Court Opinion

ID: 9796371
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:56:19.126939+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:50:10.688700
License: Public Domain

MORENO, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
A majority of the court concludes that the protective order required by Evidence Code section 1045, subdivision (e),1 “that the records disclosed or discovered may not be used for any purpose other than a court proceeding pursuant to applicable law,” limits the use of Pitchess discovery (Pitchess v. Superior Court (1974) 11 Cal.3d 531 [113 Cal.Rptr. 897, 522 P.2d 305]) to the proceeding in which the discovery was sought (lead opn., ante, at pp. 1040-1043). The lead opinion concludes in part C that a prosecutor is entitled to notice of the date and place of a Pitchess hearing so that he or she can assist the trial court if it has any questions regarding discovery, but has no right to concurrently receive materials disclosed to the defense. (Lead opn., ante, at pp. 1043-1046.)
 While I join in part C of the lead opinion, I respectfully disagree with the majority’s conclusion in part B regarding the limits of a section 1045(e) protective order. Instead, I believe the Legislature intended that a section 1045(e) protective order permit the use of Pitchess discovery in any court proceeding pursuant to applicable law.

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Discussion

A. Section 1045
In 1978, and again in 1982, the Legislature considered amendments to section 1045 that would have restricted use of the information disclosed in a Pitchess motion to the particular case in which the disclosure was made. The Legislature rejected this restriction on both occasions. (See lead opn., ante, at pp. 1040-1041.) Instead, the only limitation the Legislature placed on the use of such records is that they “may not be used for any purpose other than a court proceeding pursuant to applicable law.” (§ 1045(e).) A majority of the court concludes, nonetheless, that the use of Pitchess records is limited to the particular case in which those records were obtained. It attempts to explain away the Legislature’s express rejection of such a limitation in the following manner: because the Legislature “gave up” in its attempt to enumerate specific types of cases subject to Pitchess discovery, the language “ ‘a court proceeding pursuant to applicable law’ ” “did not necessarily mean that disclosure was not limited to the case in which it was being sought; rather, we surmise it meant the Legislature was not defining substantively what kind of case that might be.” (Lead opn., ante, at p. 1042.)
I find this reasoning unpersuasive. First, it departs too far from established canons of statutory construction. In People v. Robles (2000) 23 Cal.4th 1106, 1111 [99 Cal.Rptr.2d 120, 5 P.3d 176] (Robles), we stated: “ ‘Because statutory language “generally provide [s] the most reliable indicator” of [legislative] intent [citations], we turn to the words themselves, giving them their “usual and ordinary meanings” and construing them in context [citation].’ [Citation.] If the language contains no ambiguity, we presume the Legislature meant what it said, and the plain meaning of the statute governs. [Citation.] If, however, the statutory language is susceptible of more than one reasonable construction, we can look to the legislative history in aid of ascertaining legislative intent. [Citation.]”
A plain reading of section 1045(e) does not lend itself to the majority’s view. Simply stated, there is no language in the phrase “the court shall . . . order that the records disclosed or discovered may not be used for any purpose other than a court proceeding pursuant to applicable law” that suggests that the use of Pitchess information is limited to a particular court proceeding. While the Legislature could have utilized phrases such as “this court proceeding” or “the pending court proceeding” that would have so limited the use of such records, it did not. Instead, the Legislature’s use of the indefinite article in the phrase “a court proceeding” indicates that the use of Pitchess discovery was not to be limited to the court proceeding in which *1059discovery was sought, but to court proceedings in general. Thus, under section 1045(e), information received through Pitchess may not, for example, be posted on the Internet; but it may be used in any court proceeding pursuant to applicable law.
Second, even if we assume, for the sake of argument, that the plain language of section 1045(e) is susceptible to two interpretations and is thus ambiguous, we look to the statute’s legislative history to ascertain the Legislature’s true intent. (Robles, supra, 23 Cal.4th at p. 1111.)
The statutory Pitchess discovery scheme, of which section 1045(e) is a part, was enacted by the Legislature in 1978. As the lead opinion recognizes (lead opn., ante, at p. 1040), the original bill was amended on August 7, 1978, to state that the use of records obtained pursuant to Pitchess discovery “shall be limited to the litigation in aid of which access to the records or information was sought.” (Assem. Amend, to Sen. Bill No. 1436 (1977-1978 Reg. Sess.) Aug. 7, 1978, italics omitted.) But a subsequent Assembly amendment deleted this language and replaced it with the current version of section 1045, subdivision (d), which contains no such blanket limitation and instead provides that “the court may make any order which justice requires to protect the officer or agency from unnecessary annoyance, embarrassment or oppression.” (Assem. Amend, to Sen. Bill No. 1436 (1977-1978 Reg. Sess.) Aug. 30, 1978, italics omitted.)
Subdivision (e) of section 1045 was added in 1982. The original version of the bill adding this provision expressly provided that peace officer personnel records obtained through Pitchess discovery “may not be used for any purpose or in any proceedings other than those identified in the motion pursuant to Section 1043.” (Sen. Bill No. 1065 (1981-1982 Reg. Sess.) Mar. 30, 1981, italics omitted.) This language was removed, however, by a subsequent amendment and replaced with the current version of section 1045(e) which, as we have seen, provides only that such records “may not be used for any purpose other than a court proceeding pursuant to applicable law.”
The Legislature, in enacting the Pitchess discovery scheme, and again in enacting section 1045(e), considered and rejected limiting the use of Pitchess discovery to the proceedings in which the discovery was obtained. In Hess v. Ford Motor Co. (2002) 27 Cal.4th 516, 531-532 [117 Cal.Rptr.2d 220, 41 P.3d 46], we observed that, during the enactment process of Civil Code section 3291, the Assembly amended the bill to include prejudgment interest accrued pursuant to Civil Code section 3291 in the judgment; thereafter, the *1060Assembly deleted such language from the final version. We stated, “ ‘the Legislature’s rejection of a specific provision which appeared in the original version of an act supports the conclusion that the act should not be construed to include the omitted provision.’ ” (Hess, supra, 27 Cal.4th at p. 532.)
We applied this general rule, in the context of Pitchess, in City of Santa Cruz v. Municipal Court (1989) 49 Cal.3d 74 [260 Cal.Rptr. 520, 776 P.2d 222] (City of Santa Cruz), where we considered whether the Legislature, when it passed section 1043, subdivision (b), intended to require that affidavits in support of a request for Pitchess discovery be based upon personal knowledge. We noted that the initial drafts of section 1043 differed from its final version, in that the Legislature deleted the personal knowledge requirement. We stated: “[I]f [the Legislature’s] intent was truly to abrogate the use of affidavits on information and belief and to require affidavits based on personal knowledge, it is reasonable to assume that it would have done so explicitly. [Citation.] It obviously knew how. [Citation.] We decline to redraft the statute to impose such a burdensome requirement where the Legislature has conspicuously failed to do so. [|] We need not speculate, however, as to the Legislature’s intentions in this regard. The legislative history of section 1043 reveals that the Legislature expressly considered and rejected a requirement of personal knowledge.” (City of Santa Cruz, supra, 49 Cal.3d at p. 88.)
The reasoning utilized in City of Santa Cruz applies equally here. The Legislature obviously knew how to limit the use of Pitchess materials to a particular case. It conspicuously failed to do so. Our court should not, therefore, redraft section 1045(e) to impose such a burdensome requirement when the Legislature expressly considered and rejected the same. Instead, the better view, based on Hess and City of Santa Cruz, is that the Legislature not only “gave up” on enumerating specific crimes subject to Pitchess disclosure, it also “gave up” on trying to limit the use of Pitchess material to a particular proceeding.
The lead opinion counters by claiming (1) that section 1045(e) is “part of an overall statutory scheme that carefully balances peace officers’ privacy interests in their personnel records against defendants’ rights of access to information relevant to their defense, . . . [and] allowing a defendant to share such information with other defendants would defeat the purpose of the balancing process,” and (2) that the phrase “applicable law” in section 1045(e) “referred to section 1043 and thus signified the Legislature’s intent *1061to restrict use of the disclosed information to the proceeding in which it was sought.” (Lead opn., ante, at p. 1042.)2
I disagree, as there are sound reasons for the Legislature’s decision to permit the use of Pitchess discovery in any subsequent proceeding. First, the careful screening process that precedes the disclosure of Pitchess records adequately protects any privacy interest an officer has in any record disclosed, even if such record may be admitted in a subsequent judicial proceeding. As we recently held in People v. Mooc (2001) 26 Cal.4th 1216, 1229 [114 Cal.Rptr.2d 482, 36 P.3d 21], the obligation of the city attorney, as a custodian of Pitchess records, is to bring to the in-chambers Pitchess hearing only those documents that he or she deems “potentially relevant.” The trial judge then screens those documents again, and discloses only those that are “material[] to the subject matter involved in the pending litigation.” (§ 1043(b)(3).) Any Pitchess information eventually received by a defense attorney, therefore, has met the section 1043(b)(3) “good cause” and relevancy requirements, and has been found to fall outside of Pitchess protection. In other words, any information received by a defense attorney (typically an incident of police misconduct) has been “distilled” through Pitchess', there is no need to repeat that process, with different judges, again and again.
Second, a previously disclosed Pitchess document cannot be admitted into evidence in any subsequent “court proceeding pursuant to applicable law,” unless it meets the relevancy requirements of section 210, which is the functional equivalent of section 1043(b)(3)—such document must be material to the subject matter involved in the pending litigation. Of course, such document is also subject to exclusion under section 352 if its probative value is substantially outweighed by its prejudicial effect.3 Accordingly, the majority oversteps in its assumption that the phrase “applicable law” limits the use of Pitchess records to the particular case in which those records were obtained.
Sadly, the majority’s interpretation forces defense attorneys, city attorneys and trial judges to “reinvent the wheel” with each “new” Pitchess request *1062regarding the same peace officer—defense attorneys must write motions, city attorneys must scour records, and judges must conduct in-chambers hearings, simply to make the same Pitchess determination over and over again. Certainly, trial judges are capable of ruling on evidentiary motions, prior to trial, to determine whether a previously disclosed Pitchess record is admissible in a particular case without resort to yet another Pitchess motion. Repetitive Pitchess motions are an unnecessary and enormous waste of scant judicial and governmental resources. It is therefore reasonable to infer that the Legislature intended to avoid this result when it expressly rejected, twice, limiting the use of Pitchess disclosure to the pending proceeding.
The majority’s decision also puts defense attorneys from the same firm in the awkward position of withholding information from one another. (Lead opn., ante, at p. 1043.) And where one lawyer has two cases in which the same officer is a witness, it follows from the majority’s holding that she must not disclose Pitchess information to herself. I do not believe the Legislature intended this absurd result.
This aspect of the majority’s holding also forces defense attorneys to needlessly conduct repetitive investigations upon receiving Pitchess records. Thus, victims of substantiated police misconduct, previously disclosed by a court under Pitchess, must intrusively be located and interrogated, again and again, only to provide the same information to different defense investigators. In In re Hamilton (1999) 20 Cal.4th 273, 307-309 [84 Cal.Rptr.2d 403, 975 P.2d 600], Justice Chin, in his concurring opinion, expressed concern over the practice of interviewing jurors years after a verdict in a death penalty case in the hopes of generating a misconduct claim. He opined that “perhaps the time has come for the Legislature to enact a comprehensive ‘Juror Bill of Rights’ designed to protect jurors from intrusive tactics while at the same time permitting reasonable means to expose the occasional genuine case of jury misconduct.” (Id. at p. 308 (conc. opn. of Chin, J.).) It seems that the victims of police misconduct should be entitled to the same courtesy.
B. Unanswered Question
Most glaringly, the lead opinion leaves unanswered the threshold question of which particular Pitchess “records disclosed or discovered” are subject to a section 1045(e) protective order. Specifically, the information provided to the defense by the trial court after a Pitchess hearing, in daily trial practice, is limited to a complainant’s or witness’s name, address, telephone number, and the date of the incident. As we stated in City of Santa Cruz, supra, 49 Cal.3d at page 84: “[C]ourts have generally refused to disclose verbatim *1063reports or records of any kind from peace officer personnel files, ordering instead (as the municipal court directed here) that the agency reveal only the name, address and phone number of any prior complainants and witnesses and the dates of the incidents in question.”
Thus, a trial court’s Pitchess disclosure necessarily presupposes an independent investigation by defense counsel. Accordingly, the threshold question we should endeavor to answer is whether a section 1045(e) protective order (a) may only restrict the use of the actual information disclosed by the trial court—i.e., the complainant’s and witness’s name, address, telephone number and the date of the incident; or (b) may also encompass the direct fruits of the information developed during this independent investigation— e.g., a complainant’s or disclosed witness’s statement; or (c) may encompass other information obtained during this independent investigation—e.g., physical evidence (such as a photograph of injuries), or a statement obtained from a newly discovered witness. Until the threshold question of what constitutes Pitchess information is answered, the majority’s decision leaves trial courts, city attorneys, and defense attorneys, with little guidance.
Conclusion
The lead opinion, quoting City of Santa Cruz, supra, 49 Cal.3d at page 84, repeats this court’s 1989 observation that, “‘[a]s statutory schemes go [Pitchess] is a veritable model of clarity and balance.’ ” (Lead opn., ante, at p. 1038.) But as I said in my dissenting opinion in City of Los Angeles v. Superior Court (2002) 29 Cal.4th 1, 19 [124 Cal.Rptr.2d 202, 52 P.3d 129], “While this may have been true in 1989, in daily trial practice, the Pitchess pendulum has swung too far in favor of police privacy rights and against the disclosure of relevant evidence.” In the present case, the pendulum continues to swing in the wrong direction.
The petition of real parties in interest for a rehearing was denied April 16, 2003. Baxter, J., Chin, J., and Brown, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

Hereafter section 1045(e). All statutory references are to the Evidence Code unless otherwise noted.

Section 1043, subdivision (b)(3) (hereafter section 1043(b)(3)) requires, in order to discover Pitchess information: “Affidavits showing good cause for the discovery or disclosure sought, setting forth the materiality thereof to the subject matter involved in the pending litigation and stating upon reasonable belief that the governmental agency identified has the records or information from the records.”

Section 352 provides, in relevant part: “The court in its discretion may exclude evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the probability that its admission will . . . create substantial danger of undue prejudice, of confusing the issues, or of misleading the jury.”