Court Opinion

ID: 9541540
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:26:26.809297+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:03:14.433286
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I dissent.
The majority have correctly recited the underlying principles of law controlling the disposition of this case. And I have no quarrel with the basis for the legislative enactment of Penal Code section 844 and the general desirability of compliance therewith. There are undoubtedly a number of punctured bodies occupying cemetery plots today because defenders of their own castles were unable to distinguish between unidentified law enforcement officers and unauthorized intruders.
However, in this instance the majority deftly detour past some relevant factual circumstances and therefore misapply existing law to arrive at an erroneous destination.
The arresting officer testified that the defendant’s wife, in making a complaint for felony assault with a deadly weapon, informed him “that he came home that night and they got into an argument, then he slapped her and choked her until she became unconscious, and then she observed her dog was dead, possibly from an overdose of pills.” She also advised the police officer that her husband had been a patient at Norwalk State *326Hospital, a.mental institution, and that he had not returned to the hospital. An inference could be drawn therefrom that he was an escapee or a psychiatric parole violator. The wife not only “requested” the officer to enter the house in order to arrest the defendant, she advised the officer that “the front door was unlocked.”
When the officer and his partner approached the front door, they complied with section 844 to the extent of knocking but they did not identify themselves in the silent darkness because “no one answered” their knock. If no one responds, to whom do they identify themselves? Knowing that the wife had purposely left the door unlocked in order to facilitate their entry, the officers entered the premises and placed the defendant under arrest.
In Tompkins v. Superior Court (1963) 59 Cal.2d 65 [27 Cal.Rptr. 889, 378 P.2d 113], we concluded that a joint occupant who is away from the premises may not authorize police officers to enter and search the premises “over the objection of another joint occupant who is present at the time,” as in that case, where “no emergency exists.” There the joint occupant had been sought and arrested by the police. Here the wife, a joint occupant, not only authorized the police officers to enter and search the premises, she affirmatively made the initial contact and request, and there was no entry made over the objection of the other joint occupant. Thus Tompkins is distinguishable.
Tompkins did, however, refer to the existence of an “emergency” (at p. 69), and other cases suggest that noncompliance with section 844 may be excused if there are “exigent circumstances” (Greven v. Superior Court (1969) 71 Cal.2d 287, 295 [78 Cal.Rptr. 504, 455 P.2d 432]). I would find the following to be a significant congeries of exigent circumstances: in the early morning hours the wife, a joint occupant of the premises, sought out and affirmatively requested the police to enter and search the premises and to arrest the defendant, her spouse; the other occupant of the premises, the defendant, had been accused of a felony involving violence—assault with a deadly weapon; the defendant had been a patient in a mental hospital and may have been an escapee or psychiatric parole violator; the wife reported defendant may have killed their dog that night, and the defendant was known to have dangerous drugs in his *327possession or under his immediate control. The foregoing facts justified the arresting officers in omitting ritualistic compliance with section 844.
I would deny the petiton for writ of mandate.
McComb, J., and Burke, J., concurred.