SPENCER LAW FIRM NEWSLETTER Superfluity does not vitiate! Recent Cases & Misc. Other Legal Stuff Ques: Who said Quest into the Unknown? March of 2001 BAD BOYS, BAD BOYS Beware the Ides of March! People vs. Watson, Cal. Supreme Ct. One March evening Bakersfield police conducted a vehicle theft sting operation [by staging] an arrest of a plainclothes officer driving a black 1990 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. In front of a crowd of spectators a uninformed police officer, making a big show of things, arrested the plainclothes officer, handcuffed him and hauled him away in a patrol car leaving the Chevy unattended, unlocked and with the keys in the ignition. A poor sap, one Tray Edward Watson, fell for this bit of constabulary trickery as hard as Bogart fell for Bacall. After his arrest he told the officers that his niece had informed him of the earlier apparent arrest and told him to come and take the car. The first trial ended in a mistrial because the jury was unable to reach a verdict, but the second trial resulted in a conviction. Why? The first court had instructed on entrapment, but the second court had refused. The Court of Appeal reversed the conviction, but the Supreme Court reversed the appellate court re-stating its position reached in a previous case that: The rule is clear that ruses, stings, and decoys are permissible stratagems in the enforcement of criminal law, and they become invalid only when badgering or importuning takes place to an extent and degree that is likely to induce an otherwise law-abiding person to commit a crime. (In a concurrence one justice did express reservations about the morality of the conduct by the police). [Home] [March News 1] [March News 2] [May News 1] [May News 2] [May News 3] [Contact Us] P.O. Box 2300 Sausalito, CA 94966 Tel: 415.331.2400 or Toll Free: 877.999.5200 Fax: 415.331.2908 spenlaw@pacbell.net