Court Opinion

ID: 9790568
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:55:01.661397+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:30.247065
License: Public Domain

PANELLI, J.
I respectfully dissent. In my view, a fair reading of the lengthy record of the actions and efforts of the prosecution to secure witness Gregory Tolbert’s presence at defendant’s trial amply supports the trial court’s finding of due diligence. Moreover, I am not persuaded that we should abandon or depart from our settled and long established standard of review of such rulings. This is particularly so where, as the majority ultimately determines, it makes no difference which standard of review is applied.
With respect to the standard-of-review issue, I note that none of the cases cited by the majority involved the question of whether a showing of due diligence had been made. Apparently even the Ninth Circuit has not yet applied its McConney (United States v. McConney (9th Cir. 1984) 728 F.2d 1195) analysis to that issue, while it has determined the following questions to be essentially factual in nature: Whether a defendant’s consent to search was voluntary (United States v. Salvador (9th Cir. 1984) 740 F.2d 752, 757, fn. 3); whether a defendant’s Miranda waiver was knowing and voluntary (United States v. Doe (9th Cir. 1985) 764 F.2d 695, 697); whether a defendant was competent to stand trial (United States v. Lindley (9th Cir. 1985) 774 F.2d 993); and whether an Internal Revenue Service summons was enforceable (Ponsford v. United States (9th Cir. 1985) 771 F.2d 1305, 1307-1308). I submit that due diligence is similarly an essentially factual question.
Before the prior testimony of a witness may be introduced the declarant must be unavailable as a witness. (Evid. Code, § 1291.) [Unavailable as a witness’s means that the declarant is: . . . (5) Absent from the hearing and the proponent of his or her statement has exercised reasonable diligence but has been unable to procure his or her attendance by the court’s process. . . .” (Id., § 240, subd. (a).) (Italics added.) The determination of “reasonableness” is peculiarly a factual determination since it may be made only after an examination of the specific facts and circumstances presented in the case under review. What is reasonable in one case may not be in another; this determination can only be made on a case-by-case basis. But such statements are not new pronouncements. One need only go back to 1980 where we said: “due diligence is a factual question to be determined by the trial court according to the circumstances in each case; under familiar rules the trial court’s ruling will not be disturbed unless an abuse of discretion appears. [Citations.]” (People v. Jackson (1980) 28 Cal.3d 264, 312 [168 Cal.Rptr. 603, 618 P.2d 149].) The determination is, in many ways, similar to the question of whether certain conduct was negligent—a matter which *999the McConney court stated was subject to the deferential review standard for factual questions. (728 F.2d at pp. 1203-1204.) Accordingly, I conclude that it is appropriate to apply our abuse of discretion standard to the factual question of due diligence.
I find no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s ruling that the prosecution had exercised reasonable diligence to procure Tolbert’s presence and testimony. In order to assess the ruling it is necessary to give a detailed description of the evidence presented at the hearing.
Detective Hollis Spillman testified at length about Tolbert’s reluctance to testify because of fear for his safety. In June 1980, Tolbert told Spillman he could not testify against any of the defendants because he felt he would be murdered. He neither appeared nor testified at the July 1980 preliminary hearing involving Claudell Louis, Basil Louis, Darlene Johnson and Vincent Ates. When Tolbert was arrested in August 1980 he asked to be segregated from the general jail population because of his fear of being killed. At that time, he told Spillman that he did not appear at the July preliminary hearing because he had heard from his girlfriend Sheila Ates—sister of one of the defendants—that the Louis family had made plans to “eliminate” him. Accordingly, Spillman made arrangements for Tolbert to be placed in “keep away” status in the jail.
In September or October 1980, Spillman learned that Tolbert had been attacked while in jail. Several inmates in the “keep away” section jumped him, beat him and stabbed him with a knife or pencil through the cheek all the way to the mouth. Tolbert said that he thought the attack was due to a contract on him by Claudell Louis. He had heard there was a $20,000 contract out for his death. Spillman was unable to determine whether the Louises were behind the attack.
Defendant’s preliminary hearing was held in January 1981. Tolbert testified at that hearing. Before his testimony Tolbert demanded to see Spillman to tell him he was afraid that no matter where he was in county jail he would be killed. Tolbert thought that Claudell Louis’ attorney, Robert Filippi, was going to have his food poisoned. Tolbert also said that even though he was in “keep away” status and had an individual cell in the hospital ward, he had left his cell once and had found that Claudell Louis was on the same floor wandering around with no restraints.
During defendant’s preliminary hearing, Tolbert told Spillman about a visit from Barry Fisher, an investigator for Attorney Filippi. Fisher had asked Tolbert not to testify and said that “these people have lots of money, they have ways of getting to [him].” He also told him to write a letter to *1000Filippi saying Tolbert’s previous statements were untrue. Spillman confirmed with the sheriff’s department that an investigator for the defense had visited Tolbert in jail.
As a result of all of this Tolbert asked Spillman to have him moved from the county jail to the USC Medical Center jail ward where he thought he would be safer. Spillman tried, but was unsuccessful since Tolbert was not ill.
Tolbert was still in jail on other charges when he was scheduled to testify on Wednesday, March 4, 1981, at the murder trial of Claudell Louis, Basil Louis, Darlene Johnson and Vincent Ates. Despite his “keep away” status, when brought to court on March 4, Tolbert was handcuffed to a stairwell next to a common hallway which was used by in-custody inmates (who were not handcuffed) to go in and out of the courtroom. Moreover, Darlene Johnson, a defendant in the case, was handcuffed to a chair only four feet away from Tolbert and talked to him.
When Spillman went to see Tolbert there, Tolbert was very angry and upset and told him he would not testify. Two attorneys, who were appointed to advise Tolbert regarding whether he should testify, told Spillman that Tolbert would testify only if he were given own recognizance (O.R.) release from jail at the end of his testimony and that he would appear in court on the following Monday (Mar. 9, 1981) for sentencing on the charges for which he was incarcerated—either two counts of joyriding or one count of joyriding and one of petty theft. (These charges were pending against Tolbert in Van Nuys.) Tolbert’s attorney said he understood Tolbert was to be sentenced to time served and thereafter released.
In addition, Tolbert asked to be relocated at the termination of any sentence which he might receive on March 9. Spillman agreed, made arrangements for Tolbert to be in the witness protection program, and so informed Tolbert.
The Van Nuys court granted Tolbert O.R. release on Friday, March 6. Previously, on March 4 or 5, in the presence of Tolbert’s attorneys, Spillman had personally served Tolbert with a subpoena for defendant’s trial, which was then set for May 14,1981. At that time, Tolbert expected to be sentenced to time served and released on Monday. He was warned that he would face more charges if he failed to appear on Monday. He failed to appear for his Monday sentencing hearing.
*1001Spillman began trying to find Tolbert as soon as he learned that he had not appeared. He checked with the police departments and jails in Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco. He contacted the Oakland police and asked them to check periodically for Tolbert at Sheila Ates’s grandmother’s house. In March, they missed him there once by one hour. Oakland police distributed about 600 photos of Tolbert in the Bay Area and kept checking the jails, hospitals and Ates’s grandmother’s house. Spillman checked at Ates’s apartment several times and periodically contacted the bartender whose name Tolbert had given as a contact. He also talked with Tolbert’s attorneys. Spillman did not refer to the information on Tolbert’s O.R. form because he thought the information would be unreliable due to the fact Tolbert had fled.
The prosecutor testified that when he saw Tolbert on March 4, Tolbert was outraged and felt betrayed. Tolbert did not trust them to assure his safety in jail and absolutely refused to testify unless he was given O.R. Although one of Tolbert’s attorneys said he thought Tolbert would get sentenced to time served and released on Monday, the prosecutor thought that Tolbert would spend some additional time in jail.
On March 4, the prosecutor was faced with three alternatives: (1) He could refuse to give Tolbert O.R. and lose his testimony, which he considered vital. He felt there was no way he could force Tolbert to testify, that Tolbert was perfectly willing to sit in jail and refuse to testify. (2) He could give Tolbert O.R. and then invoke the procedures of Penal Code section 879 on material witnesses, but had he done that, “the breach of good faith would have been so gross as to be unconscionable, and I do not know if [szc] any judge, which would have enforced the provisions of 879, had I offered the man an O.R., had him testify and then had him placed in custody. It seemed to me that just as alternative No. 1 was a completely unacceptable one, so was alternative No. 2.” (3) Give Tolbert the O.R. for the three-day period. The prosecutor considered it possible that Tolbert would skip, but on balance thought the chances were better that he would show up. If he did, and were sentenced to further time, he would be in custody and available for the trial of Vincent Louis which was scheduled for May 14. If, however, Tolbert were given time served, it was a real possibility that he would take advantage of the witness protection program they had discussed with him. And, if Tolbert ran, they would have at least two months to find him for the Vincent Louis trial and they felt they could pick him up as they had on three prior occasions.
The prosecutor described his choice as follows: “On the basis of all of that, it appeared to me that there was no—considering the seriousness of the case, the special circumstances, the death penalty that we were seeking *1002against Claudell and Basil, there was no reasonable alternative but to afford him the O.R. for that period of time.”
The court recognized that the prosecutor had no good choice and concluded that the one made—to grant O.R.—was reasonable under the circumstances. The court also noted that the prosecutor had had Tolbert personally served with a subpoena for the May 14 trial before he was released.
The majority’s finding of error rests on its evaluation of the “pre-departure” diligence of the prosecution. The majority concludes the prosecution “failed to exercise virtually any effort to prevent Tolbert from becoming absent.” In light of the record, however, that conclusion does not withstand scrutiny. Moreover, I am not convinced that the prosecution should be obligated to prevent the disappearance of a witness and that its failure to do so prevents the use of the witness’s prior testimony where there is a showing of good faith and reasonable efforts to produce the witness for trial. More importantly, as the record reveals, the prosecutor was concerned with securing Tolbert’s testimony, not just his presence at both trials. The prosecutor recognized that Tolbert could simply elect to sit in jail and refuse to testify. It was for that reason that he did not view the material witness provisions (Pen. Code, §§ 879, 881, 882) as a viable approach. Moreover, even if he had attempted to invoke those provisions, the constitutional protection against unreasonable detention of witnesses (Cal. Const., art. I, § 10) would surely have been violated by attempting to hold Tolbert for the two months or more until defendant’s trial. (See In re Jesus B. (1977) 75 Cal.App.3d 444, 451-452 [142 Cal.Rptr. 197].) Additionally, nowhere in the record is there any evidence to support the assumption that had the O.R. release not been granted, Tolbert’s testimony at defendant’s trial was assured. In fact, based on the record, it would appear that Tolbert’s testimony at defendant’s trial was indeed problematic. The irony is that had Tolbert not been released on O.R., and instead had remained incarcerated or reincarcerated, he most likely would not have given testimony. Under those circumstances his refusal to testify would have made him unavailable as a witness, thereby permitting the prosecution to introduce his preliminary hearing testimony. (See People v. Walker (1983) 145 Cal.App.3d 886, 894 [193 Cal.Rptr. 812].)
The majority concludes that the prosecution’s obligation to use reasonable efforts to procure the presence of the witness has two aspects, one of which imposes a “duty to use reasonable means to prevent a present witness from becoming absent.” Even if I were to accept this conclusion, in this case I believe the prosecution satisfied any such duty. As I see it, we should review the record to determine whether the prosecution’s decision to agree to Tolbert’s O.R. release was reasonable at the time it was made rather than *1003by a retrospective evaluation. Next, when Tolbert failed to honor the subpoena, we should examine the record to see whether the prosecution made reasonable efforts to locate Tolbert so as to procure his presence for defendant’s trial. My answer to both inquiries would be affirmative. I would therefore support the trial court’s determination that the prosecution acted with “reasonable diligence” as required by Evidence Code section 240, subdivision (a).
As the United States Supreme Court stated in Ohio v. Roberts (1980) 448 U.S. 56, 74 [65 L.Ed.2d 597, 613, 100 S.Ct. 2531]: “The basic litmus of Sixth Amendment unavailability is established: ‘[A] witness is not “unavailable” for purposes of . . . the exception to the confrontation requirement unless the prosecutorial authorities have made a good-faith effort to obtain his presence at trial.’ [Citations.] [K] Although it might be said that the Court’s prior cases provide no further refinement of this statement of the rule, certain general propositions safely emerge. The law does not require the doing of a futile act. Thus, if no possibility of procuring the witness exists (as, for example, the witness’s intervening death), ‘good faith’ demands nothing of the prosecution. But if there is a possibility, albeit remote, that affirmative measures might produce the declarant, the obligation of good faith may demand their effectuation. ‘The lengths to which the prosecution must go to produce a witness ... is a question of reasonableness.’ [Citation. ] The ultimate question is whether the witness is unavailable despite good-faith efforts undertaken prior to trial to locate and present that witness.”
The trial court did not err in admitting Tolbert’s preliminary hearing testimony. “Preliminary hearing testimony is presented in open court, in the presence of the defendant, at a time when the defendant is represented by counsel, in a proceeding in which the defendant has both the motive and the opportunity to cross-examine the witness, and the testimony is reported and preserved in a formal court transcript. In these circumstances the introduction of preliminary hearing testimony at trial, when the witness is legally unavailable, does not violate either the hearsay rule (Evid. Code, § 240) or the defendant’s constitutional right of confrontation (see Ohio v. Roberts (1980) 448 U.S. 56; California v. Green (1970) 399 U.S. 149 [26 L.Ed.2d 489, 90 S.Ct. 1930]).” (People v. Guerra (1984) 37 Cal.3d 385, 427 [208 Cal.Rptr. 162, 690 P.2d 635].) Furthermore, as observed in the majority opinion, defendant’s counsel also had Tolbert’s testimony at the trial of Claudell Louis, Basil Louis, Darlene Johnson and Vincent Ates read to the jury. In that testimony, Tolbert was cross-examined by four lawyers all with the motive and interest to discredit his testimony. Taken together with the cross-examination of Tolbert at defendant’s preliminary hearing, the requirements of section 1291 of the Evidence Code were met.
*1004I would find no violation of defendant’s constitutional and statutory right of confrontation.
Lucas, J., concurred.
Respondent’s petition for a rehearing was denied March 9, 1987. Racanelli, J.,* and White, J.,* participated therein. Lucas, C. J., and Panelli, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

Assigned by the Chairperson of the Judicial Council.