Opinion
F082886
05-09-2022
THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. MARK LEE CONTRERAS, Defendant and Appellant.
Rex Williams, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Louis M. Vasquez and Amanda D. Cary, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Fresno County. No. F20907020 Francine Zepeda, Judge.
Rex Williams, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Louis M. Vasquez and Amanda D. Cary, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
OPINION
THE COURT[*]
Defendant Mark Lee Contreras pled no contest to physically assaulting his wife and was placed on probation. On appeal, defendant contends the probation supervision and report fees imposed by the trial court must be vacated pursuant to Assembly Bill No. 1869 (2019-2020 Reg. Sess.) (Assembly Bill 1869). We order the judgment modified, but affirm in all other respects.
The underlying facts are not relevant to the issue on appeal and are therefore omitted.
On October 15, 2020, the Fresno County District Attorney filed a complaint charging defendant with corporal injury to a spouse (Pen. Code, § 273.5, subd. (a); count 1), and dissuading a witness from reporting a crime (§ 136.1, subd. (b)(1); count 2). Defendant pled no contest to count 1 and, in exchange, the People dismissed count 2.
All further statutory references are to the Penal Code.
On June 4, 2021, the trial court placed defendant on formal probation for three years and ordered him to pay an annual $360 probation supervision fee and a $296 probation report fee pursuant to former section 1203.1b.
On June 7, 2021, defendant filed an appeal.
DISCUSSION
On appeal, defendant contends he is entitled to relief from the unpaid portions of the probation supervision and report fees imposed under former section 1203.1b. The People concede and we agree.
Effective July 1, 2021, Assembly Bill 1869 "eliminate[d] the range of administrative fees that agencies and courts are authorized to impose to fund elements of the criminal legal system." (People v. Clark (2021) 67 Cal.App.5th 248, 259; Stats. 2020, ch. 92, § 2.) Among other things, Assembly Bill 1869 abrogated the court's authority to impose and collect probation supervision and report fees under former section 1203.1b by adding section 1465.9. (Stats. 2020, ch. 92, § 62.) As relevant here, section 1465.9 provides that "[t]he balance of any court-imposed costs pursuant to [now former s]ection … 1203.1b … as [that] section[] read on June 30, 2021, shall be unenforceable and uncollectible and any portion of a judgment imposing those costs shall be vacated." (§ 1465.9, subd. (a).)
In People v. Clark, supra, 67 Cal.App.5th at p. 259, the court noted that Assembly Bill 1869 "is largely self-executing, and provides both backward-looking and forward-looking relief. [The defendant] may not be charged such fees, and to the extent he already has been charged them, any fees not yet paid are no longer collectible." To the extent it is not self-executing, as when uncollectible fees are "phantom debt," the defendant may request we vacate the portion of the judgment imposing the debt "and if he or she does, we must grant it even though the pertinent fees are no longer collectible. The language of the statute is mandatory .…" (Ibid., italics omitted.)
Accordingly, we vacate any balances remaining unpaid as of July 1, 2021.
DISPOSITION
Any portion of the $360 annual probation supervision fee and the $296 probation report fee under former section 1203.1b that remains unpaid is vacated. In all other respects, the judgment is affirmed.
[*] Before Hill, P. J., Franson, J. and Meehan, J.