Opinion ID: 2604113
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Hamilton Incident

Text: (9a) Petitioner was presiding in the Los Angeles Municipal Court when John Hamilton appeared before him to discuss his inability to pay a fine. Petitioner had presided over his trial for failure, as a pedestrian, to yield the right of way to a vehicle. He knew that Hamilton was indigent and possibly mentally imbalanced. He also believed, on the basis of reports of prior incidents in the courthouse, that he was potentially violent. He thus ordered that Hamilton's bag (which was out of his reach) be searched. This revealed some food and a small paring knife with a thin serrated blade measuring barely four and one-quarter inches. Petitioner promptly found Hamilton in violation of Penal Code section 171b, which prohibits bringing into a courtroom a knife with a blade in excess of four inches, and had him remanded, setting bail at $10,000. That afternoon, on petitioner's initiative, a deputy public defender appeared with Hamilton. Petitioner found Hamilton in contempt for entering the courtroom with a knife and sentenced him to five days in jail. He further ordered a mental evaluation under Penal Code section 4011.6. When the deputy public defender objected to the examination, petitioner imposed on Hamilton a $500 fine, to be served at the rate of $30 per day, while continuing to insist on a mental evaluation. Hamilton reacted by informing petitioner that he was out of order and schizophrenic, and that he, Hamilton, was God and part heir of the Giannini family. Petitioner found him guilty of two more counts of contempt, each of which was punished by a consecutive sentence of an additional five days, plus fines of $500 for each count, to be served at the rate of $30 per day. The punishment thus amounted to 15 days in jail and a total fine of $1,500. The superior court subsequently granted Hamilton's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The Commission charged petitioner with abuse of the contempt power (wilful misconduct) and unwarranted impatience, discourtesy and hostility towards an unrepresented defendant (prejudicial conduct). The masters and the Commission concluded that petitioner's fears arising out of reports of a prior knife incident, as corroborated by the bailiff, mitigated petitioner's conduct, and they therefore found only prejudicial conduct. We agree that the actions at the very least reflect conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. Remanding Hamilton to custody initially could not be justified for failure to pay the fine for the underlying infraction nor was it appropriate as punishment for contempt for having a knife in the courtroom in the absence of written findings and an order. Indeed, the search of a bag on the basis of rumors regarding an earlier incident was itself questionable, as was petitioner's overreaction to a small paring knife that was in any event beyond the defendant's reach. (Cf. In re Jasper (1973) 30 Cal. App.3d 985 [106 Cal. Rptr. 754].) (10) Even more troubling is the fact that when the deputy public defender later questioned the order for a mental observation because the examination might not be possible within the five-day period of incarceration, petitioner imposed a fine of $500, to be served at $30 per day, in addition to the original sentence of five days in jail. The transcript reveals that petitioner was aware that Hamilton was indigent and would be compelled to work the fine off at the daily rate. He thus increased the penalty for contempt far beyond the five days permitted by law (Code Civ. Proc., § 1218; In re Antazo (1970) 3 Cal.3d 100 [89 Cal. Rptr. 255, 473 P.2d 999]) to an effective period of incarceration of some 22 days simply to ensure that Hamilton would be held in jail long enough for a mental examination. (9b) The ensuing two contempt counts, triggered by Hamilton's delusional remarks, suffer from all the shortcomings of the foregoing but are further defective because they impose consecutive sentences for a single course of conduct. (See, e.g., In re Keller (1975) 49 Cal. App.3d 663 [123 Cal. Rptr. 223].) The result is that a mentally disturbed, indigent defendant  who had the misfortune to have a small paring knife in his bag while requesting an extension of time to pay a $50 fine for jaywalking  was effectively sentenced by petitioner to approximately 65 days in jail. There is little doubt that Hamilton may have been unstable and in need of treatment, but these punitive measures bear virtually no relation to his almost trivial offense and his obvious need for care.