Under Pen. Code 186.11, the state allows the prosecution to freeze and seize a criminal defendant’s assets to pay restitution or a restitution fine ordered as part of a criminal sentence for certain white-collar crimes. Here, the county took the first few steps of the freeze and seize procedure, recording a lis pendens and obtaining a temporary restraining order against the defendant’s transferring any interest in a piece of real property, but it failed to follow through the entire procedure to obtain a seizure order as part of the criminal sentence. As a result, this decision holds that a later transferee of the property has priority to surplus proceeds of a nonjudicial sale of the property under a prior deed of trust. The county never perfected a lien on the property. The lis pendens had no effect after entry of the criminal judgment. The temporary restraining order did not give the county any interest in the property.
California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 8 (Rubin, Acting P.J.); April 27, 2018; 2018 Cal. App. LEXIS 376