People v. Johnson

Defendant appeals from the judgment of conviction after a jury found him guilty of robbery and using a firearm in the commission thereof. Appellant primarily contends that the trial court erred in admitting evidence of a lineup identification where he appeared without counsel. [1]

On April 13, 1977, at about 8:30 a.m., Dorris Smith (the victim) was walking down Florence Avenue between Hoover and Vermont Streets in the City of Los Angeles. She was approached by a man she subsequently identified as appellant who engaged her in conversation. She stated she was looking for a job; the man advised her his sister had just obtained employment at a nursing home and that he would drive her there. Dorris accepted, entered a blue (turquoise) Rambler station wagon with a white top, and was driven to an alley off Slauson Avenue and 58th Street. The man got out of the car, walked to a fence and seemed to beckon toward a window as if to encourage someone to join him but there was no response. After some minutes, Dorris indicated to the man she would go on alone. The man, however, reentered the car and drove it adjacent to a garage, stopping it in such fashion Dorris could…

Nature of Case:

Defendant appeals from the judgment of conviction after a jury found him guilty of robbery and using a firearm in the commission thereof. Appellant primarily contends that the trial court erred in admitting evidence of a lineup identification where he appeared without counsel.

Facts:

On April 13, 1977, at about 8:30 a.m., Dorris Smith (the victim) was walking down Florence Avenue between Hoover and Vermont Streets in *687 the City of Los Angeles. She was approached by a man she subsequently identified as appellant who engaged her in conversation. She stated she was looking for a job; the man advised her his sister had just obtained employment at a nursing home and that he would drive her there. Dorris accepted, entered a blue (turquoise) Rambler station wagon with a white top, and was driven to an alley oif Slauson Avenue and 58th Street. The man got out of the car, walked to a fence and seemed to beckon toward a window as if to encourage someone to join him but there was no response. After some minutes, Dorris indicated to the pian she would go on alone. The man, however, reentered the car and drove it adjacent to a garage, stopping it in such…

I dissent.

When at this point in time a person residing in California is illegally arrested in his home and thereafter incarcerated incommunicado for more than four consecutive days, actually in excess of 100 hours, before he is arraigned before a magistrate, such an event compels an analysis of *693 the procedure used by law enforcement officers of Los Angeles County to accomplish it.

The facts recited by the court’s opinion as they will be amplified are undisputed and show appellant was deprived of two rights of constitutional dimensions by the arrest procedure followed and herein criticized. He was illegally arrested at 7:30 a.m. without a legal warrant in non exigent circumstances in his residence. 1 The arrest was not a “Constable’s mistake” but was made pursuant to an alleged arrest warrant sought and obtained by a calculated illegal procedure designed to enable the production of appellant at a formal lineup at which he could not insist upon and at which he was not represented by counsel. The procedure involved is encouraged by the principal law enforcement officer of the County of Los Angeles, i.e., the district attorney, and requires the participation of the…