Opinion
Williе Ester Holloway, among others, bought rock cocaine from undercover police officers posing as drug sellers in a reverse sting operation designed to catch and deter drug traffickers plaguing many neighborhoods. Holloway appeals from the judgment entered following his resulting conviction by the court of possessing cocaine. (Health & Saf. Code, *1761 § 11350, subd. (a).) Holloway also admitted a prior serious felony conviction. (Pen. Code, § 667, subds. (b)-(i).) 1 He received a 16-month lower term, doubled under the legislative three strikes law (§ 667, subds. (b)-(i)), for a total 32-month sentence.
Issues and Holding
Holloway challenges three alleged trial court errors. (I) During the operation that resulted in his arrest, the police used rock cocaine manufactured from powder cocaine, planned to offer small samples of rock cocaine to potential buyers if necessary to complete sales, and failed to recover all cocaine used in the program. Holloway argues this activity constituted outrageous police conduct for which the trial court should have dismissed his case. (II) In this nonbifurcated court trial, the People did not present evidence of Holloway’s prior conviction before the trial court convicted him of cocaine possession. Holloway argues the trial court erroneously permitted the People to reopen, over his double jeopardy objection, to prove his prior conviction. (Ill) Holloway raises several challenges to the three strikes law. In addition, for the first time in their response brief, the People, who did not appeal, contend (IV) Holloway’s presentence custody credits should be reduced.
In the published portion of this opinion, we reject Holloway’s first two contentions. (I) We find the outrageous police conduct defense exists independent of the entrapment defense. However, none of the challenged police conduct was aimed at Holloway and most did not occur in his case. The outrageous government conduct defense cannot be asserted vicariously. (II) We also find that, because the trial was not finished, and Holloway earlier told the prosecutor he would admit the prior conviction, the double jeopardy prohibition was not violated. In the unpublished portion of the opinion, we reject all but one of Holloway’s challenges to the three strikes law. We remand the matter for resentencing for the trial court to exercise its discretion whether to dismiss Holloway’s strike. We also reject the People’s contention (issue IV). We remand for resentencing and otherwise affirm the judgment.
Facts
On April 13, 1994, Santa Monica Police Investigator Maury Sumlin obtained a court order permitting the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Crime Laboratory to process 116.31 grams of cocaine powder, seized in an unrelated, closed case, into rock cocaine. The order permitted the manufactured *1762 rock cocaine to be combined with other rock cocaine seized in other closed cases for use in a reversе sting operation designed to arrest cocaine sellers, buyers, and users at several spots in the city plagued by drug activity.
Sumlin’s declaration supporting the requested order stated: “[T]he locations to be used for these operations are the subject of an ongoing investigation. The investigation was initiated because of numerous citizen complaints of narcotics trafficking and supported by a high number of arrests for the trafficking of controlled substances. Santa Monica Police officers have made numerous undercover purchases of controlled substances at these locations recently. [^Q ... At present, ‘rock cocaine’ is the normal type of cocaine sold at these locations.” The court order required the rock cocaine be used only as part of the undercover reverse sting operation. Any cocaine not so used was to be returned to the police property division and accounted for. The order stated “that should the suspect request a sample to test the quality of the cocaine that Investigator Maury Sumlin may allow up to three (3) grams of cocaine to be used to consummate the transaction.”
On the evening of April 29, 1994, Sаnta Monica police officers conducted an undercover reverse sting operation on the Arizona stairs in Palisades Park. Much drug trafficking and related arrests occurred there. The operation was designed to reduce drug sales and purchases in the area. Officers Sipos and Acosta posed as drug sellers. Sipos stood near the top of the stairs, and Acosta was below at the second landing. Holloway approached and contacted Sipos. After a brief conversation, Sipos and Holloway walked closer to the stairs. Sipos pointed to Acosta аnd told Holloway “ ‘go down to that guy right there, he’s the one that’s holding.’ ”
Holloway approached Acosta. The two men had a discussion, “briefly . . . arguing over the amount of money that [Holloway] had . . . .” Acosta asked Holloway “if that was all he had.” Holloway answered “ ‘[Y]eah, man, that’s all[.]’ ” Acosta took some rock cocaine from a container and showed it to Holloway. Holloway handed Acosta $7 in currency, and Acosta handed Holloway three pieces of rock cocaine worth a total of about $60 if resold. Acosta told Holloway “ ‘[Y]ou’re gonna like this shit.’ ” Holloway looked at thе drugs in his hand. As Holloway turned around, other nearby undercover officers posing as potential drug buyers approached and arrested him. Before the officers could reach him, he threw away the cocaine bought from Acosta. Two pieces of rock cocaine hit a nearby wall and were recovered by the officers. Two pieces went over the wall and were not recovered. 2
In addition to Holloway, the police arrested about 50 other people who approached and bought drugs from them that evening. Several other pieces *1763 of rock coсaine were lost over the wall during the other arrests. At least one officer searched the area over the wall and recovered one piece of rock cocaine. The same officer recovered several other pieces which were thrown or dropped where the arrests were made.
The trial court denied Holloway’s section 995 motion based on alleged outrageous government conduct. The trial court later denied a similar motion made at trial, stating: “I do not find what occurred here constituted outrageous police conduct. I agree with [Hоlloway] that we do have a theory and a vehicle for testing the due process treatment of a defendant, and the outrageous government conduct [claim] is a valid inquiry. I just don’t believe it occurred in this case. [‘É I disagree with
[State
v.
Williams
(Fla. 1993)
Discussion
I. Outrageous Police Conduct.
Before deciding if the challenged police conduct was improper enough to warrant dismissal, we must determine whether this defense exists independent of the related entrapment defense. “[T]he proper test of entrapment in California is the following: was the conduct of the law enforcement agent likely to induce a normally law-abiding person to commit the offense? For the purposes of this test, we presume that such a person would normally resist the temptation to commit a crime presented by the simple opportunity to act unlawfully. Official conduct that does no more than offer that opportunity to the suspect—for example, a decoy program—is therefore permissible; but it is impermissiblе for the police or their agents to pressure the suspect by overbearing conduct such as badgering, cajoling, importuning, or other affirmative acts likely to induce a normally law-abiding person to commit the crime.
“Although the determination of what police conduct is impermissible must to some extent proceed on an ad hoc basis, guidance will generally be *1764 found in the application of one or both of two principles. First, if the actions of the law enforcement agent would generate in a normally law-abiding person a motive for the crime other than ordinary criminal intent, entrapment will be established. An example of such conduct would be an appeal by the police that would induce such a person to commit the act because of friendship or sympathy, instead of a desire for personal gain or other typical criminal purpose. Second, affirmative police conduct that would make commission of the crime unusually attractive to a normally law-abiding person will likewise constitute entrapment. Such conduct would include, for example, a guarantee that the act is not illegal or the offense will go undetected, an offer of exorbitant consideration, or any similar enticement.
“Finally, while the inquiry must focus primarily on the conduct of the law enforcement agent, that conduct is not to be viewed in a vacuum; it should also be judged by the effect it would have on a normally law-abiding person situated in the circumstances of the case at hand. Among the circumstances that may be relevant for this purpose, for example, are the transactions preceding the offense, the suspect’s response to the inducements of the officer, the gravity of the crime, and the difficulty of detecting instances of its commission. [Citation.] We reiterate, hоwever, that under this test such matters as the character of the suspect, his predisposition to commit the offense, and his subjective intent are irrelevant.”
(People
v.
Barraza
(1979)
The court further explained: “There will be no entrapment, however, when the official conduct is found to have gone no further than necessary to assure the suspect that he is not being ‘set up.’ The police remain free to take reasonable, though restrained, steps to gain the confidence of suspects. A contrary rule would unduly hamper law enforcement; indeed, in the case of many of the so-called ‘victimless’ crimes, it would tend tо limit convictions to only the most gullible offenders.” (Id. at p. 690, fn. 4.)
Both below and on appeal the parties agree there is no evidence of entrapment here. We agree. The police merely posed as drug buyers and sellers in a notorious drug trafficking area. Holloway approached the police, not vice versa. Holloway was not a target of the operation, which was designed to deter drug trafficking in the area by arresting everyone who tried to participate in the business. While the police sold Holloway the drugs at less than resale value, they did so only after trying to negotiate a higher price, which Holloway insisted he could not meet. Thus, as a matter of law, there was no entrapment here.
The California entrapment doctrine is known as an objective defense because it focuses exclusively on police conduct and ignores the suspect’s *1765 subjective intent or any predisposition to commit the crime. However, the court made clear that the basis of the defense is to deter police misconduct. (People v. Barraza, supra, 23 Cal.3d at pp. 688-689.) The outrageous police conduct defense is related to the entrapment defense and is based on the due procеss clause. (See 1 Witkin & Epstein, Cal. Criminal Law (2d ed. 1988) Defenses, § 270, p. 310; 1 LaFave & Scott, Substantive Criminal Law (1986) Entrapment, § 5.2(g), pp. 610-613.) Holloway’s claim raises two related questions. First, does the outrageous police conduct defense exist in California independent of the entrapment defense? Second, if so, does the police conduct here rise to that level?
Under federal law, unlike California’s, the entrapment defense is a subjective one. Defendants asserting the defense must show both that the government induced their participation in the crime, and that they were not predisposed to commit the crimе. The defense is statutory, not constitutional, and is based on the rationale that Congress could not have meant for the government to lure those not predisposed to commit crimes into violations.
(United States
v.
Russell
(1973)
Given that the California entrapment rule is objective rather than subjective, it arguably provides defendants more protection from overreaching police conduct than the federal rule. Thus, the first question, posed above, is whether the outrageous government conduct defense exists in California independent of the entrapment defense. In reversing a drug possession for
*1766
sale conviction for wrongly excluding defense entrapment evidence and refusing to give entrapment instructions, our Supreme Court stated in dictum: “Sufficiently gross police misconduct could conceivably lead to a finding that conviction of the accused would violate his constitutional right to due process of the law. (See, e.g.,
People
v.
Isaacson
(1978)
Later, in upholding liquor license suspensions of stores which sold liquor to underage but mature-looking police decoys as part of an undercover sting operation, the Supreme Court found the police use of underage decoys, as a matter of law, was not entrapment.
(Provigo Corp.
v.
Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Bd.
(1994)
In another context, the Supreme Court found that police officers who gave illegal narcotics to drug-addicted informants during the officers’ investigations of the informants’ drug suppliers were not shielded from prosecution by Health and Safety Code section 11367, which grants immunity to police officers and those “working under their immediate direction, supervision or instruction.” The court stated: “[T]he immunity granted by [Heаlth and Safety Code] section 11367 is not a license to peace officers to commit any and all otherwise unlawful acts in the pursuit of narcotics law enforcement objectives. Rather, this immunity reflects a legislative recognition that the investigation of suspected narcotics violations often necessitates the employment of undercover agents and persons secretly working under their direction who must pose as addicts, users, or sellers, and in so doing may be required to commit acts which otherwise violate [the Health and Safety Code] by possessing, furnishing, selling, or transporting controlled substanсes.”
(People
v.
Backus
(1979)
As noted by the
Provigo
court, one Court of Appeal opinion, although arguably in dictum, rejected the application of the outrageous police conduct defense in entrapment cases, finding it subsumed by the entrapment defense. The court nonetheless rejected the defense on its merits.
(People
v.
Thoi
(1989)
We disagree with
Thoi
to the extent that it rejects the defense in entrapment cases. While generally under California entrapment law the focus is on whether police instigated or created the crime, other overreaching by the police at the investigatory stage could be so outrageous as to taint the subsequent arrest. We agree with
Thoi
that the defеnse has been recognized, resulting in dismissals, where other government actors, such as prosecutors, have acted so outrageously as to violate a nonentrapped defendant’s due process rights.
(People
v.
Thoi, supra,
However, neither the outrageous police conduct nor entrapment defense can be asserted vicariously by defendants not themselves affected by the alleged police overreaching.
(Hampton
v.
United States
(1976)
II. Double Jeopardy Regarding the Prior Conviction.
In addition to the cocaine possession charge and the one admitted prior conviction, Holloway’s information originally charged him with an additional prior serious felony conviction, thus exposing him to a mandatory 25-year-to-life sentence under the three strikes law. 3 Before trial, in exchange for Holloway’s jury waiver, the People agreed to strike one of the alleged prior convictions. Holloway expressly waived his jury trial right both as to the substantive offense and the remaining prior conviction.
The court trial was before a different judge than the one before whоm Holloway had waived his jury trial right. In response to the trial judge’s inquiry, the prosecutor stated that the jury waivers had been taken earlier. The trial court and parties agreed to try the case and Holloway’s dismissal motion based on alleged outrageous police conduct concurrently. After presenting their evidence as to the cocaine possession charge and the defense dismissal motion, the People rested. The trial court invited argument on guilt *1769 and on the dismissal motion. The parties chose to argue guilt first. The trial court found Holloway guilty. The trial court then heard argument on and denied the dismissal motion, discussed above in the facts and Discussion part I. Holloway never sought to bifurcate trial of the prior from trial of the cocaine possession charge.
The trial judge then asked if he could “proceed to sentencing?” The following colloquy occurred: “[Holloway’s counsel]: I have a problem. We just did a court trial. The court trial is completed. I didn’t bifurcate priors. I had agreed I would admit one of the priors. But at this point in time, I don’t think the prior was proved. [U The Court: No one at this point in time has mentioned to me there were priors alleged. . . . [I]n our conversations among the three of us relating to this case, there was not a mention to me of priors having been alleged. [^Q I see now, having gone back and read the information, it looks like two prior felony convictions were alleged .... [H • • • [H • • • How do we wish to proceed now? HO [Holloway’s counsel]: I would take the position at this point that the prior was not proved. ['][] We had an agreement before we started the trial that the [P]eople would make a motion to strike one of the priors in the interests of justice if. . . Holloway agreed to waive jury trial, and that was our agreement and we proceeded that way. [H [The prosecutor] and I discussed whether or not . . . Holloway would agree to admit the prior conviction if he was convicted, and I spoke to . . . Holloway and he said he would. [^D However, it is my position now, the court trial was completed, there was no bifurcation of the prior because we were before the court and the [P]eople haven’t proved any priors.” (Italics added.)
The prosecutor responded that “technically that is true. But [Holloway’s counsel] and I just informally before we started we discussed whether he was going, I think things were worked out between us informally. [*][]... [^D Simply out of course of habit I proceeded with the trial. I assumed we were bifurcating it even though it wasn’t done on thе record.” Later, Holloway’s counsel repeated, “/ agreed we would admit the prior, but as the trial proceeded along there was no request and there was nothing offered during the course of the trial. [H I mean, I have to look out for . . . Holloway’s right[s]. It’s my position.the [P]eople didn’t prove the one prior they had available.” (Italics added.) Later, the trial court denied Holloway’s motion to preclude the People from presenting proof of the prior. Over Holloway’s objection, the trial court permitted the People to reopen to present proof of the one prior. Holloway then admitted thе prior, reserving his right to raise this issue on appeal.
We reject Holloway’s claim that the trial court violated the double jeopardy prohibition by permitting the prosecution to reopen to present evidence
*1770
of the prior conviction
after
having found him guilty of possessing cocaine. First, by expressly telling the prosecutor he would admit the one remaining prior conviction, Holloway told the prosecutor he need not present evidence of it. This expressed willingness to plead constituted either an implied assent to bifurcation or a waiver of any right to insist that proof of die prior be presented in a single evidentiary phase. While the prosecutor and the trial court inexplicably forgot to secure the admission before the prosecutor rested, the proceedings were not yet concluded. Given that prior convictions may be alleged and proved after a verdict but before imposition of sentence, there was no error in permitting the prosecutor to reopen to prove the prior convictions. (See
People
v.
Goss
(1992)
Moreover, even if double jeopardy principles applied, these procedures did not violate them. In a bifurcated jury trial of new offenses and prior conviction allegations, where the trial court erroneously dismissed the jury after its return of guilty verdicts and before the prosecution offered evidence of the prior convictions, our Supreme Court, after “assum[ing], without deciding, that double jeopardy principles apply to allegations of prior convictions [citations], and that jeopardy attached as to the alleged prior convictions at thе time the jury was sworn to determine defendant’s guilt of the current charges.”
(People
v.
Saunders
(1993)
III., IV. *
Disposition
We remand the matter for resentencing in which the trial court should exercise its discretion whether to dismiss the prior strike. In all other respects, we affirm the judgment.
Spencer, P. J., and Masterson, J., concurred.
A petition for a rehearing was denied September 5, 1996.
*1860 Pages 1198-1443:
(In re Marriage of Padilla 1 ; People v. Loeun 2 ; County of San Diego v. State of California 3 ; American Federation of Labor v. Unemployment Ins. Appeals Bd. 4 ; Western Security Bank v. Superior Court 5 ; People v. Superior Court (Missamore) 6 ; Arnett v. Pearce 7 ; Wm. R. Clarke Corp. v. Safeco Ins. Co. 8 ; People v. Campos 9 ; County of San Bernardino v. Cziy of San Bernardino 10 ; and Garcia v. McCutchen 11 )
REVIEWS GRANTED
Notes
Unless оtherwise noted, all further section references are to the Penal Code.
The record does not explain how the three pieces of rock cocaine Holloway bought from Acosta became four pieces when Holloway threw them away.
The information alleged Holloway was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1975 and robbery in 1980. Holloway admitted the 1980 robbery conviction. Holloway’s probation report disclosed he also had convictions in 1979 for grand theft, 1981 for phencyclidine (PCP) sales, and 1989 for battery.
In reaching our conclusion, we do not rely on
People
v.
Coronado
(1995)
See footnote, ante, page 1757.
Reprinted without change in the Review Granted Opinions Pamphlet to permit tracking pending review and disposition by the Supreme Court.
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See
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On December 11, 1996, review dismissed and cause remanded to Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District.
Reprinted without change in the Review Granted Opinions Pamphlet to permit tracking pending review and disposition by the Supreme Court.
Reprinted without change in the Review Granted Opinions Pamphlet to permit tracking pending review and disposition by the Supreme Court.
Reprinted without change in the Review Granted Opinions Pamphlet to permit tracking pending review and disposition by the Supreme Court.
Reprinted without change in the Review Granted Opinions Pamphlet to permit tracking pending review and disposition by the Supreme Court.
