Hobbs v. Municipal Court

233 Cal. App. 3d 670, 284 Cal. Rptr. 655, 91 Daily Journal DAR 10444, 91 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6866, 1991 Cal. App. LEXIS 966
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 22, 1991
DocketD013897
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 233 Cal. App. 3d 670 (Hobbs v. Municipal Court) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hobbs v. Municipal Court, 233 Cal. App. 3d 670, 284 Cal. Rptr. 655, 91 Daily Journal DAR 10444, 91 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6866, 1991 Cal. App. LEXIS 966 (Cal. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinions

[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *Page 672

[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *Page 673

[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *Page 674 OPINION

Timothy C. Hobbs, a misdemeanant defendant, has petitioned for a peremptory writ of mandate by which he seeks rescission of an order authorizing prosecutorial discovery that was made subsequent to the passage *Page 675 of Proposition 115. In his points and authorities, Hobbs attacks the discovery provisions of Proposition 115, claiming they violate the California and federal constitutional guarantees of the right against self-incrimination as well as the federal constitutional rights of due process of law and the assistance of counsel. Hobbs also contends the discovery provisions of Proposition 115 violate the work product doctrine. Finally, Hobbs argues the discovery provisions of Proposition 115 should not apply in misdemeanor cases. We ordered respondent municipal court to show cause why the relief should not be granted.1

FACTS
Hobbs was charged in a felony complaint filed in San Diego Municipal Court with residential burglary (Pen. Code,2 §§ 459/460). At his October 24, 1990, arraignment on the felony complaint, the district attorney made an informal request for discovery pursuant to section 1054.5, subdivision (b). On November 6, 1990, at the conclusion of a preliminary hearing, the municipal court, per The Honorable Robert C. Coates, reduced the burglary charge from a felony to a misdemeanor. (See § 17, subd. (b); Esteybar v. Municipal Court (1971) 5 Cal.3d 119 [95 Cal.Rptr. 524, 485 P.2d 1140].) On November 27, 1990, Hobbs was arraigned in San Diego Municipal Court on the misdemeanor burglary count. On December 27, 1990, the district attorney filed a notice of and motion for discovery, and order to show cause re contempt. On January 3, 1991, after hearing, The Honorable Charles G. Rogers granted the prosecution's discovery motion, ordering Hobbs to disclose those items listed under section1054.3. On January 7, 1991, Hobbs filed a petition for writ of mandate in San Diego Superior Court. On January 23, 1991, the superior court, per The Honorable Charles Hayes, denied the petition and remanded the matter to municipal court with directions to modify the discovery order to include reciprocal provisions concerning rebuttal evidence. In its written opinion, the superior court held section 1054.3 was constitutional and applicable to misdemeanors. On February 6, 1991, Judge Rogers issued an amended discovery order. Hobbs filed his petition with this court on February 15, 1991.

DISCUSSION
I
On June 5, 1990, the voters enacted Proposition 115, entitled by its framers as the "Crime Victims Justice Reform Act." The initiative changed *Page 676 criminal law in several areas, including discovery. This case deals solely with the discovery provisions of Proposition 115 that mandate reciprocal discovery and authorize prosecutorial discovery. As is not uncommon with initiatives, Proposition 115 did not write on a clean slate. We find it instructive, therefore, to begin with a brief history of the right of the prosecution to discovery in California.

The first case to authorize discovery directed at the defense was Jones v. Superior Court (1962) 58 Cal.2d 56 [22 Cal.Rptr. 879,372 P.2d 919, 96 A.L.R.2d 1213], where the defendant sought a continuance on the day set for trial, and, as a condition of granting his request, the trial court ordered the defense to provide limited discovery. In an opinion by Chief Justice Traynor, our Supreme Court held the privilege against self-incrimination did not shield the defendant from being forced to produce the names and identities of witnesses who would be used to prove the defendant's late proffered defense of impotency in a rape case. The court in Jones flatly declared that discovery "should not be a one-way street." (Id. at p. 60.)

The decision in Jones, supra, 58 Cal.2d 56, led to routine discovery orders directed at defendants until the Supreme Court adopted a more restrictive approach in Prudhomme v. SuperiorCourt (1970) 2 Cal.3d 320 [85 Cal.Rptr. 129, 466 P.2d 673]. InPrudhomme, the defendant objected to a pretrial discovery order compelling her attorney to disclose to the prosecution the names, addresses and expected testimony of defense witnesses to be called at her murder trial. The Supreme Court limited its earlier holding in Jones to its facts and struck down the order before it because the disclosure of the requested information "conceivably might lighten the prosecution's burden of proving its case in chief." (Id. at p. 326.) The court in Prudhomme also articulated a "link in a chain" test: "[T]he privilege forbids compelled disclosures which could serve as a `link in a chain' of evidence tending to establish guilt of a criminal offense; in ruling upon a claim of privilege, the trial court must find that it clearly appears from a consideration of all the circumstances in the case that an answer to the challenged [request] cannot possibly have a tendency to incriminate the witness." (Ibid.) Prudhomme explicitly relied at least in part on an analysis of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and federal cases. (Id. at pp. 323-326.) However, in later cases, the California Supreme Court revisitedPrudhomme and declared that Prudhomme had in fact been premised on the privilege against self-incrimination now contained in article I, section 15 of the California Constitution. (See Reynolds v. Superior Court (1974)12 Cal.3d 834, 843 [117 Cal.Rptr. 437, 528 P.2d 45] ["[I]t cannot be gainsaid that Prudhomme *Page 677 put this court on record as being considerably more solicitous of the privilege against self-incrimination than federal law currently requires."] and Allen v. Superior Court (1976)18 Cal.3d 520, 524-525 [134 Cal.Rptr. 774, 557 P.2d 65] [noting that the trend of federal decisions was not "wholly consistent" with the Prudhomme interpretation of the privilege against self incrimination].)3

Meanwhile, an opposite trend was about to emerge under federal law. Three months after Prudhomme, supra,

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233 Cal. App. 3d 670, 284 Cal. Rptr. 655, 91 Daily Journal DAR 10444, 91 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6866, 1991 Cal. App. LEXIS 966, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hobbs-v-municipal-court-calctapp-1991.