California v. Gross
Annotate this CaseUnder former Welfare and Institutions Code section 3200, a trial court could dismiss the criminal charges against a defendant who successfully completed a commitment to the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) and the dismissal had (with one exception not applicable here) “the same force and effect as a dismissal under Section 1203.4 of the Penal Code.” In this case, defendant Rickey Gross contended the dismissal of the criminal charges against him pursuant to former section 3200 following his successful completion of a CRC commitment operated to release him from the obligation to pay restitution to the victims of his crimes because direct victim restitution “qualifies as a ‘penalty and disability’ pursuant to . . . section 1203.4.” The Court of Appeal disagreed: the obligation to make a victim whole through direct victim restitution was a constitutional mandate that served to protect public safety and welfare, rather than to punish the defendant, and thus it was not a penalty or disability from which a defendant is released upon the dismissal of criminal charges pursuant to former section 3200 or section 1203.4.
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