People v. Messer

276 Cal. App. 2d 300, 80 Cal. Rptr. 811, 1969 Cal. App. LEXIS 1807
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 22, 1969
DocketCrim. No. 3506
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 276 Cal. App. 2d 300 (People v. Messer) 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
People v. Messer, 276 Cal. App. 2d 300, 80 Cal. Rptr. 811, 1969 Cal. App. LEXIS 1807 (Cal. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

ing concurrent sentences on five counts of violation of section 288, Penal Code. He was acquitted on two other counts charging similar acts against a second child.

The evidence adequately supports the verdict. The victim named in the five counts was the 8-year-old daughtei of defendant. The two counts upon which he was acquitted had to do with a 14-year-old stepchild.

Issues

Defendant states the issues as follows:

“1. Was appellant deprived of his constitutional right to a Speedy Trial.
“2. Did the lower Court commit error in allowing the prosecution to present certain rebuttal evidence and if so, was this error prejudicial.
“3. Was the prosecutor guilty of prejudicial misconduct due to the improper questions he asked.”

No Denial op the Right to a Speedy Trial

Defendant’s claim he was denied his right to a speedy trial has the following background:

He left Orange County on May 6, 1967, before a complaint had been filed on charges of acts committed in March and April 1967, and went to Oregon where he speedily was convicted of a burglary that placed him in prison on May 17, 1967, until January 10,1968.

While incarcerated in Oregon he wrote to the Orange County District Attorney on August 21, 1967, asking that he be brought to trial in California on the complaint filed against him by his wife and daughters. The district attorney wrote to the Oregon authorities on October 2,1967, relating that appellant had demanded a speedy trial. Inquiry was made when appellant would be paroled and when he could be turned over to California for trial. On October 12, 1967, the Oregon authorities told the district attorney that Oregon was not a [302]*302member of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers; consequently, they had no legal machinery for releasing prisoners before the time of parole. The information was filed and arraignment was held on January 26, 1968. The case came to trial on June 17,1968... ■

On March 13, 1968, attorney for appellant made a motion under section 995 of the Penal Code and a motion for dismissal under section 686 of the Penal Code of California. Both motions were denied. Attorney for appellant again made a motion for dismissal before the Honorable C. A. Bauer, in department 9 of the superior court. This motion was denied.

On June 17, 1968, the attorney for appellant made a motion to dismiss based on the fact that the defendant was denied his right to a speedy trial due to the dilatory tactics of the district attorney in failing to get the defendant to trial for approximately 160 days after the demand was made by the appellant from the Oregon prison.

Defendant, through an Oregon public defender, also made a written notice to dismiss in the municipal court of Orange County which was denied on November 22,1967.

Both the federal Constitution (6th Amend.) and the Constitution of California (art. I, § 13) guarantee a defendant in a criminal case the right to a speedy trial.

The right under the federal Constitution is enforceable against the states as one of the basic rights preserved by that Constitution. (Klopfer v. North Carolina, 386 U.S. 213 [18 L.Ed.2d 1, 87 S.Ct. 988]; Smith s,. Hooey, 393 U.S. 374 [21 L.Ed.2d 607, 89 S.Ct. 575.]

However, the constitutional guaranty of the state Constitution is as- coextensive in its operation and as demanding upon the courts and law enforcement officials of the state as is that of the federal Constitution.

The federal constitutional guarantee has been declared necessary: “To prevent undue and oppressive incarceration prior to trial,. [2] to minimize anxiety and concern accompanying public accusation, and [3] to limit the possibilities that long delay will impair the ability of an accused to defend himself.” (Smith v. Hooey, 393 U.S. 374, 377-378 [21 L.Ed.2d 607, 610-611].) Nor is the right of a defendant imprisoned in another jurisdiction to a speedy trial in the state in which a charge is pending destroyed or diminished because of such imprisonment. (Smith v. Hooey, supra, 393 U.S. 374.)

Penal Code, section 1389, embodies the interstate “Agreement on Detainers” under which a prisoner in a penal insti[303]*303tution of a state may make request for a speedy final determination of any pending charge against him in another state. The: agreement binds a party state to permit release of a prisoner upon the making of such request for delivery to the state in which a charge is pending and binds the latter state to receive the prisoner and bring him to trial within 180 days of the delivery of such request or to dismiss the charge with prejudice.

Oregon has not adopted the Interstate Agreement on Detainers. Defendant’s brief states he is informed the District Attorney of Orange County received from Oregon authorities a letter dated October 12, 1967, stating that Oregon was not a member of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers and they had no legal procedure for releasing prisoners before their being paroled.

The copy of defendant’s written request to the Orange County District Attorney that he be brought to a speedy trial, of which a copy is made a part of his brief, stated he was tentatively to be discharged from his Oregon imprisonment on June 6,1968, with good time.

In fact, after his discharge from the Oregon imprisonment and his return to Orange County his trial was first set for March ,20, 1968, and continued at defendant’s request to a later date.

The March 20 trial date was only seven months less one day from the date defendant states he gave notice to the Orange County District Attorney of his desire for an early trial.

Since Oregon is not a party signatore to the Interstate Agreement on Detainers, it is perhaps unlikely she would respond to a California court’s writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum. (Cf. Smith v. Hooey, supra, 393 U.S. 374, 377 [21 L.Ed.2d 607, 610-611, 89 S.Ct. 575, 578].)

By contrast with the extended periods of time over which the prisoners in Smith v. Hooey, supra (six years) and Zimmerman v. Superior Court, 248 Cal.App.2d 56 [56 Cal.Rptr. 226] (four years) sought unsuccessfully to be brought to trial, it seems probable that the communication from the Orange County authorities to the Oregon authorities had the effect of shortening defendant’s Oregon confinement by several months and of having defendant tried in Orange County within what, under the circumstances, was a reasonable time. He was not denied the right to a speedy trial under either the federal Constitution or the Constitution of California.

[304]*304The Objectbd-to Eebuttal Evidence

After defendant had testified and had denied sexually touching either child, his former wife who had testified in chief for the prosecution, was called in rebuttal.

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Related

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
276 Cal. App. 2d 300, 80 Cal. Rptr. 811, 1969 Cal. App. LEXIS 1807, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-messer-calctapp-1969.