Dumas. In Dumas the facts were obtained by the police officers from a reliable informant. In the case at bench the facts about defendant were obtained from arrest reports which were read by Officer Ortiz. Defendant's arrest record indicated the use of firearms by defendant. Although the arrest records did not reveal the disposition of each case and Officer Ortiz testified that he did not make a determination of the disposition of each case, the question presented is whether these facts sufficiently justified the officers in believing that compliance with Penal Code section [58 Cal. App. 3d 356] 1531 would increase their peril, frustrate the arrest of defendant or permit the destruction of evidence. In addition to the arrest record indicating assaultive behavior by defendant in the past, the record indicated a prior altercation with a police officer because of defendant's carrying of a firearm and also that at a time of defendant's previous narcotic arrest he had attempted to dispose of the contraband.
We hold that the facts known to the officers at the time of the break-in entry were sufficient to bring the officers within the no-knock exception set forth in Parsley and Dumas and that the trial court's denial of defendant's pretrial suppression-of-evidence motion, made under Penal Code section 1538.5, was proper.
This leads us to a consideration of defendant's contention that, nevertheless, he was entitled to a jury determination of whether Officer Barnes, the alleged victim in count I of the information, or Officer Gripe, the alleged victim in count II of the information, was "engaged in the performance of his duties" as required for defendant's conviction under Penal Code section 245, subdivision (b). Both the prosecution and defendant rely upon the same authorities as being definitive with respect to the validity of this contention of defendant. These authorities are the cases of People v. Curtis (1969) 70 Cal. 2d 347 [74 Cal. Rptr. 713, 450 P.2d 33]; People v. Muniz (1970) 4 Cal. App. 3d 562 [84 Cal. Rptr. 501]; and People v. Jones (1970) 8 Cal. App. 3d 710 [87 Cal. Rptr. 625].
Curtis, Jones and Muniz deal with the principles of law that govern the rights of a defendant to use varying degrees of force against a police officer depending upon whether the officer's arrest of defendant is lawful or unlawful. These cases establish that, by virtue of Penal Code section 834a, resistance to an unlawful arrest constitutes the misdemeanor offense of a battery under Penal Code section 243 because the victim officer is not "engaged in the performance of his duties." "[W]e must construe section 243, like section 148, as excluding unlawful arrests from its definition of 'duty.'" (Curtis, supra, 70 Cal. 2d 347, at p. 355.) "An officer is under no duty to make an unlawful arrest." (Jackson v. Superior Court (1950) 98 Cal. App. 2d 183, 189 [219 P.2d 879].) If, however, the officer is making a lawful arrest, a defendant's resistance becomes a felony under Penal Code section 243.
The cases of Curtis, Jones, and Muniz all dealt with situations in which the validity or invalidity of an arrest or detention of a suspect was involved. That is not the situation involved in the case at bench. Here, we are concerned with the validity or invalidity of the service of a search warrant.  Do the legal principles applicable to an arrest, as set forth herein, apply to a search of premises? We hold that they do.
 Having determined in the case at bench that the search warrant could not be served without announcement of authority and purpose [58 Cal. App. 3d 358] (Pen. Code, § 1531) on the basis of prior judicial authorization, we must next consider whether the officers were acting under the Parsley and Dumas exception to bring them within the terms of Penal Code section 245, subdivision (b), of "being engaged in the performance of [their] duties."
In the case at bench, therefore, a part of the corpus delicti of the felony defined in Penal Code section 245, subdivision (b), is the fact that the police officer who is assaulted with a deadly weapon is engaged in the performance of his duties. This element of the offense must be submitted to the jury under appropriate instructions so that the offense defined by Penal Code section 245, subdivision (b), may be differentiated from the felony defined by Penal Code section 245, subdivision (a), which carries a lighter sentence. This the trial judge did not do.
The error in the failure of the trial judge to instruct the jury on this corpus delicti element of the offense created by Penal Code section 245, subdivision (b), was compounded with the fact that, in his argument to the jury, the prosecutor stated that the judge had determined the propriety of the police action in the entry into defendant's home. The trial judge ruled that the remark was prejudicial and out of order, and sustained an objection made by defense counsel out of the presence of the jury. The defendant requested that the jury be admonished, but the record does not reflect any admonition being given by the trial judge. Hence the prejudicial statement remained before the jury. That these errors constitute prejudicial errors requiring a reversal of the judgment of conviction is scarcely open to question.
Nevertheless, we consider another contention made by defendant.
Prior to this cross-examination of defendant, Officer Barnes had testified on direct examination, as a part of the prosecution's case in chief, that upon his entry into the master bedroom, defendant's wife was struggling with the pocket of a pair of man's trousers; that he subsequently recovered the trousers she dropped to the floor and removed from a pocket thereof a .22 caliber loaded Derringer gun. This evidence of what defendant's wife was doing and of Officer Barnes' recovery of the gun had no relevancy with respect to the two offenses charged against defendant. Defense counsel should have objected to this testimony of Officer Barnes on the grounds of irrelevancy.
The claimed relevance of the loaded Derringer gun on the issue of defendant's intent is without substance. The inference sought by the prosecution is purely one of sheer speculation -- the antithesis of relevancy. The admission into evidence of this irrelevant evidence -- highly prejudicial in nature -- also constitutes reversible error.
The judgment of conviction (order granting probation) is reversed.
The majority holds that Parsley v. Superior Court (1973) 9 Cal. 3d 934 [109 Cal. Rptr. 563, 513 P.2d 611], an appeal from denial of a writ, should have been given retroactive effect. With that I disagree.
"Q By Mr. Abouaf [prosecutor]: What was your state of mind when you went to that location [defendant's house] to execute the search warrant?
"A It was the same as when I requested noncompliance with 1531 from the issuing magistrate for the two reasons I stated, the fear of destruction of evidence and the safety of the officers involved serving the warrant."
Regarding the trial court's admission of evidence of a derringer pistol found in the pocket of defendant's pants (a point not raised in appellant's brief), I would conclude the evidence was possibly admissible (see: People v. Dumas (1973) 9 Cal. 3d 871, 877 [109 Cal. Rptr. 304, 512 P.2d 1208] and the evidence was not so prejudicial as to warrant reversal.
Furthermore, defendant contends that his conditions of probation are invalid, particularly the (standard) condition requiring the probationer to submit to search or seizure. His argument is not persuasive. Defendant argues that blanket search provisions have no relationship to his conviction for assault with a deadly weapon (upon a peace officer) in view of the many articles which the law has permitted to be classified as "deadly." However, since the majority does not discuss this point (instead, choosing to reverse the judgment on other grounds) I cannot state whether I will agree or will disagree with it. For that reason, my dissent makes no further commentary upon defendant's contention.
FN 1. Penal Code section 245, subdivision (b), provides, in pertinent part, that "[e]very person who commits an assault with a deadly weapon or instrument ... upon the person of a peace officer ... , and who knows or reasonably should know that such victim is a peace officer ... engaged in the performance of his duties, when such peace officer ... is engaged in the performance of his duties shall be punished ...."
FN 2. Defendant purports to appeal from the denial of his motion for new trial. Under Penal Code section 1237, an order denying a motion for a new trial is made reviewable upon appeal from a final judgment but is not itself an appealable order. Hence, we dismiss the purported appeal from the order denying the motion for a new trial.
FN 3. Penal Code section 1531 provides: "The officer may break open any outer or inner door or window of a house, or any part of a house, or anything therein, to execute the warrant, if, after notice of his authority and purpose, he is refused admittance."

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