People v. ManfrediPeople v. Manfredi
The trial court granted, without leave to amend, the demurrer of respondent Eric Manfredi (defendant) to numerous counts of possession of child pornography (
Procedural and Factual Background
A warrant was obtained to search defendant’s home. During the search, officers found child pornography on defendant’s computer. The computer and several discs were seized. The computer and discs contained numerous images of sexual acts with young boys. A second search was authorized and more pornography was found. As a result of the seizure of the pornography, minor victims of sexual crimes perpetrated by defendant were identified. In a 46-count complaint, defendant was charged with numerous counts of possession of child pornography as well as numerous counts of sexual activity with minors. 2 (Super. Ct. Tulare County, 2007, No. VCF160436.)
Prior to the preliminary hearing, the court ruled on the motion to suppress filed by defendant claiming the search of his home was illegal. The trial court granted the motion to suppress and dismissed all of the possession of child pornography charges. The court proceeded to the preliminary hearing on the remaining counts, and defendant was held to answer. The court denied the People’s request to reinstate the dismissed counts. The People appealed. We disagreed with the trial court and found the search to be a valid search. In our opinion filed April 10, 2007, we reversed the denial of the People’s motion to reinstate the criminal complaint.
Prior to the issuance of our opinion in case No. F050483, on June 26, 2006, a first amended information in case No. VCF160436 was filed against
After our opinion in case No. F050483 was final, the People attempted to refile the felony complaint in case No. VCF160436 containing all counts that had been dismissed as a result of the motion to suppress and additional counts based on their continuing investigation from the property recovered during the search. This complaint did not contain the 24 counts of sexual activity because those counts were contained in the information that was filed after the preliminary hearing. The People’s attempt to refile the complaint was refused by the clerk. The People then filed a complaint containing counts 1 to 109, including the 24 counts that had already become an information in case No. VCF160436. This new complaint was assigned a new case number, No. VCF188936.
Defendant filed demurrers to both complaints. At issue here is the final demurrer to case No. VCF188936 where defendant claimed that he could be charged with only one count of possession of child pornography. The complaint in that case, as it stood at the time of the demurrer, contained counts 1 through 4, alleging that defendant committed the crime of sexual exploitation of a child in violation of section 311.3. In count 6, defendant was charged with using a minor for sex acts in violation of section 311.4. Count 7 was an allegation of presentation of obscene conduct in violation of section 311.6. Counts 5, 8 through 28, and 94 through 109 charged defendant with misdemeanor possession of child pornography occurring on or about March 1, 2006, in violation of
Relying upon the recent opinion of
People v. Hertzig
(2007)
The People filed a timely notice of appeal.
We begin our discussion with a brief history of the laws surrounding the possession of obscene materials. “At the time California adopted its obscenity prosecution scheme in 1961, the Legislature did not enact a specific statute prohibiting the possession or distribution of child pornography. In 1969, the United States Supreme Court struck down a Georgia law banning the private possession of obscene material as violative of the First Amendment.
(Stanley v. Georgia
(1969)
“In 1982, the United States Supreme Court issued
New York v. Ferber
(1982)
“In 1989, California added
“In 1990, the United States Supreme Court upheld an Ohio statute that prohibited private possession of child pornography. (Ohio Rev. Code Ann. tit. 29, ch. 7, § 2907.323, subd. (A)(3);
Osborne v. Ohio
(1990)
“[A] demurrer raises an issue of law as to the sufficiency of the accusatory pleading, and it tests only those defects appearing on the face of that pleading.”
(People
v.
Williams
(1979)
In the present case, the trial court dismissed without leave to amend all but one count of possession of child pornography in violation of
As previously stated, the trial court sustained the demurrer based on the Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, opinion in
Hertzig, supra,
In
Hertzig,
the defendant was found guilty of numerous sex crimes against minors and 10 counts of possession of child pornography in violation of
The appellate court agreed with the defendant. It rejected the Attorney General’s arguments that “
The
Hertzig
court relied on a series of possession cases, not involving child pornography, in reaching its decision:
People
v.
Harris
(1977)
Noting the problem was one of multiple convictions, not multiple punishments, the
Hertzig
court reasoned; “We apply the logic of these various possession cases to the possession of child pornography. Here defendant was in possession of the laptop computer with 30 different pornographic videos involving children. The act proscribed by
Concerning whether
Hertzig
is good law, the People point out that they argued the case of
In re Duncan
(1987)
Defendant argues that the People’s reliance on Duncan is misplaced. Defendant does not address the public policy arguments made by the People.
We agree with defendant that reliance on
Duncan
is misplaced. Duncan was convicted of two counts of violating section 311.3 because he did
Duncan raised numerous contentions in his petition for writ of habeas corpus, including that he could not be sentenced for both convictions. The appellate court disagreed because the evidence clearly demonstrated that he duplicated photographs on at least two separate occasions. (In re
Duncan, supra,
Duncan is distinguishable because it involves a different code section, the appellate court was not asked to determine the issue now before us, and it was established by the evidence that Duncan violated the statute in question by his actions on two clearly separate occasions.
The People’s public policy argument—that stricter scrutiny of possession of child pornography is mandated and cannot be analogized to possession of stolen property, controlled substances and weapons—also fails. As an example of this difference, the People claim that a victim of stolen property is the victim of a one-time event, the theft, but a victim of child pornography is subject to continual revictimization in permanent media. While we agree that a depiction of child pornography is capable of being reproduced innumerable times, each individual who is in possession of that piece of child pornography is subject to prosecution. Each separate person who possesses the same depiction of child pornography is subject to prosecution, whether that is one person or one million people; each time the child pornography falls into the hands of an individual, a prosecution is authorized. Thus, although there is the possibility of a “revictimization” based on the same matter, each possession of that matter is subject to a new prosecution on each separate occasion and with each separate possessor. In addition, there are numerous statutes punishing all of the various aspects associated with child pornography.
Even if we view Hertzig as good law, as we do, the People argue that Hertzig was too narrowly construed here by the trial court because in Hertzig there was only one computer (one piece of physical media in one container) while here the complaint alleged 38 specific types of containers. Defendant disagrees.
We too disagree with the People’s attempt to so narrowly construe
Hertzig.
In rejecting “the notion that possession of multiple images on one computer under the present circumstances can result in multiple violations of the possession statute”
(Hertzig, supra,
In
Harris, supra,
First we acknowledged the long line of cases concerning unlawful possession of drugs that allowed “multiple conviction (and punishment) where the drugs were chemically of more than one kind, though of the same legal classification, and proscribed by one statute.”
(Harris, supra,
We rejected the People’s urging to draw an analogy between the drug cases and the possession case before us and found it would be nonsensical to hold that a defendant can be convicted of as many offenses as there are specific kinds of property specified in section 537e. “[I]t would seem nonsensical to permit two convictions based upon the possession of a radio and piano . . . and permit only one conviction for possession of two radios . . . .”
(Harris, supra,
People
v.
Bowie, supra,
The next in the line of cases relied on in
Hertzig
to support that court’s conclusion that there was but a solitary act of possession of child pornography is the case of
People
v.
Rouser, supra,
The
Rouser
court relied on the case of
People v. Kirk
(1989)
In addition, the
Rouser
court relied on the previously discussed case of
Harris
from this court. The
Rouser
court concluded that a single crime cannot be fragmented into more than one offense and Rouser was entitled to the benefit of any ambiguity in section 4573.6. “A statute intended at least in part to address problems of prison administration prohibits possession of ‘any controlled substances’ in prison. The quoted phrase describes a single offense irrespective of how many controlled substances are possessed, as here, at the same time and in the same place.”
(People v. Rouser, supra,
The final case utilized in
Hertzig
to support the court’s conclusion was
People v. Rowland, supra,
The
Rowland
court noted that the Legislature did not include section 4502 in the new legislation concerning the possession of weapons, requiring a separate charge for each weapon possessed. The court concluded that the
From the above cases, we draw several comparisons to the present statute.
Just as in the statute in question in
People
v.
Bowie, supra,
The Legislature is presumably aware that the statutes discussed in the above cases bear strong resemblance to
We note that
We are not convinced by the arguments made by the People that we must depart from a long line of cases that have found that a single crime of possession cannot be fragmented into more than one offense. We reject the People’s argument that “one container = one charge” and hold that one possession equals one charge.
It is within the Legislature’s prerogative, if it so decides, to amend
The order of the trial court sustaining the demurrer without leave to amend as to all but one of the child pornography charges against defendant is affirmed.
Cornell, J., and Gomes, 1, concurred.
Notes
All future code references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise noted.
We have taken judicial notice of our prior opinion in this case in People v. Manfredi (Apr. 10, 2007, F050483) (nonpub. opn.).
Unless otherwise noted, our citation to