In re Christian R. CA4/3

Filed 1/22/15 In re Christian R. CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

In re CHRISTIAN R., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.

THE PEOPLE, G048987 Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. DL042694) v. OPINION CHRISTIAN R.,

Defendant and Appellant.

Appeal from an order of the Superior Court of Orange County, Richard Y. Lee, Judge. Affirmed. Janice R. Mazur, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland and Stacy Tyler, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. * * *

1. Introduction A Santa Ana police officer, serving as the school resource officer at Santa Ana High School, searched the backpack of student Christian R. (the Minor) and found inside a black ink permanent marker and “slap tags” (adhesive stickers used for graffiti). After denying the Minor’s motion to suppress this evidence, the juvenile court found to be true beyond a reasonable doubt allegations that the Minor was in possession of graffiti tools in violation of Penal Code section 594.2, subdivision (a) and declared the Minor to be a ward of the court. The Minor appeals from the dispositional order. He argues the juvenile court erred by denying his motion to suppress because the police officer did not have reasonable suspicion to search his backpack. We disagree and affirm.

2. Facts On February 22, 2012, Edward Rios, a substitute district safety officer at Santa Ana High School, noticed “some type of graffiti” on the Minor’s backpack. Rios believed he had seen the letters “D-O-E” on the backpack and remembered seeing graffiti or “slap tags” around the school campus with the words “DOE” or “DOE KRU.” A slap tag is a sticker or adhesive label that “taggers” use to quickly put up graffiti. Rios took photographs of the graffiti or slap tags around campus, which, he believed, resembled the lettering on the Minor’s backpack. Rios escorted the Minor to the office of Santa Ana Police Officer Anne Pliska, the school resource officer. Pliska noticed the Minor’s backpack had lettering on it which was similar in style to graffiti she had seen on school grounds. The school has a policy against defacing property. Graffiti is not tolerated, and school policy calls for searching a student’s backpack if it has graffiti-style markings on it.