Error and/or relief
The electronics search condition is invalid under Lent and must be stricken.
First Holding:
In granting probation, courts have broad discretion to impose conditions to foster rehabilitation and to protect public safety pursuant to Penal Code section 1203.1. The court may impose and require such reasonable conditions as it may determine are fitting and proper to the end that justice may be done, that amends may be made to society for the breach of the law, for any injury done to any person resulting from that breach, and generally and specifically for the reformation and rehabilitation of the probationer. The trial court’s discretion, although broad, nevertheless is not without limits.
Authority:
PEN 1203.1
People v. Carbajal (1995) 10 Cal.4th 1114, 1120–1121
Second Holding:
A three-prong test determines whether a probation condition is unreasonable. A condition of probation will not be held invalid unless it (1) has no relationship to the crime of which the offender was convicted, (2) relates to conduct which is not in itself criminal, and (3) requires or forbids conduct which is not reasonably related to future criminality. All three prongs must be satisfied before a reviewing court will invalidate a probation term.
Authority:
People v. Lent (1975) 15 Cal.3d 481, 486
People v. Olguin (2008) 45 Cal.4th 375, 379
Third Holding:
The first Lent prong is satisfied because the record does not show a relationship between the defendant’s use of electronic devices and the offending conduct sufficient to justify the search condition. There is no information in the record that he used any kind of electronic device to commit, plan, or facilitate his offenses of molesting a child or dissuading a witness. Nor is there any mention whatsoever of his use of a mobile phone, computer, or social media account in connection with the victim or any other conduct that might be said to relate to the offenses in this case.
Authority:
People v. Castellanos (2020) 51 Cal.App.5th 267, 270, 271, 275–276 [defendant had three cell phones in his car at the time of arrest and cell phones are frequently used in drug sales]
People v. Appleton (2016) 245 Cal.App.4th 717, 719–720 [defendant met victim through social media]
Fourth Holding:
As for the second Lent prong, it goes without saying that the use of electronic devices is not criminal in and of itself.
Authority:
In re Amber K. (2020) 45 Cal.App.5th 559, 566
Fifth Holding:
The third Lent prong contemplates a degree of proportionality between the burden imposed by a probation condition and the legitimate interests served by the condition. It requires more than just an abstract or hypothetical relationship between the probation condition and preventing future criminality. Nothing in the testimony at the preliminary hearing, the probation report, or the record of the defendant’s personal history revealed anything about his electronics use that might be connected to his past crimes or potential future criminality. The defendant had no prior history of arrests, convictions, or probation, and his risk of recidivism was assessed as below average. Thus, as in Ricardo P., the burden imposed by the electronics search condition on the defendant’s privacy is substantially disproportionate to the condition’s goal” of deterring future criminality.
Authority:
In re Ricardo P. (2019) 7 Cal.5th 1113, 1122
In re David C. (2020) 47 Cal.App.5th 657, 663–664