In re Webb
Bettie Webb, defendant in the underlying criminal matter, was arrested and charged with two felony counts. She posted bail and was released from custody. At arraignment, the court imposed, as an additional condition of release, that she waive her Fourth Amendment right to be free of warrantless or unreаsonable searches. We granted review to decide whether, when a criminal defendant posts bail, the court has authority to impose additional release conditions. We conclude that the court does have authority to impose reasonable conditions related to public safety. Because the question has become moot as to defendant, we do not decide whether the court properly imposed the specific condition.
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
As the Court of Appeal summarized, defendant “was arrested and eventually charged in a felony complaint with knowingly bringing controlled substances into a state prison (
waiver, finding it had inherent authority to do so.” (In re Webb (2018) 20 Cal.App.5th 44, 47, fns. omitted (Webb).) Specifically, the court ordered defendant to ” ‘submit your person, property, vehicle, personal effects to search at any time and any place, with or without a warrant, with or without reasonable cause when required by a pretrial services officer, a probation officer, or any other law enforcement officer.’ ” (Id. at p. 47, fn. 2.)
Defendant challenged the search condition by a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the superior court, which that court denied. She then filed the instant “petition for a writ of habeas corpus contending the magistrate lacked statutory or inherent authority to impose the bail search condition, and imposition of the condition constitutes a pretrial restraint without due process protections such as notice and a hearing or any showing that she poses a heightened risk of misbehaving while on bail.” (Webb, supra, 20 Cal.App.5th at pp. 47-48; see People v. Standish (2006) 38 Cal.4th 858, 884 [“defendants may correct error in the setting of bail by seeking a writ of habeas corpus or other extraоrdinary writ ordering reconsideration of custody status or release“].)
The Court of Appeal issued an order to show cause. Ultimately, the majority concluded the trial court had neither statutory nor inherent authority to condition defendant‘s bail on a Fourth Amendment waiver, and it ordered the condition vacated. It disagreed with language in Gray v. Superior Court (2005) 125 Cal.App.4th 629 (Gray) and In re McSherry (2003) 112 Cal.App.4th 856 (McSherry) that concluded that, even when a defendant posts bail, the court has inherent authority to impose reasonable bail conditions. Because the majority concluded the court had no authority to impose the condition at all, it did “not reach Webb‘s contention that the court denied her due process rights to notice and a fair hearing in imposing the bail condition.” (Webb, supra, 20 Cal.App.5th at p. 57.)
Acting Presiding Justice Benke authored a concurring opinion. Relying hеavily on Gray, supra, 125 Cal.App.4th 629, and McSherry, supra, 112 Cal.App.4th 856, she argued “that a trial court has inherent authority to impose conditions on a defendant‘s release, even when a defendant is able to post the amount of bail set forth in the court‘s bail schedule.” (Webb, supra, 20 Cal.App.5th at p. 57 (conc. opn. of Benke, Acting P.J.).) However, noting that this authority is “fairly narrow” (id. at p. 59), she agreed that the court erred in imposing the search condition under the circumstances. She argued that when defendant had posted bail and her guilt had not been established, “any invasion of her other constitutional rights must be closely connected to a risk of flight or a risk of harm to the community and based on a factual record which supports such intrusion. Importantly, where a condition of bail invades a constitutional right, trial courts must consider whether the extent of the invasion is warranted by the nаture and imminence of the risk, and whether . . . there are alternative means of protecting the public‘s interests. [Citation.] While it is true, as the trial court stated, that given the circumstances which gave rise to the charges against Webb, there is some likelihood she is a habitual drug user and associates with other drug users and distributors, on this record which comes to us only after her arraignment, I am not convinced the fairly intrusive remedy of imposing a Fourth Amendment waiver on her is appropriate. Such a waiver is unrelated to any flight risk and only indirectly related to preventing harm to the community, as opposed to Webb herself.” (Id. at pp. 59-60.)
The San Diego County District Attorney petitioned for review, raising a single issue: “Do trial courts possess inherent authority to impose reasonable bail conditions related to public safety on felony defendants who are released on monetary bail?” We granted the petition to resolve the conflict between the majority opinion in the Court of Appeal and the opinions in Gray, supra, 125 Cal.App.4th 629, and McSherry, supra, 112 Cal.App.4th 856.
II. DISCUSSION
The district attorney informs us that, after the petition for review was filed, the underlying matter was resolved by a guilty plea and probation disposition. Accordingly, this question is moot аs to defendant. Nevertheless, the district attorney urges us to decide “the issue presented because it presents a question of statewide general public concern.” We agree. “We have discretion to decide otherwise moot cases presenting important issues that are capable of repetition yet tend to evade review.” (Conservatorship of Wendland (2001) 26 Cal.4th 519, 524, fn. 1.) Questions involving release оn bail especially tend to evade review. Accordingly, we will decide the issue presented even though it is moot as to defendant.
Regarding the merits, we note preliminarily what the issue does not involve. The petition for review presented only the broad question of whether trial courts have authority to impose conditions on felony defendants who are released on bail, i.e., the рoint on which the majority below disagreed with Gray, supra, 125 Cal.App.4th 629, and McSherry, supra, 112 Cal.App.4th 856. The district attorney expressly did not seek review of the specific question “of whether the bail condition imposed in this case was a proper exercise of the trial court‘s inherent authority.” Additionally, this question has become moot as to defendant. Accordingly, we need not and do not decide the narrow question.
We are also aware that recent legislation, titled “Pretrial release or detention: pretrial services,” makes major changes in California‘s pretrial release procedures. (
Finally, defendant did post bail. For this reason, the issues regarding the propriety of requiring bail as a condition of release raised in In re Humphrey (2018) 19 Cal.App.5th 1006, review granted May 23, 2018, S247278, are not presented. We express no opinion regarding the recent legislation or the issues raised in Humphrey.
In In re York (1995) 9 Cal.4th 1133 (York), we held that a trial court could condition the release of an accused on his or her own recognizance on “the defendant‘s agreement to submit to random drug testing and warrantless search and seizure during that period.” (Id. at p. 1137.) In doing so, however, we distinguished between persons released on their own recognizance and those released after posting bail. We said that the petitioner‘s challenge to the release condition “rests upon the flawed premise that a defendant who seeks [own recognizance] release has the same reasonable expectation of privacy as that enjoyed by persons not charged with any crime, and by defendants who have posted reasonable bail.” (Id. at p. 1149.)
The majority below believed that York‘s distinguishing between those released on their own recognizance and those released on bail in this way was a “persuasive indication” that such a condition could not be placed on a person who, like defendant, has posted bail. (Webb, supra, 20 Cal.App.5th at p. 53.) But York did not confront — let alone decide — the question now before us: whеther any release conditions may be imposed on felony defendants who post money bail at the scheduled amount.
Two cases postdating York, however, considered whether a court may impose release conditions on a person who has posted bail. In McSherry, supra, 112 Cal.App.4th 856, a case involving misdemeanor charges, the court held that “a trial court may impose reasonable bail conditions on the granting of that bail,” but it also cautioned that “the conditions have to be reasonable and related to public safety.” (Id. at p. 858.) The court modified the conditions the trial court had imposed. As modified, it upheld conditions that the petitioner — who had been convicted in the past of sex-related crimes involving children and a vehicle — (1) not drive a motor vehicle, (2) stay at least 200 yards away from children under the age of 17, and (3) stay at least 200 yards from specified places where children were present. (Id. at pp. 859, 863.)
In Gray, supra, 125 Cal.App.4th 629, the petitioner, a medical doctor charged with various felony counts, was released on bail. The court ordered, as a release condition, that the petitioner be prohibited from practicing medicine. The Court of Appeal held that, procedurally, thе order violated the petitioner‘s due process rights. (Id. at pp. 636-641.) But, citing McSherry, supra, 112 Cal.App.4th 856, the court also held that a trial court may impose reasonable conditions even if the person has been released on bail, and that the condition imposed in that case is not necessarily unreasonable. (Id. at pp. 642-643.)
In reaching this conclusion, the Gray court explained that “[t]here is no explicit statutory authority for the trial court to do what it did here.
findings that a defendant charged with a misdemeanor is not entitled to an own recognizance (OR) release.3 Here, because Gray surrendered voluntarily pursuant to a warrant setting bail and because he is charged with felony counts, the statutes expressly authorizing bail conditions do not apply. Nevertheless, although the statutory authority is limited, there is a general understanding that the trial court possesses inherent authority to impose conditions associated with release on bail. [Citing, inter alia, McSherry, supra, 112 Cal.App.4th 856.] In McSherry, the court reаsoned that if a trial court is statutorily authorized to impose bail conditions on a person charged with a misdemeanor (see
The Gray court also explained that “[b]efore legislative amendments to the Penal Code in 1987, the only permissible purpose оf bail was to ensure the defendant‘s presence in court.
(McSherry, supra, 112 Cal.App.4th at p. 860.) Now, ‘public safety . . . is . . . the primary factor for the court to consider in the setting of bail.’ (Id. at p. 861; see
The concurring justice below agreed with Gray and McSherry in this respect. She believed that “we must recognize the practical necessity that in particular cases, in order to assure a defendant‘s appearance and protect the public from harm, a trial court has the power to impose conditions which restrain the behavior or provide monitoring of a defendant while criminal proceedings are pending — even where as here, the defendant has the ability to post cash bail.” (Webb, supra, 20 Cal.App.5th at p. 58 (conc. opn. of Benke, Acting P.J.).)
The majority below found Gray and McSherry “unpersuasive.” (Webb, supra, 20 Cal.App.5th at p. 56.) It noted (as did the Gray court) that the references to bail conditions in sections 1269c and 1270 involved situations other than this one — deciding whether to increase or decrease bail for a person arrested without a warrant (
We agree with McSherry, Gray, and the concurring opinion below that the trial сourt does have authority to impose reasonable release conditions even when the person has posted bail. Several statutes provide for release conditions on bail. In addition to the two statutes cited in Gray and the majority below (
Moreover, after McSherry and Gray were decided, the voters amended California‘s Constitution to make clear that trial courts do have authority to impose reasonable release conditions on persons who post bail.
In Townsel v. Superior Court (1999) 20 Cal.4th 1084, we encountered a similar situation. There, the trial court issued orders to protect jurors’ privacy that went beyond what the statutes had expressly authorized. Recognizing that “trial courts have always possessed the inherent power to protect jurors’ physical safety and privacy,” we upheld the orders. (Id. at p. 1087.) We explained that the protective measures the trial court imposed were within its authority in part because they were “fully consistent” with the purpose of protecting juror safety — a purpose reflected in the relevant statutes. (Id. at p. 1096.)
The same is true for bail: reasonable conditions generally further, rather than undermine, the important legislative purpose of protecting public safety. (See
Accordingly, we conclude that trial courts hаve authority to impose reasonable conditions related to public safety on persons released on bail. We need not here consider in detail the exact contours of this authority. We stress, however, that, as the concurring justice noted below, this authority is “fairly narrow.” (Webb, supra, 20 Cal.App. 5th at p. 59 (conc. opn. of Benke, Acting P.J.).) Any condition must be reasonable, and there must be a sufficient nexus betweеn the condition and the protection of public safety.
III. CONCLUSION
We disagree with the reasoning of the Court of Appeal majority to the extent it held that trial courts have no authority to impose release conditions on persons who post bail. Because the question is moot as to defendant, we need not decide whether the specific condition was valid. Instead, we revеrse the judgment of the Court of Appeal and remand the matter to that court with directions to discharge the order to show cause and deny the petition for writ of habeas corpus as moot.
CHIN, J.
We Concur:
CANTIL-SAKAUYE, C. J.
CORRIGAN, J.
LIU, J.
CUÉLLAR, J.
KRUGER, J.
GROBAN, J.