People v. Newell CA3

BACKGROUND

In an altercation that began when debris fell over a property line, defendant joined her accomplices in punching and kicking one of the employees of a landscaping company working on an adjacent property. The landscaper sustained significant injuries. Defendant was found guilty by the jury of assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury. (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)(4).) A probation report was prepared for sentencing. It recommended probation along with numerous proposed probation conditions, including that: “Defendant not associate with persons he or she knows to be illegal users or sellers of marijuana, dangerous drugs, or narcotics, nor be in places where he or she knows illegal narcotics and/or dangerous drugs are present.” At sentencing, the trial court granted probation and ordered defendant to serve 180 days in jail. Defense counsel answered yes when the court commented that it was including probation conditions that “have to do with being around drugs, drug users, and so forth,” because “in looking at the probation report, she was having issues with substance abuse problems before even though she said she was cleaning her act up.” Defendant then…