Court Opinion

ID: 9553797
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:35:21.58482+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:32:16.756381
License: Public Domain

CLARK, J.
I dissent." The majority concedes that blocking a doorway is a violation of Penal Code section 148 if an officer is thereby wilfully impeded from making an entry in hot pursuit. (Ante, pp. 109-110.) Therefore, defendant’s conviction should be affirmed, because that is exactly what she did.1
*111Defendant unquestionably blocked the doorway by standing in front of it and refusing to move.* 2 The contention that defendant simply took “the only position she could assume while conversing with the officers” (ante, p. 109) is undercut by the fact that she spoke with them for several minutes without getting out of bed.3 Moreover, even assuming arguendo that she did have to stand in the doorway to talk to the officers, she should have stepped aside when ordered to do so.
The majority objects: “Had she complied with the officer’s requests and stood back from the doorway this in itself would have, under the circumstances, constituted the very consent which she was not required to give.” (Ante, p. 109.) The objection is not well founded. Consent given in submission to an assertion of authority is involuntary and without legal effect. (See Bumper v. North Carolina (1968) 391 U.S. 543, 548-549 [20 L.Ed.2d 797, 802-803, 88 S.Ct. 1788]; People v. Shelton (1964) 60 Cal.2d 740, 746 [36 Cal.Rptr. 433, 388 P.2d 665]; People v. Michael (1955) 45 Cal.2d 751, 753 [290 P.2d 852].) The question whether a defendant’s consent was coerced by a claim of authority is to be decided in light of all the facts and circumstances. (See People v. Smith (1966) 63 Cal.2d 779, 798 [48 Cal.Rptr. 382, 409 P.2d 222]; People v. Bilderbach (1965) 62 Cal.2d 757, 762-763 [44 Cal.Rptr. 313, 401 P.2d 921]; see also People v. West (1970) 3 Cal.3d 595, 602 [91 Cal.Rptr. 385, 477 P.2d 409].) Stepping aside could not have been construed as anything other than submission to an explicit assertion of authority here because, after having been repeatedly refused permission to enter, the officers advised defendant a search warrant was unnecessary and threatened to arrest her if she did not move.4
*112The absence of forceful resistance {ante, pp. 108-109) is beside the point. “[T]he use of force is not an element in the violation of section 148.” (In re Culver (1968) 69 Cal.2d 898, 905, fn. 10 [73 Cal.Rptr. 393, 447 P.2d 633].) “Unlike section 834a, which applies only to forceful resistance, section 148 penalizes even passive delay or obstruction of an arrest, such as refusal to cooperate.” (People v. Curtis (1969) 70 Cal.2d 347, 356, fn. 6 [74 Cal.Rptr. 713, 450 P.2d 33].)
The conviction should be affirmed.
McComb, J., and Burke, J., concurred.

In an appeal under Penal Code section 1538.5, subdivision (m), the record must, of course, be viewed in the light most favorable to the party prevailing below. *111(See People v. Superior Court (Peck) (1974) 10 Cal.3d 645, 649 [111 Cal.Rptr. 565, 517 P.2d 829]; People v. Lawler (1973) 9 Cal.3d 156, 160 [107 Cal.Rptr. 13, 507 P.2d 621]; People v. West (1970) 3 Cal.3d 595, 602 [91 Cal.Rptr. 385, 477 P.2d 409].)

“Q. Where did [defendant] stand in relation to that threshold? A. Just in front of the door, directly in front of the door. Q. Would she have had to move in order for you to get into the premises? A. Yes, sir, she would have. . . . Q. Now, you felt that you could not walk into the apartment without at least walking over her; there was no room to walk to the side of her? A. No, sir, there was not.”

“Q. At what point in time did [defendant] get off the bed? A. After she began yelling the profanities and we requested several times and advised her several times of the situation, she then aroused from the bed very angrily.” “Q. And after you first knocked on the door and my client was awakened, how much time elapsed before—we have a general ten-minute period—how much of that ten minutes, approximately, before my client got off the bed; five minutes, would that be fair? A. Perhaps.”

“Q. Did you ever tell [defendant] to step aside so you could enter? A. Several times. Q. That is, after she got off the bed and faced you? A. Yes, sir. Q. And what did she say or do? A. Again yelling profanities and asking for a search warrant. *112Q. How were you able to get her out of your way? A. Upon advising her numerous times to move and she refused to, we advised her that if she didn’t move, that she would be placed under arrest for interfering with us in performance of our duty. She failed to move. We then placed her under arrest and began our search of the apartment for the suspect.”