People v. Candelaria

Opinion

FILES, P. J. On January 5, 1970, the district attorney filed a petition seeking the civil commitment of appellant under Welfare and Institutions Code section 3100.6 as a person addicted or in imminent danger of becoming addicted to the use of narcotics. After a hearing the superior court entered judgment on January 15, 1970, committing him to the Director of Corrections for treatment in the Narcotic Rehabilitation Center, He is appealing from the judgment, arguing that his constitutional rights were violated in several respects. None of his contentions has merit.

The evidence was not the inadmissible product of any unlawful police conduct.

The record permitted the trial court to determine that the circumstances of appellant’s arrest were as follows: On December 31, 1969, two narcotics officers were driving their vehicle out of a driveway in a residential area when appellant drove his automobile directly at the officers and [757]skidded his car to an abrupt halt about six to ten feet away. Officer Del Rosario recognized appellant as a man he had arrested two months earlier. At the time of that arrest there were on appellant’s body some 75 punctures characteristic of heroin injections. Officer Del Rosario believed appellant was a narcotics addict.1

The officer walked to appellant’s vehicle and asked for a driver’s license. Appellant stepped out and said he had none. Appellant’s eyes were pinpointed and did not appear to react to light; his motor movements were slow; his speech was slurred and somewhat thick. Appellant’s left wrist showed a raised and discolored “track,” and several puncture wounds. The officer placed appellant under arrest for driving under the influence of narcotics, and transported him to the jail infirmary. There he was examined by a physician whose findings became the basis for the petition filed on January 5.

Upon this record the trial court properly concluded that the initial detention and subsequent arrest of appellant were reasonable and lawful.

It was not a violation of appellant’s privilege against self-incrimination, or his Sixth Amendment right to counsel, for the physician to interview appellant in the jail infirmary, without counsel, as part of his medical examination. The warning-and-waiver requirements established in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 [16 L.Ed.2d 694, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 10 A.L.R.3d 974], and People v. Dorado (1965) 62 Cal.2d 338 [42 Cal.Rptr. 169, 398 P.2d 361] do not apply. The information so obtained by the physician was properly received in evidence at the ensuing court hearing. (People v. Garcia (1969) 268 Cal.App.2d 712 [74 Cal.Rptr. 103]. Accord: People v. Engols (1969) 275 Cal.App.2d 307, 309 [79 Cal.Rptr. 608]; People v. Clark (1969) 272 Cal.App.2d 294, 297 [77 Cal.Rptr. 50]; People v. Lipscomb (1968) 263 Cal.App.2d 59, 67 [69 Cal.Rptr. 127]; People v. Hill (1967) 249 Cal.App.2d 453, 459 [57 Cal.Rptr. 551].)