Supreme Court of California

The court reaffirms the vitality of People v. Sims (1982) 32 Cal.3d 468, which held that a welfare recipient who has been exonerated of fraud charges by the Department of Social Services in an administrative hearing cannot be criminally prosecuted for welfare fraud, because the doctrine of collateral estoppel bars the prosecution from relitigating issues that were determined in the administrative hearing.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/28/2006
• Published 08/28/2006

Judges

• MORENO, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Elizabeth M. Campbell, Sacramento, under appointment by the Supreme Court, and Sally P. Brajevich, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant., Legal Services of Northern California, Gary F. Smith, Sacramento;  Western Center on Law and Poverty, Richard A. Rothschild, Los Angeles, Dora Lopez and Robert D. Newman for Legal Aid Association of California as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant., Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Manuel M. Medeiros, State Solicitor General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Mary Jo Graves, Assistant Attorney General, Janet E. Neeley, Stephen G. Herndon, Maggy Krell, David Andrew Eldridge, Paul E. O'Connor, Janis Shank McLean and Donald E. deNicola, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent., David Labahn;  Greg Gibeson, Assistant Deputy District Attorney (Alameda);  and Stan Kubochi, Deputy District Attorney (Sacramento) for California District Attorney's Association as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.