Justia California Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Respondent Tyson Mayfield had an extensive criminal record that included multiple acts of violence against racial minorities. As a third-strike defendant, respondent was facing a mandatory prison sentence of 25 years to life. However, the trial court dismissed one of his prior strike convictions in the interest of justice under Penal Code section 1385 and sentenced him to five years in prison. The district attorney contended the dismissal constituted an abuse of discretion, and the Court of Appeal agreed. "Everything about respondent’s crime and his record shouts for application of the Three Strikes law. There is nothing about his criminal history or personal character that suggests he somehow falls outside the spirit of the Three Strikes law. We therefore reverse the judgment and remand the matter for further proceedings." View "California v. Mayfield" on Justia Law

Bauer, an entertainment magazine publisher, appealed the denial of its special motion to strike the amended complaint of plaintiffs, Richard Simmons and Teresa Reveles. Simmons is a self-described health and fitness guru and Reveles is Simmons's live-in caretaker. Plaintiffs filed suit against Bauer after discovering that a private detective hired by Bauer unlawfully attached an electronic tracking device in Reveles' car. Plaintiffs also filed suit against the detective and the detective's sole proprietorship, LA Intelligence.The Court of Appeal affirmed the denial of the special motion and held that Bauer failed to demonstrate the conduct at the heart of the lawsuit — the unlawful use of the tracking device — is, as Bauer contends, conduct in furtherance of its exercise of the right of free speech in connection with issues of public interest under the anti-SLAPP statute. View "Simmons v. Bauer Media Group USA, LLC" on Justia Law

While walking one evening in San Diego's College Area, Defendants Lula Sophia Gong Cotsirilos and Tess Elisabet Edman were stopped and cited for underage possession of alcohol in a public place. Although the State filed no written opposition and made no appearance at the suppression hearing, they did subpoena the two investigating officers. Rather than take evidence, the superior court granted the suppression motions based solely on the State's failure to respond or appear. The appellate division of the superior court agreed, concluding that while no written opposition was required, the State's failure to respond or appear compelled suppression. The Court of Appeal concluded that in the ordinary infraction case, the prosecution was not required to oppose a motion to suppress by filing an opposition brief or appearing at the suppression hearing. Instead, it could meet its burden to provide justification for a warrantless search by subpoenaing relevant law enforcement witnesses, who could in turn provide narrative testimony to the court in the same manner as would be permitted in the prosecution's absence at an infraction trial. Because the superior court concluded the prosecution's nonappearance in and of itself compelled suppression, the Court of Appeal reversed and remanded for a new hearing on the motions to suppress. View "California v. Cotsirilos" on Justia Law

The attempted replacement of a fence led defendant Yi Chih Chen to threaten his neighbors with a shotgun. Following a jury trial, defendant was acquitted on felony charges but convicted on a misdemeanor brandishing charge and sentenced to 36 months of summary probation. At trial, his position was that he acted in defense of property. The Court of Appeal affirmed, finding that displays of deadly force were an unreasonable means of defending property where there is no home invasion or threat of death or serious bodily harm. View "California v. Chen" on Justia Law

Petitioner Bill Sandlin filed a petition for mandamus relief to challenge the candidate statements submitted by Real Parties in Interest Ed Pope, Jaci Woods, and Frank McGill (Real Parties) in their candidacy for positions on the Irvine City Council. Petitioner alleged Real Parties’ candidate statements would mislead voters about the current city council’s actions and the facts concerning a failed referendum to relocate the site of a planned state veterans cemetery. Real Parties opposed the petition and filed a special motion to strike under the anti-SLAPP statute. While Real Parties’ anti-SLAPP motion was pending, the trial court denied the mandamus petition in its entirety, finding Petitioner’s challenge to Pope’s candidate statement was untimely, and finding he failed to establish Woods’s or McGill’s candidate statements were false, misleading, or otherwise barred by the Elections Code. The court then denied Real Parties’ anti-SLAPP motion as moot, and further found it was barred by the public interest litigation exemption to the anti-SLAPP statute. After reviewing their anti-SLAPP motion de novo, the Court of Appeal concluded the motion was not moot, the public interest litigation exemption was inapplicable, and the motion should have been granted. View "Sandlin v. McLaughlin" on Justia Law

Defendant Jessie Reneaux was convicted by jury of inflicting corporal injury on his girlfriend, L.E., with whom he was cohabiting, guilty of false imprisonment of his girlfriend, and guilty of dissuading his girlfriend from testifying against him. He appealed, arguing: (1) the trial court violated his right to confront witnesses against him by allowing the girlfriend’s out of court testimonial statements to be admitted into evidence; and, (2) the trial court abused its discretion when it imposed consecutive rather than concurrent terms. In supplemental briefing, defendant contended that in light of the recent passage of Senate Bill No. 1393 (SB 1393), this matter should have been remanded to permit the trial court to consider whether it should exercise its newly-legislated discretion to strike or dismiss the prior serious felony conviction enhancements imposed under Penal Code section 667(a). To this, the State agreed. The Court of Appeal concluded defendant forfeited, by his own wrongdoing, his Sixth Amendment right to confront and cross-examine L.E., and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing defendant to consecutive prison terms. The Court therefore affirmed judgment of conviction, but remanded to the trial court for the limited purpose of allowing the trial court to exercise its sentencing discretion under Penal Code sections 1385 and 667(a) to strike or dismiss the prior serious felony conviction enhancements. View "California v. Reneaux" on Justia Law

The State of California, represented by the San Diego County District Attorney, appealed the dismissal of all criminal charges against defendants Mario Aguilera, Jesus Castaneda, Ricardo Eaton, Daniel Gracia, William Sherman, and Jose Villanueva. Defendants were charged with multiple felonies, including robbery and carjacking arising from an aborted illegal drug transaction. The trial court found that defendants' constitutional right to due process was violated because the federal government refused defendants' requests to produce potentially exculpatory evidence in the possession of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). After review, the Court of Appeal concluded that neither due process nor any other constitutional provision required dismissal of the charges against defendants under the circumstances here. The dismissal order was therefore reversed. View "California v. Aguilera" on Justia Law

After the verdict in this case, a juror asserted that during the trial he had been visited at home by a man who purported to be the brother of one of the defendants, causing the juror to be scared. The trial court denied a new trial motion brought by defendants-appellants Anthony Albert and Noah Roosevelt Davis due to that incident, leaving in place their convictions of first degree murder and gang participation. In the published portion of this opinion, the Court of Appeal rejected defendants’ claim that the Court should have presumed the juror had a bias that violated the defendants’ constitutional rights, thus affirming the convictions. In the unpublished portion of this opinion, the Court modified the judgment to correct certain sentencing errors, ordered the correction of clerical error in defendants’ abstract of judgment, reversed the orders imposing a $10,000 criminal restitution fine on each defendant, and remanded for a hearing on defendants’ ability to pay the fines. View "California v. Albert" on Justia Law

After filing unsuccessful petitions for writ of mandate challenging the approval of two of the projects under various land use laws, AFH filed suit against the City for violating the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the state Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) based on a disparate-impact theory of liability.The Court of Appeal held that the trial court correctly found AHF cannot assert a cause of action under the FHA and FEHA based on its alleged disparate-impact theory of liability where AHF has not alleged a policy that is an artificial, arbitrary, and unnecessary barrier to fair housing. In this case, AHF has not alleged that the City's policy restricts affordable housing; the City's approval of the Projects does not eliminate housing; and AHF seeks to impose a new development policy on the City, rather than to eliminate one. The court also held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying AHF leave to amend. Accordingly, the court affirmed the trial court's decision sustaining the City's and Real Parties' demurrers. View "AIDS Healthcare Foundation v. City of Los Angeles" on Justia Law

On appeal, Defendant Dammar Johnson challenged the trial court’s denial of his renewed motion to suppress. He was parked on the side of a road when two police officers approached to investigate his car’s missing registration tag. Defendant ended up handcuffed in the patrol car for resisting an officer. After defendant was detained, one of the officers performed what was described as a tow inventory search. The officer smelled marijuana emanating from the car and found “[p]ossibly a couple grams” of marijuana in the center console; the search then purportedly transitioned from an inventory search into a probable cause search, which revealed a loaded handgun in the rear cargo area of the car. Defendant sought to suppress the evidence from the search, but the motion and his renewed motion were denied. The magistrate and trial judge found the search was not an inventory search, but upheld it based on probable cause. Defendant pled no contest to being a felon in possession of a firearm. The issue this case presented for the Court of Appeal's review was whether the odor of marijuana and visual observation of approximately two grams of marijuana in a plastic baggie knotted at the top in defendant’s parked car provided probable cause to justify the search conducted by the officers. The Court concluded the officers did not have probable cause, and therefore reversed. View "California v. Johnson" on Justia Law