Opinion ID: 2544195
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Informant Reliability

Text: As an alternative ground for finding the affidavit insufficient, petitioner contends the reviewing court should not credit the victims' statements because the girls were not reliable informants, citing People v. Hogan (1969) 71 Cal.2d 888, 891, 80 Cal.Rptr. 28, 457 P.2d 868 and People v. Gardner (1967) 252 Cal.App.2d 320, 325, 60 Cal.Rptr. 321. These cases are inapposite. In Hogan, after rejecting as insufficient the information provided by an untested, anonymous informant, we distinguished as presumptively reliable the information provided by the victim of the crime. Such a person, may expect to be called to testify after an arrest, and may be exposing himself to an action for malicious prosecution if he makes unfounded charges, is more than a mere informer who gives a tip.... ( Hogan, at p. 891, 80 Cal.Rptr. 28, 457 P.2d 868.) The Gardner court likewise described a victim as `more than a mere informer. He is an observer of criminal activity, who by calling the police, acts openly in aid of law enforcement.' ( Gardner, at p. 325, 60 Cal.Rptr. 321, quoting People v. Lewis (1966) 240 Cal.App.2d 546, 550, 49 Cal. Rptr. 579.) From these dicta, petitioner distills a concrete requirement that a victim must consciously consider the eventual need to testify and potentially be subject to malicious prosecution charges, and must personally call the police, or else her statements will be presumed unreliable. Petitioner misperceives Hogan and Gardner. We have distinguished between those informants who are often criminally disposed or implicated, and supply their `tips' ... in secret, and for pecuniary or other personal gain and victims or chance witnesses of crime who volunteer their information fortuitously, openly, and through motives of good citizenship. ( People v. Ramey (1976) 16 Cal.3d 263, 268-269, 127 Cal.Rptr. 629, 545 P.2d 1333.) O. and J. neither concealed their identity to shield themselves from liability for false statements nor offered information for any ulterior or pecuniary motive. We have never conditioned a victim's presumptive reliability as petitioner proposes, and decline to do so now. The trial court correctly deemed the children presumptively reliable.