In Re Jorge S.

In proceedings in juvenile court, Jorge S. was found to be a minor violating laws defining crime (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 602) in that he had committed a burglary. The court declared the offense to be a misdemeanor, declared appellant a ward of the court and placed him on probation in the home of his mother. He appeals contending: “The order adjudging appellant to be a ward of the juvenile court must be reversed as appellant’s confession was obtained by the police as the result of an illegal arrest, and should have been suppressed.”

The undisputed facts developed in the court below establish that at approximately 11 a.m. on December 13, 1976, a school day, Los Angeles Police Officer Antonio Diaz was on patrol in his marked police unit. He testified that at that time “I saw a male Latin [Jorge S.], standing on what appeared to be the front porch of a house on the south side of the street across from a pedestrian tunnel . . . [that ran] [ujndemeath a freeway.”

Officer Diaz further testified that as he drove by appellant at approximately two miles per hour appellant “kept looking towards—in my direction several times, and he appeared to be knocking on a door, making like he…