Cal.2d: Exclusionary rule does not apply to state employee termination proceedings

The exclusionary rule does not apply to state termination proceedings, assuming a Fourth Amendment violation, which here there wasn’t. California Science Center v. State Personnel Bd., 218 Cal. App. 4th 1302, 160 Cal. Rptr. 3d 765 (2d Dist. 2013):

Our independent review leads us to agree with the trial court that the SPB erred in applying the exclusionary rule to the evidence regarding Arellanes’s termination from LASD. “The courts have seldom applied the exclusionary rule in administrative cases, even ones in which severe penalties are imposed based on the admission of illegally seized evidence.” (Department of Transportation, supra, 178 Cal.App.4th at p. 576.) In balancing whether the social benefit of excluding the evidence outweighs the likely costs, courts consider whether the evidence was obtained under circumstances which shock the conscience, or which constitute egregious police behavior so as to offend the collective conscience of the people. (Id. at pp. 579–578.)

. . .

In this case there is no evidence that the department, through the CHP, conducted an unconstitutional search. Sergeant Young testified at the administrative hearing that he was given the Court of Appeal decision, initially unpublished, copied from an online database. He also received a Lexis printout of the published decision that showed the decision had later been published. The next day, he made a phone call to the LASD and asked for information regarding Arellanes’s termination. When LASD informed him that they would not release the information without a waiver from Arellanes, Sergeant Young ceased his efforts to get the records from LASD. On February 13, 2009, Sergeant Young then went to the Court of Appeal and obtained a certified copy of the decision. Armed with the appellate decision, Sergeant Young then went to what he called “the LA County Records Center,” where, using the superior court case number, he asked for “records that were made public” because they were made available to the courts, and he was led to a room with other members of the public. There he obtained several rolls of microfilm, containing “several cases from different people.” Finding Arellanes’s case on the microfilm, Sergeant Young reviewed the record and printed from the exhibits documents he believed were relevant to the investigation. The printed records were presented to the ALJ.

Whether the exclusionary rule barred the admission of the evidence “depends, first, on the existence of a search or seizure that violates the protections of the Fourth Amendment.” (Conservatorship of Susan T. (1994) 8 Cal.4th 1005, 1012 [36 Cal. Rptr. 2d 40, 884 P.2d 988].) There was no evidence of an unconstitutional “search” or “seizure.” Sergeant Young requested and received public records. No evidence supported the application of the exclusionary rule.