The Supreme Court yesterday denied review in In re G.M. There were no recorded dissents, but Justice Liu, joined by Justice Evans, issued a separate statement.
The Fourth District, Division One, in an unpublished opinion, rejected a challenge to a probation condition for a minor who had admitted to committing felony assault and also found unavailing the contention that the minor’s counsel was ineffective for not objecting to the condition. The condition was that the minor “not use, sell or possess alcohol, drugs, drug paraphernalia, harmful intoxicants, non-prescribed medications, or any type of mind-altering substances.” (Emphasis added.)
Justice Liu wrote, “Prohibiting Minor from using any medication without a prescription would seem questionable given the lack of any indication in the record that Minor abused legal, over-the-counter medications or that there was a connection between lawful medicine use and the offense. On this record, I question how that condition could be ‘ “reasonably related to the crime of which [Minor] was convicted or to future criminality.” ’ ”
He also said that “an ambiguous probation condition like the one here can be problematic: It subjects a probationer to the discretion of the probation officer, and a probationer might rationally forego lawfully taking medicine out of concern about the condition.”
Nonetheless, Liu agreed the Supreme Court should not hear the case “because Minor forfeited his challenge to the reasonableness of the probation condition, and the Court of Appeal’s judgment assures that Minor may use over-the-counter medication without a prescription while on probation.” (Division One disagreed “with [the minor’s] contention that using over-the-counter medication, for which a prescription is not necessary, would result in a probation violation.”)
