Court Opinion

ID: 9550166
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:30:44.126056+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:15:08.075857
License: Public Domain

BURKE, J.
I dissent. In.my opinion under Harris v. New York, 401 U.S. 222 [28 L.Ed.2d 1, 91 S.Ct. 643], the prosecutor was properly allowed to impeach defendant’s testimony by the illegally obtained evidence. The majority purports to distinguish this case from Harris solely on the ground that here, unlike Harris, there was no inconsistency or conflict *187between the illegally obtained evidence and defendant’s direct testimony, but, as we shall see, the jury could well have found that there was such an inconsistency. Furthermore, even if it be assumed that it was error to allow the prosecutor to impeach defendant’s testimony by that evidence, I do not agree with the majority that the error was prejudicial. The Court of Appeal unanimously concluded that any error in permitting the impeachment was harmless in view of the overwhelming evidence of defendant’s guilt, and I agree with that court’s conclusion.
On direct examination, after denying that the coin purse marked People’s Exhibit Number 1 and the heroin in the purse belonged to him, defendant was asked, inter alia, “Mr. Taylor, have you ever possessed this purse, People’s Exhibit No. ‘1’?” and he replied No, sir.” Although ambiguous, defendant’s italicized testimony, in light of the question asked, manifestly could be viewed by the jury as a general denial of the crime of possession of narcotics.1
Such a denial denies “every” fact essential to guilt. (Cf. People v. Wong Sang Lung, 3 Cal.App. 221, 223 [84 P. 843] [concerning not guilty plea]; Ballentine's Law Dictionary (3d ed.) p. 954 [same].) One fact essential to guilt of possession of narcotics is knowledge of the narcotic character of the substance possessed. (People v. Newman, 5 Cal.3d 48, 52 [95 Cal.Rptr. 12, 484 P.2d 1356]; People v. Francis, 71 Cal.2d 66, 73 [75 Cal.Rptr. 199, 450 P.2d 591].) The evidence that defendant on an occasion prior to the one resulting in the instant charges was arrested with heroin in his possession tended to contradict the denial of such knowledge that the jury could find implicit in defendant’s italicized testimony. Thus the illegally obtained evidence served to impeach defendant’s direct testimony, as well as testimony by defendant on cross-examination (e.g., that he had never seen heroin). One method of impeachment is, of course, contradiction (Evid. Code, § 780, subd. (f); Curry v. Superior Court, 2 Cal.3d 707, 715 [87 Cal.Rptr. 361, 470 P.2d 345]), and the contradictory evidence may be either direct (see Curry v. Superior Court, supra) or circumstantial (see People v. Barrow, 62 Cal.App.2d 590, 596-597 [145 P.2d 42]).
In Harris v. New York, supra, 401 U.S. 222, which involved the question whether a statement inadmissible under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. *188436 [16 L.Ed.2d 694, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 10 A.L.R.3d 974], could be used to impeach defendant’s credibility, the defendant was charged with sales of heroin to an undercover officer on January 4 and January 6. On direct examination he denied the sale on January 4 and admitted making a sale of the contents of a bag to the officer on January 6, but claimed it was baking powder and part of a scheme to defraud the purchaser. On cross-examination he was asked whether he had made specified statements to the police that partially contradicted his direct testimony, and he responded that he could not remember virtually any of the questions and answers recited by the prosecutor. In the statement defendant told the police that on January 4 the officer had used the defendant as a middleman to buy heroin from a third person with money furnished by the officer and that on January 6 the defendant had again acted for the officer in buying bags of heroin from a third person for which the defendant received $12 and part of the heroin. The jury was instructed that the statements attributed to defendant by the prosecution could be considered only in passing on his credibility and not as evidence of guilt. The statements were admittedly inadmissible under Miranda v. Arizona, supra, 384 U.S. 436, as part of the prosecution’s case in chief.
Harris v. New York, supra, 401 U.S. 222, in concluding that the statements were admissible for impeachment purposes, relied on Walder v. United States, 347 U.S. 62 [98 L.Ed. 503, 74 S.Ct. 354], a case in which the court held that the defendant’s broad assertion on direct examination that he had never possessed any narcotics opened the door, solely for the purpose of attacking the defendant’s credibility, to evidence of heroin unlawfully seized on a prior occasion. Harris recognized that “. . . Walder was impeached as to collateral matters included in his direct examination, whereas [the defendant] here was impeached as to testimony bearing more directly on the crimes charged,” but Harris stated “We are not persuaded that there is a difference in principle that warrants a result different from that reached ... in Walder .... The impeachment process here undoubtedly provided a valuable aid to the jury in assessing [the defendant’s] credibility, and the benefits of this process should not be lost, in our view; because of the speculative possibility that impermissible police conduct will be encouraged thereby. Assuming that the exclusionary rule has a deterrent effect on proscribed police conduct, sufficient deterrence flows when the evidence in question is made unavailable to the prosecution in its case in chief.
“The shield provided by Miranda cannot be perverted into a license to *189use perjury by way of a defense, free from the risk of confrontation with prior inconsistent utterances.”
The rule in Harris v. New York, supra, 401 U.S. 222, is followed in California. (People v. Hayes, 19 Cal.App.3d 459, 468 [96 Cal.Rptr. 879]; People v. Acosta, 18 Cal.App.3d 895, 903-904 [96 Cal.Rptr. 234].) The mere fact that this case involves the products of an illegal search, whereas Harris involved a statement obtained without complying with the principles in Miranda v. Arizona, supra, 384 U.S. 436, does not distinguish this case from Harris (see United States v. Warren, 453 F.2d 738, 742 (cert. den. 406 U.S. 944 [32 L.Ed.2d 331, 92 S.Ct. 2040]), and the majority makes no- claim to the contrary.
The majority, in attempting to distinguish this case from Harris v. New York, supra, 401 U.S. 222, states that “Here the defendant on direct examination offered no elaborate justification for his conduct, and the prior illegally obtained evidence was therefore not ‘inconsistent' or ‘conflicting’ with that testimony. Defendant did not rely on the illegality of the impeaching evidence as a sword to commit perjury, . . .” However, as we have seen, the jury could well have found that the illegally obtained evidence was inconsistent with an inference arising from defendant's direct testimony. The shield provided by the exclusionary rule should not be perverted into a license to commit perjury by way of a defense or to give misleading testimony on direct examination from which inferences of false matters could well be made by the jury.
The fact that here the illegally obtained evidence circumstantially rebutted an inference arising from defendant’s direct testimony, whereas in Harris the illegally obtained evidence directly rebutted specific false statements on direct examination also does not serve to distinguish this case from Harris, and the majority does not claim otherwise. Here, as in Harris, “The impeachment process . . . undoubtedly provided valuable aid to the jury in assessing [defendant's] credibility, and the benefits of this process should not be lost . . . because of the speculative possibility that impermissible police conduct will be encouraged thereby.”
I conclude that under Harris v. New York, supra, 401 U.S. 222, the prosecution was properly allowed to impeach defendant’s credibility by the evidence in question.2 Although the doctrine in Agnello v. United *190States, 269 U.S. 20 [70 L.Ed. 145, 46 S.Ct. 4, 51 A.L.R. 409], that is set forth by the majority and certain language quoted by the majority from Walder v. United States, supra, 347 U.S. 62,3 tend to support the majority’s conclusion as to error, in my opinion that doctrine and language are no longer controlling in view of Harris.
Furthermore, even if it be assumed that the court erred in permitting the prosecutor to impeach defendant’s credibility by the evidence in question, the error was harmless. (See Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24 [17 L.Ed.2d 705, 710-711, 87 S.Ct. 824, 24 A.L.R.3d 1065]; Harrington v. California, 395 U.S. 250, 252 et seq. [23 L.Ed.2d 284, 286-287, 89 S.Ct. 1726]; People v. Coffey, supra, 61 Cal.2d. 204, 223-224.) There was strong evidence that defendant had at least joint possession of the restricted dangerous drugs and heroin. The restricted dangerous drugs were underneath the dashboard of the car that was driven by defendant and in which Mrs. Riggiola was riding as a passenger in the front seat, and the heroin was in balloons inside a coin purse lying on the car’s front seat.4 Officers also testified that they found packages of balloons in an attache case that defendant admitted was his,5 and defendant admitted familiarity with “red devils.” In addition Mrs. Riggiola told the arresting officers, inter alia, that the contents of the coin purse were defendant’s, that she was a narcotics addict, and that he supplied her with narcotics. She reiterated her statements at the trial and further testified in part that she and defendant lived together during the week before her arrest and that he supplied her with heroin in return for money she made from prostitution.
*191The foregoing testimony of Mrs. Riggiola, together with the circumstantial evidence, also furnished a basis for finding defendant guilty of possession of heroin as her aider and abettor.6 Defendant’s testimony that he was unaware that she was a heroin user is simply beyond belief in view of uncontradicted evidence that he cohabitated with her for several days before his arrest, that needle marks were evident over the veins of one hand and scar tissue on the veins of her arms, and that she had had a fix shortly before her arrest.
The fact that Mrs. Riggiola’s statement concerning defendant’s supplying her with narcotics incriminated her as well as defendant tended to show its trustworthiness, and her statement was corroborated by the circumstantial evidence heretofore recited. The promises of leniency she stated had been made to her after discussions with representatives of the district attorney’s office obviously did not affect the statements she had theretofore made to the arresting officers, which statements were in accord with her testimony at the trial. There is no reasonable possibility that the fact she may have been under the influence of narcotics at the time of her arrest6
7 impaired, her capacity to perceive, recall, and narrate the simple facts concerning whether she was a narcotics addict, who supplied her with narcotics, and who owned the contents of the coin purse.
In my opinion in view of the overwhelming evidence of defendant’s guilt of the crimes charged, the prosecution has proved “beyond a reasonable doubt that the error complained of did not contribute to the verdict obtained.” (See Chapman v. California, supra, 386 U.S. 18, 24; Harrington v. California, supra, 395 U.S. 250, 252 et seq.; People v. Coffey, supra, 67 Cal.2d 204, 223-224.)
I would affirm the judgment.
Wright, C. J., and McComb, J., concurred.

The majority opinion is misleading in stating “in his direct testimony defendant did not make a general denial of the crime of possession of narcotics, or indeed of any other crime. He simply testified that the coin purse and the cigarette package found by the police in the car in which he and Riggiola were arrested did not belong to him.” He, however, testified to more than the foregoing as shown by the testimony italicized above.

This is not a case where an involuntary statement was used for impeachment purposes (see People v. Underwood, 61 Cal.2d 113, 120-121 [37 Cal.Rptr. 313, 389 P.2d 937]). nor a case in which a prior conviction invalid under Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 [9 L.Ed.2d 799, 83 S.Ct. 792, 93 A.L.R.2d 733]. was used to *190blacken the defendant’s character and thus damage his general credibility (see Loper v. Beto, 405 U.S. 473 [31 L.Ed.2d 374, 92 S.Ct. 1014]; People v. Coffey, 67 Cal.2d 204, 218-219 [60 Cal.Rptr. 457, 430 P.2d 15]). Loper distinguished the situation there presented from one where “the record of a prior conviction was used for the purpose of directly rebutting a specific false statement made from the witness stand. Cf. Walker v. Follette, 443 F.2d 167 and see Harris v. New York, 401 U.S. 222; Walder v. United States, 347 U.S. 62." (405 U.S. at p. 482, fn. 11 [31 L.Ed.2d at p. 381].)

The language in Walder consists primarily of the statement that a defendant “must be free to deny all the elements of the case against him without thereby giving leave to the Government to introduce by way of rebuttal evidence illegally secured by it, and therefore not available for its case in chief.” This language was emphasized by the dissent in Harris, but the majority in Harris apparently regarded the language as no longer of continuing validity.

That the restricted dangerous drags were in a cigarette box of a brand smoked by Mrs. Riggiola and that the coin purse was of a type an officer had seen women carry do not negate joint possession' of the contraband by her and defendant.

Although defendant testified that he had never previously seen the balloons and that they and numerous other items in the case were not there at the time of his arrest, this self-serving testimony was rebutted by the testimony of two officers that the contents of the case were exactly the same as when the case was opened at the time of the arrest.

The jury was instructed regarding the above theory as well as the theory of joint possession.

One arresting officer did not notice anything unusual about Mrs. Riggiola and did not know whether she was then under the influence of drugs. Another arresting officer, however, gave the testimony referred to by the majority indicating that she was then under the influence of drugs.