Ferguson

Following denial of his motion to suppress the evidence (Pen. Code, § 1538.5), defendant Robert Bruce Ferguson pleaded no contest to a felony charge of possessing a controlled substance. (Health & Saf. Code, § 11377, subd. (a).) The trial court sentenced him to three years in state prison, suspended the sentence, and committed him to the California Rehabilitation Center as a narcotics addict. (See Welf. & Inst. Code, § 3051.)

Defendant claims the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress the evidence, which had been discovered by police in a search following a traffic stop. The search was conducted based on erroneous information that defendant was on probation for a drug offense. The People claim that exclusion of the evidence is not warranted because police relied in good faith on the erroneous information and clerical staff at the county probation department were responsible for the error. In 2001, this court issued an opinion affirming the judgment, but our state Supreme Court granted defendant’s petition for review and retransferred the cause to this court with directions to vacate our decision and to reconsider the cause in light of People v. Willis (2002)…