People v. MathewsPeople v. Mathews
In the published portion of this decision, we conclude that the trial court properly denied the motion to suppress based on the estoppel principle announced in People v. Watkins (2009) 170 Cal.App.4th 1403 (Watkins). We hold that when a defendant gives a false name to a police officer, and a record check of that name fails to reveal that the defendant is in fact subject to a probation search condition, the defendant is estopped from challenging the legality of an ensuing search or seizure that would have been authorized had the officer been aware of the condition. We also reject Mathews’s*
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Shortly before 6:00 p.m. on the evening of September 21, 2013, the victim, a man in his early sixties, was walking in San Leandro with his grandson and their family dog. As the victim was throwing away some garbage, he noticed two men standing nearby. One of them, whose face was mostly covered, approached the victim and “tried to grab [the victim’s] things.” The victim surrendered the contents of his pockets, which included $38, a phone card, and an identification card, and the man then struck the victim on the head with a gun and fled with his companion.
After the two men were out of the victim’s line of sight, the victim heard a “boom sound” like a “gunshot.” Other witnesses also heard the sound of a gunshot from the direction of the scene of the robbery. Witnesses then saw two men, one of whom appeared to have an injury to his lower body and was holding a gun, running through the neighborhood. Some of the witnesses remembered seeing the same two men get out of a light-colored sedan a few minutes earlier. The same sedan picked the men up and drove off. No witness was ultimately able to identify Mathews as either suspect.
At around 5:50 p.m., a silver sedan was recorded dropping Mathews off at Highland Hospital in Oakland. The timing of some of the subsequent events at the hospital is unclear, and we discuss these timing issues in more detail when addressing Mathews’s Fourth Amendment claim. Generally, however, Officer Keith Ballard-Geiger and Officer Pantoja of the San Leandro Police Department arrived at the hospital within minutes and made contact with Mathews in a trauma room. Officer Ballard-Geiger observed a perforation in Mathews’s scrotum and a wound to his shin. The officer also searched a bag of Mathews’s clothing, which included a pair of jeans with blood in the crotch area and a small, bloodstained hole in the shin area.
Mathews was charged with one count of second degree robbery, with an accompanying allegation of a principal’s personal use of a firearm, one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, and one count of carrying a loaded firearm on one’s person in a city.1 Before trial, he filed a motion under
The trial court sentenced Mathews to 13 years in prison, comprised of a term of three years for robbery and a consecutive term of ten years for the accompanying enhancement, a concurrent term of eight months for firearm possession by a felon, and a term of eight months, stayed, for carrying a loaded firearm on one’s person in a city.2
A. Mathews Is Not Entitled to Relief on His Fourth Amendment Claim.
Mathews claims that the trial court prejudicially erred by denying the motion to suppress. We disagree. The motion was properly denied as to the cell phone and resulting evidence, and any error related to Officer Ballard-Geiger’s observations of Mathews’s clothes and wounds was harmless.
1. Additional facts.
Officer Ballard-Geiger, who was the only witness to testify at the suppression hearing, stated that at 5:44 p.m. on the day in question, he and Officer Pantoja were dispatched to the scene of the robbery after receiving a report of “a possible shooting.”3 Shortly after they arrived, dispatch reported that there were two possible male suspects and that “a shooting victim in a silver vehicle had possibly left the scene.” Dispatch also “advised [the officers] that there was a shooting victim . . . at Highland [Hospital],” and they were told to go there.
The officers arrived at the hospital at 5:52 p.m. and entered the emergency area, which included “two trauma rooms.” They were met by Deputy Bixby of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, who told them that the patient who “had been dropped off with the gunshot wounds” was in one of the trauma rooms and had identified himself as “Omari Johnson.” At around 6:09 p.m., Officer Pantoja radioed for a record check on the name “Omari Johnson.”
Meanwhile, Officer Ballard-Geiger called the patrol sergeant, who told him “that it looked like an armed robbery had actually occurred and that one of the suspects had possibly shot himself while fleeing the scene.” The officer went into a trauma room, where he was “directed . . . to the subject [who] had been brought in with the gunshot wounds,” whom he identified in court as Mathews. Mathews told the officer that “he got shot,” and he said his name was “Damari Johnson.”
Officer Ballard-Geiger ran a record check on “Damari Johnson” at 6:33 p.m. The officer could not recall whether this occurred immediately after he got the name from Mathews, and he acknowledged that it could have been as long as 20 minutes later. At 6:36 p.m., Officer Ballard-Geiger was notified of a possible match, but he determined that the person was not Mathews based on the accompanying photograph.
At some point, Mathews was moved from the trauma room to a hospital hallway. There, Officer Ballard-Geiger questioned him further, and Mathews “told [the officer] his true name and date of birth.” Officer Ballard-Geiger ran a check on the name and learned around 6:41 p.m. that Mathews was on probation and subject to a search condition.4 Around this time, the officer arrested Mathews for robbery. Officer Ballard-Geiger left the hospital sometime after 7:00 p.m.
While Officer Ballard-Geiger was at the hospital, he recovered “a watch, some cash[,] and a cell phone” belonging to Mathews that hospital staff had placed in a safe. A hospital employee unlocked the safe and “gave [him] the items” after the officer did some paperwork. The officer was unable to recall, however, exactly when he seized this
Although Officer Ballard-Geiger recovered the cell phone at the hospital, he did not search the phone’s contents at that time. Rather, during the ensuing investigation, Detective Brum turned on the phone, which revealed an image of Mathews on the screen saver and that the phone was serviced by Metro PCS. Detective Brum obtained search warrants for information about the phone, and Metro PCS provided information upon which a prosecution expert witness eventually relied in testifying that around the time of the robbery the phone traveled from the victim’s neighborhood to the vicinity of Highland Hospital.
Mathews moved to suppress evidence obtained at the hospital and evidence that was attainable later only as a result of the seizure of the cell phone. The evidence obtained at the hospital was Officer Ballard-Geiger’s observations of Mathews’s injuries and clothes and the phone. The evidence attainable as a result of the phone were screen shots taken from it, its identification number, and its contents. Mathews also sought to suppress “[a]ll fruit from the seizure of” the clothing and phone.
At the hearing on the motion to suppress, Mathews argued that all of this evidence was obtained in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights because, among other reasons, Officer Ballard-Geiger was not aware of the search condition at the time he observed the clothing or wounds or seized the cell phone. The trial court found no such violation and denied the motion. Relying on Watkins, the court ruled that Mathews was estopped from seeking to suppress the evidence because “by giving a false name, . . . [Mathews] then precluded the officer, regardless of when the officer ran the check,” from discovering that Mathews was subject to a search condition. In addition, the court accepted Officer Ballard-Geiger’s testimony that the officer “got the name Damari Johnson early on in his
2. General legal standards.
We begin by discussing general Fourth Amendment principles. The Fourth Amendment protects the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” (
The applicable standards under which we review a trial court’s order refusing to suppress evidence are well established. In reviewing the denial of a suppression motion, we consider the record in the light most favorable to the disposition and defer to the court’s factual findings if supported by substantial evidence. (People v. Tully (2012) 54 Cal.4th 952, 979 (Tully).) Any conflicts in the evidence are resolved in favor of the court’s order. (People v. Limon (1993) 17 Cal.App.4th 524, 529.) The court’s ruling on whether the relevant law was violated is a mixed question of law and fact subject to de novo review. (People v. Hoyos (2007) 41 Cal. 4th 872, 891.) Thus, we exercise independent judgment in determining the legality of a search and seizure. (Tully, at p. 979.)
3. Mathews is estopped from challenging the admission of evidence derived from the cell phone’s seizure.
In arguing that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated, Mathews does not clearly distinguish among the various evidence he contends should have been suppressed: the cell phone and evidence derived from it, the clothing, and Officer Ballard-Geiger’s observations of his wounds. We first address his claim as it applies to the phone.
In Watkins, the decision the trial court relied on to deny the motion to suppress, a police officer stopped the defendant’s vehicle, and the defendant stated that he was on probation but falsely identified himself as his brother. (Watkins, supra, 170 Cal.App.4th at p. 1406.) A record check of the brother’s name did not reveal that the brother was subject to a search condition, but the officer nonetheless conducted a search and found contraband. (Ibid.) After his arrest, the defendant gave his true name, and a record check revealed that he “was on searchable probation.” (Ibid.) The Court of Appeal held that even though the officer was not aware of the search condition when he performed the search, the defendant was estopped from challenged the legality of the search as a probation search because he had concealed that he was subject to the condition by lying about his identity. (Id. at p. 1409.)
Mathews relies on Myers v. Superior Court (2004) 124 Cal.App.4th 1247 (Myers) in arguing that Watkins does not govern here. In Myers, a police officer stopped the defendant and asked him whether he was on parole or probation. (Myers, at p. 1251.) Although the defendant was on informal probation, he falsely told the officer “ ‘that he had discharged [from] parole . . . and was not on probation.’ ” (Ibid.) The officer did no record check and instead simply searched the defendant “without a warrant, probable cause, reasonable suspicion, or knowledge [the defendant] was on probation and subject to a search condition” and discovered contraband. (Id. at pp. 1251, 1256.) The Court of Appeal held that the evidence should have been excluded because not applying the exclusionary rule under the circumstances “would reward police misconduct, not deter
Contrary to Mathews’s position otherwise, Myers does not conflict with Watkins. As Watkins itself observed in distinguishing Myers, although Myers concluded that the evidence should not have been suppressed despite the defendant’s misrepresentation about his parole status, the conclusion was reached because it was the officer’s failure to perform a record check, not the misrepresentation, that prevented the officer from learning about the search condition. (Watkins, supra, 170 Cal.App.4th at p. 1410.) In contrast, in Watkins the officer performed a record check, but the “defendant’s lie about his identity ensured that the . . . check would not disclose his probation search condition in time.” (Ibid.) Thus, nothing in Myers undermines Watkins’s holding that a defendant can be estopped from challenging evidence obtained after a record check fails to reveal a search condition when the check was based on false information provided by the defendant.
We also reject Mathews’s implication that Watkins is inconsistent with the exclusionary rule’s goal of deterring police misconduct. It is true, as Mathews points out, that “the primary purpose of the exclusionary rule [is] to deter police misconduct,” and it is the rationale underlying the general principle that an unlawful search is not “justified by the circumstance that the suspect was subject to a search condition of which . . . law enforcement officers were unaware when the search was conducted.” (People v. Sanders (2003) 31 Cal.4th 318, 334-335.) It is also true, however, that this deterrent purpose does not trump all other considerations when determining whether to apply the exclusionary rule. For example, under the doctrine of inevitable discovery, the fruits of an illegal search will nevertheless be admitted “if the prosecution can establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the [evidence] inevitably would have been discovered by lawful means[.] . . . This is so because the rule is intended to ensure that the prosecution is not placed in a better position than it would have been had no illegality occurred; the rule
Having concluded that it is appropriate to follow Watkins, we turn to address its application in this case. Mathews argues that “[e]ven under Watkins, [Officer Ballard-Geiger’s] actions violated” the Fourth Amendment. He claims that the evidence shows that Officer Ballard-Geiger did not run a record check on “Damari Johnson” until after seizing the cell phone, so it was the officer’s failure to do a record check, not the provision of a false name, that prevented the officer from learning of the search condition.
We do not agree with either the trial court or Mathews about the relevant point in time after which a defendant who provides a false name to a police officer is estopped under Watkins from challenging the validity of a search or seizure. The court ruled that estoppel was triggered when Mathews gave a false name, and Mathews argues that it was triggered when Officer Ballard-Geiger ran the record check on “Damari Johnson.” We conclude, however, that estoppel is triggered when an officer receives the results from a record check based on a false name.
In many cases, all three events will happen nearly simultaneously, as they did in Watkins. (See Watkins, supra, 170 Cal.App.4th at p. 1406.) But, as the facts here illustrate, this is not always the case. Officer Ballard-Geiger testified that it was possible he did not run a record check on “Damari Johnson” until up to 20 minutes after Mathews gave the name to him, and the officer received the results a few minutes after running the check. Until Officer Ballard-Geiger actually ran the record check and received the results, the false name did not prevent him from discovering the search condition. We therefore conclude that Mathews is estopped from challenging the seizure of the cell phone and the evidence derived from it only if the seizure occurred after 6:36 p.m., when Officer Ballard-Geiger received the results of the record check on “Damari Johnson.”
4. Any error in the failure to suppress Officer Ballard-Geiger’s observations of Mathews’s clothes and wounds was harmless.
Initially, we note that Mathews does not argue that Officer Ballard-Geiger’s observations of Mathews’s clothing and wounds led to the discovery of any other evidence that should have been excluded as fruit of the poisonous tree. (See People v. Brendlin (2008) 45 Cal.4th 262, 268.) Nor does Mathews suggest that, had these searches not occurred, probable cause for his arrest would have been lacking. Instead, his only argument for why Officer Ballard-Geiger’s observations of the clothing and wounds
The admission of evidence in violation of the Fourth Amendment is not reversible per se. Instead, if such error is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt under Chapman v. California (1967) 386 U.S. 18, reversal is not required. (People v. Moore (2011) 51 Cal.4th 1104, 1128-1129.) We conclude that Officer Ballard-Geiger’s observations of Mathews’s injuries and clothes did not appreciably contribute to the verdict. Evidence independent of those observations was introduced that demonstrated that Mathews was admitted to the hospital for a gun injury and had been shot in the area of his groin and leg. In particular, Mathews’s hospital medical records, the introduction of which Mathews does not contest on appeal, described the injuries. In light of this evidence, any error in the admission of Officer Ballard-Geiger’s observations of Mathews’s clothing and wounds was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.6
B. The Trial Court Did Not Abuse Its Discretion by Summarily Denying Mathews’s Pitchess Motion.
Mathews next contends that the trial court erred by summarily denying his Pitchess motion. We are not persuaded.
Mathews’s Pitchess motion sought “discovery as to prior acts of fabrication and/or misstatement of facts[,] . . . the fabrication of charges and/or evidence[,] and the authoring [of] or acquiescing to false or misleading police reports” by Officer Ballard-Geiger and Detective Brum. The motion also sought “discovery as to acts involving illegal search and seizure” by Officer Ballard-Geiger. The accompanying affidavit stated
The trial court summarily denied the motion, concluding that Officer Ballard-Geiger’s reference to the items being in Mathews’s “possession” was not misleading. The court explained, “When at the hospital, the emergency personnel take his clothing and take his watch and his phone and his money, it’s still his money. It’s his stuff. It’s in his possession. They’re keeping it for safekeeping. . . . If he walks out of the hospital freely of his own accord, they’re going to hand it back to him. It’s in his possession. . . . [¶] I can’t see that it’s anything more than a semantic distinction. I don’t find it to be material or deceptive. I don’t find it to be an omission.”
In Pitchess, our state Supreme Court held that “a criminal defendant [can] ‘compel discovery’ of certain relevant information in the personnel files of police officers by making ‘general allegations which establish some cause for discovery’ of that information and by showing how it would support a defense to the charge [or charges] against him.” (Warrick v. Superior Court (2005) 35 Cal.4th 1011, 1018-1019 (Warrick).) This holding was later codified in
To obtain discovery of an officer’s personnel records, a defendant must file a motion that includes an affidavit establishing “good cause” for discovery of the records, “setting forth the materiality thereof to the subject matter involved in the pending
Mathews claims that the trial court “ignored” various points in reaching its ruling, but he does not clearly explain how this amounted to an abuse of discretion. He states that the court ignored his argument that the cell phone and other property was seized from the hospital safe before his arrest, not incident to it. The portion of the record he cites does not reveal that he made such an argument, and in any event Officer Ballard-Geiger testified that he seized this evidence based on the search condition. Mathews also argues that the court ignored his claim, “clearly spelled out in . . . [the] affidavit,” that Officer Ballard-Geiger’s deception involved whether the officer was aware of the search condition when he obtained the property. Again, however, we do not agree with Mathews’s reading of the record. The affidavit’s sole theory for why the police reports were misleading was that they made it sound like the property was recovered directly from Mathews, not the hospital safe, and the affidavit did not even mention the search condition.
Mathews also claims that the trial court ignored his claim that the requested discovery was material to Officer Ballard-Geiger’s credibility, but he does not explain his
C. The Trial Court Correctly Calculated Presentence Credits.
Finally, Mathews claims that the trial court incorrectly calculated his presentence custody and conduct credits. We disagree.
Mathews was arrested on September 21, 2013, and he was released on September 24, 2013, a total of four days in custody. He was then rearrested on December 20, 2013, and he remained in custody until he was sentenced on September 24, 2015, a total of 644 days in custody. The trial court awarded him 648 days of custody credits and 97 days of conduct credits, for a total of 745 days of presentence credits.
Mathews argues that he was actually entitled to 733 days of custody credits and 109 days of conduct credits, calculated at 15 percent of his custody credits. He bases this claim on the probation report’s misstatement that he had spent 738 days in custody, a number apparently derived from the incorrect assumption that he was never released after his first arrest in September 2013. The probation report also shows, however, that he was in fact released later that September and rearrested that December. Thus, we agree with the Attorney General that the trial court correctly determined that Mathews was entitled to 648 days of custody credits (see
The abstract of judgment is ordered modified to include Mathews’s conviction of count three, carrying a loaded firearm on one’s person in a city under Humes, P.J. We concur: Margulies, J. Banke, J. People v. Mathews A146652 Trial Judge: Hon. Morris Jacobson Counsel for Defendant and Appellant: Candace Hale Counsel for Plaintiff and Respondent: Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General; Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorney General; Jeffrey M. Lawrence, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Eric D. Share, Supervising Deputy Attorney General; Elizabeth W. Hereford, Deputy Attorney General People v. Mathews A146652