People v. Knox

Defendant Melvin Lewis Knox was sentenced to prison following a no contest plea. As part of defendant’s sentence, the court ordered him to pay fines, including a restitution fund fine of $1,200. Defendant challenges the court’s imposition of that fine on appeal. He asserts that the fine was not part of his plea bargain, and he asks us to reduce the fine to the statutory minimum.

We reject defendant’s contentions and we affirm the judgment. As we explain, there is no violation of the plea bargain where, as here, the court properly advises the defendant of the restitution fine prior to accepting his plea.

BACKGROUND

In May 2002, following his arrest by a Gilroy police officer, defendant was charged in a felony complaint with one count of possessing cocaine base for sale. (Health & Saf. Code, § 11351.5.) As sentence enhancements, the complaint also alleged prior drug convictions and prior prison terms. In September 2002, after the preliminary examination in this matter, a felony information was filed against defendant. Like the complaint, the information alleged the single drug violation count plus prior drug convictions and prison terms.

*1457 Change of Plea

In…

I can find no meaningful basis for distinguishing the facts of the case before us from the facts in People v. Walker (1991) 54 Cal.3d 1013 [ 1 Cal.Rptr.2d 902 , 819 P.2d 861 ], and I disagree with People v. Dickerson (2004) 122 Cal.App.4th 1374 [ 19 Cal.Rptr.3d 545 ], I am therefore compelled to conclude that the restitution fund fine *1464 imposed in this case violated the plea bargain and should be reduced to the statutory minimum.

My colleagues conclude that Walker is distinguishable because here the trial court advised defendant regarding the restitution fund fine, and, in Walker , “the court never disclosed [the fine] to the defendant prior to his plea.” Thus, in their view, a restitution fund fine may be imposed without violating the plea bargain so long as the trial court “advises the defendant of the restitution fine prior to accepting his plea.” They conclude that a fine does not violate a plea bargain if it was “within ‘defendant’s contemplation and knowledge’ when he entered his plea.”

As much as I would like to avoid the result required by Walker , I cannot accept this misreading of the facts in Walker . In Walker , the plea agreement was that, in exchange for…