A state appeals court concluded that a private golf club is still considered a commercial establishment, meaning that a theft at the club would be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor under California’s Proposition 47. Jon Holm, who pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary in 2013 for stealing a TV set and three boxes of golf balls from the club, can now remove the felony from his record.
A golf club may be a private retreat for members only, but it’s still a “commercial establishment,” a state appeals court concluded on September 7, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
That designation means a man who stole a television set and some golf balls from the Santa Rosa (Calif.) Golf and Country Club can have his felony burglary conviction reduced to misdemeanor shoplifting, under an initiative approved by California voters, the Chronicle reported.
Proposition 47, passed in November 2014, reclassified some lesser felonies as misdemeanors, including the nonforcible theft of property worth $950 or less from a “commercial establishment” during business hours, the Chronicle reported.
Jon Holm pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary in 2013 for swiping a $662 TV set and three boxes of golf balls, worth $50 per box, from the club where he had once been a member. Holm served an eight-month jail sentence but sought to remove the felony from his record after Proposition 47 became law, the Chronicle reported.
The club allows only members and guests to use its golf course and two restaurants, although the public can rent its banquet hall. Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Jamie Thistlethwaite refused to reduce Holm’s conviction, ruling that the club was private and not covered by Prop. 47, but the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said Wednesday that any business that sells its products, even to a select group of people, is a commercial establishment, the Chronicle reported.
The club “is an establishment primarily engaged in the sale of goods and services,” Justice Kathleen Banke said in the 3-0 ruling. “The fact most of these are sold to a subset of the general public—namely individual club members and their guests—does not change the commercial nature of the establishment.”
She noted that the state Supreme Court, in a 1995 ruling, had found that another private golf club was a “business establishment” covered by state civil rights laws and must admit women as members, the Chronicle reported.
Holm’s lawyer, David McNeil Morse, said the ruling interpreted Prop. 47 as the voters had intended it, “to stop sending people who are guilty of nonserious or nonviolent crimes to prison or have them suffer felony convictions.”
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