Agajanian v. County of Orange CA4/3

Filed 1/20/23 Agajanian v. County of Orange 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NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

JONATHAN SCOTT AGAJANIAN,

Plaintiff and Appellant, G061076

v. (Super. Ct. No. 30-2020-01161869)

COUNTY OF ORANGE, OPI NION

Defendant and Respondent.

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, Melissa R. McCormick, Judge. Affirmed. Jonathan Scott Agajanian, in pro. per., for Plaintiff and Appellant. Collins + Collins, Michael L. Wroniak, Aaron L. Britton and James C. Jardin for Defendant and Respondent.

Appellant Jonathan Scott Agajanian sued the County of Orange (the County) for alleged civil rights violations stemming from his prosecution for possession of illegal drug paraphernalia. The basis for Agajanian’s lawsuit was that the subject paraphernalia was not booked into evidence at the sheriff’s department until 10 days after he pleaded guilty to possessing it. However, the trial court dismissed Agajanian’s case at the demurrer stage of the proceedings on the ground he failed to amend his complaint to allege a viable cause of action after he was granted leave to do so. As he did in the trial court, Agajanian is representing himself on appeal. He contends the dismissal was improper, but we disagree and affirm the trial court’s ruling. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND According to Agajanian’s lawsuit, he was arrested and taken into custody on January 10, 2018, for unlawfully possessing drug paraphernalia. (See Health & Saf. Code, § 11364.) At his arraignment, he pleaded guilty to that offense and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. He was in custody for about six weeks before being released on February 25, 2018. Roughly two years later, Agajanian received a letter from the District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) informing him the paraphernalia he pleaded guilty to possessing was not booked into evidence at the sheriff’s department until January 22, 2018, ten days after he entered his guilty plea. The letter advised Agajanian this circumstance “does not necessarily mean [the paraphernalia] was booked late, the deputy involved violated any policy or the evidence booking issue, if any, was relevant or material” to his case. However, Agajanian was told to contact the CIU if he believed his due process rights may have been impacted by the timing of events in his case. Agajanian took up the invitation, and in response to his concerns, an attorney in the CIU notified him that she would be asking the court to permit him to withdraw his guilty plea and to dismiss the case. However, even though those remedies