Court Opinion

ID: 9565640
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:24:57.747836+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:48.562508
License: Public Domain

MANUEL, J.,
Concurring and Dissenting. — I agree that invasions of the defense camp, the intrusion by state agents into confidential attorney-client conferences, cannot be condoned. I disagree, however, with the conclusion of the majority that the only effective sanction is the dismissal of charges
Immunization of an accused from prosecution is an extraordinary remedy and has been reserved for the few cases where the state by its conduct has completely disabled itself in its ability to provide a fair trial. (See, for example, In re Newbern (1959) 175 Cal.App.2d 862 [1 Cal.Rptr. 80, 78 A.L.R.2d 901]; Eleazer v. Superior Court (1970) 1 Cal.3d 847 [83 Cal.Rptr. 586, 464 P.2d 42].) Absent jeopardy, violations of constitutional rights do not per se gain an accused immunity from punishment. (People v. Valenti (1957) 49 Cal.2d 199, 203 [316 P.2d 633]; see also People v. Hitch (1974) 12 Cal.3d 641, 653 [117 Cal.Rptr. 9, 527 P.2d 361].)1
The trial court here applied an exclusionary remedy, fashioned by the federal courts in cases involving breach of attorney-client confidentiality (O’Brien v. United States (1966) 386 U.S. 345 [18 L.Ed.2d 94, 87 S.Ct. 1158]; Hoffa v. United States (1966) 385 U.S. 293, 307-308 [17 L.Ed.2d 374, 384-385, 87 S.Ct. 408]; Black v. United States (1966) 385 U.S. 26, 28-29 [17 L.Ed.2d 26, 28-29, 87 S.Ct. 190]) and followed in Wilson v. Superior Court (1977) 70 Cal.App.3d 751 [139 Cal.Rptr. 61], which involved a surreptitious taping of a conversation between an accused and counsel. It may develop that the exclusionaiy remedy will, in a particular case, make it impossible for the prosecution to proceed. The prosecution may not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, in a particular case, that the tendered evidence is not the fruit of the unlawful intrusion into *761the defense camp. A dismissal would then be in order. Insofar as the instant case is concerned, however, resolution of that question is still in the realm of conjecture.
Here we have charges stemming from a relatively simple and unambiguous factual situation. The charged misdemeanors are trespass and failure to disperse. The acts giving rise to the criminal charges were not conducted in conspiratorial secrecy. Newspaper advertisements invited public participation in the demonstration. The planning meetings were open and public, and it was well understood that the purpose of the demonstration was to affect the use of-nuclear power to generate energy. In view of their stated purpose, the demonstrators understandably conducted their protest in the glare of the media. Thirty petitioners, with twenty other protestors and accompanied by seventy-five or one hundred news media people, crossed fences and entered an access road maintained by P.G. & E. to conduct a “sit-in” near the site of the Diablo Canyon facility. The charges resulted from these activities and the failure of some of the petitioners to disperse when instructed to do so by the sheriff’s deputies who were waiting for them. We must assume, then, that 100-plus eyewitnesses will be available to establish or disprove the validity of the charges in what appears to me to be a straightforward trespass case.
I condemn the subsequent conduct of Undercover Agent Lee in posing as a suspect and gaining entry to the meetings and conferences with attorneys who were retained to defend petitioners, and I agree that fundamental constitutional rights were violated by Lee’s presence. The question remains, however, whether the violation of petitioners’ rights, as outlined by the majority, requires that the People be barred from prosecuting the charges.
Following an extensive hearing on petitioners’ motion for dismissal, the trial court expressed outrage at Lee’s presence at petitioners’ conferences with counsel, but was convinced that there had been no communication to the district attorney’s office of any information that could be used to the benefit of the People or the detriment of petitioners. To protect petitioners’ interests, however, the trial court accepted the stipulation entered into by the parties which provided for exclusion of evidence or fruits of evidence directly or indirectly attributable to the agent’s presence at the conferences. The court said: “The stipulation entered into between counsel on October 28th, 1977, will be the order of the court in any further proceedings in this regard, in that the People may *762not use any evidence obtained by Mr. Lee or that was derived from his presence at any meetings between counsel. . . nor the fruits thereof may not be used in evidence, and that they may not in rebuttal to any evidence put forth by the defendants, use any evidence whatsoever unless the prosecution can first prove beyond a reasonable doubt that such evidence was obtained independently of the activities of Mr. Lee. . . .”
In my view the stipulation/order is sufficient to protect the petitioners’ right to a fair trial. The same remedy was proposed in Wilson v. Superior Court, supra, 70 Cal.App.3d 751, the only California case directly in point. A conversation between Wilson and his counsel had been illegally taped. The Court of Appeal held that the constitutional violation, however gross or shocking, did not justify automatic dismissal of the charges. The People were permitted to proceed to trial with the proviso that only the evidence from the preliminary hearing be used and permitting rebuttal evidence or impeachment of defense witnesses only if the People demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that the evidence they sought to adduce derived in no way from the tape. The court said at page 760: “In view ... of defense counsel’s testimony that the taped conversation with petitioner involved a discussion of defense strategy, we cannot permit the People to offer rebuttal to any evidence which may be introduced by the defense in petitioner’s forthcoming trial, nor can the prosecutor be permitted to cross-examine defense witnesses, except to impeach them with appropriate prior felony convictions, knowledge of which the People would gain from their own files, unless the People, outside the presence of the juiy, first demonstrate to the satisfaction of the trial court, beyond a reasonable doubt (Chapman v. California, supra), that the evidence they seek to adduce derives in no way from the tape. Unless the People can thus prove an independent and untainted source for their evidence, no court could be sure that the People were not aided in acquiring it by overhearing the conversation between petitioner and [counsel] unless that court further infringed petitioner’s right to counsel by listening to the tape — a remedy which we cannot force upon petitioner as it would only compound the injustice which has already been perpetrated.”
In. a similar vein here, Agent Lee’s presence at meetings involving defense strategy will preclude the People from offering any evidence or cross-examining any defense witnesses unless the People can prove an independent and untainted source for their evidence. The People’s case, as noted above, will undoubtedly consist of the testimony of persons drawn from the numerous eyewitnesses. I see no problems for the People *763in establishing that the evidence presented by these witnesses is independent of Agent Lee’s presence at defense strategy meetings. Petitioners’ defense, “political” or otherwise, will be presented by witnesses whom the People may not be able to cross-examine and against whom the People as a result of the aforementioned stipulation may not be able to present a rebuttal. But that is the People’s problem. It is the People who have the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the question sought to be asked on cross-examination did not derive from Lee’s presence at the defense strategy meetings, or that the rebuttal evidence sought to be presented was not similarly obtained.
Thus, I do not agree with the majority that “enforcement of the exclusionaiy remedy would involve exceedingly difficult problems of proof for the aggrieved client.” Once it is determined that there has been an intrusion into the defense camp, the burden shifts to the prosecution to meet the difficult task of rehabilitating its evidence against the defendants. If the trial court is faced with “inability” to rule on the independent or untainted source of the People’s evidence without knowing the substance of the illegal information, the trial court may simply rule that the People have not met their burden to prove an independent source beyond a reasonable doubt. The defendant cannot be compelled to reveal the information overheard by the intruding agent, for to do so “would only compound the injustice which has already been perpetrated.” (Wilson, supra, 70 Cal.App.3d 760.)
Fortunately, the cases are few that involve breach of the confidentiality of a defendant’s relationship with counsel,2 and we therefore have little experience for assessment of the efficacy of the exclusionary remedy. The federal court experience gives us no reason to question its effectiveness.
Pretrial intervention is unwarranted. If the trial record later discloses any prejudice to petitioners, they will have recourse by appeal. I would discharge the alternative writ, deny the peremptory writ of prohibition, and permit the trial to proceed.
Richardson, J., concurred.

 We recognize that in some instances denial of a speedy trial cannot be remedied by other than dismissal of charges. (See Strunk v. United States (1973) 412 U.S. 434 [37 L.Ed.2d 56, 93 S.Ct. 2260]; Jones v. Superior Court (1970) 3 Cal.3d 734 [91 Cal.Rptr. 578, 478 P.2d 10], but see also Crockett v. Superior Court (1975) 14 Cal.3d 433 [121 Cal.Rptr. 457, 535 P.2d 321] and Sykes v. Superior Court (1973) 9 Cal.3d 83 [106 Cal.Rptr. 786, 507 P.2d 90].)

 I do not believe that the instant case portends an increase in unlawful intrusions on confidential attorney-client conferences, as suggested by the majority opinion.