In Re Casas
Before: Marks
MARKS, Acting P. J.
Petitioners are before this court on an original proceeding of
habeas corpus
to test the legality of. their confinement by the sheriff of Riverside County. - They were found guilty in the Justice’s Court of Temescal Township, in Riverside County, of the offense of disturbing the peace and judgments were pronounced upon them. They twice appealed to the Superior Court of Riverside County. The judgments were affirmed as was an order denying their motions to vacate the judgments.
Petitioners present but two reasons for their release which it is necessary to consider here. They maintain, first, that no pleas were ever entered by them and, second, that as they filed affidavits under section 1431 of the Penal Code setting up bias and prejudice on the part of the justice of the peace of Temescal Township he was without jurisdiction to sit in the ease.
The record shows that petitioners were represented in the justice’s court by an attorney at law; that they were present in court and were duly arraigned; that their pleas of guilty were entered for them by their attorney.
. They maintain that a plea of guilty cannot be entered by an attorney but must be entered by a defendant in person. In support of this contention they cite sections 977 and 1018 of the Penal Code and
In re Brain,
70 Cal. App. 334 [233 Pac. 390].
Those two sections of the Penal Code are found in the chapters dealing with criminal procedure in superior courts and relate to that subject only and not to justices’ courts.
(People
v.
Aymar,
98 Cal. App. 1 [276 Pac. 595].) The manner of entering a plea in a criminal case in a justice’s court is set forth in section 1429 of the Penal Code. That section, unlike section 1018 of the Penal Code, does not contain the provision that the plea of guilty can be entered by the defendant only. Section 1434 of the Penal Code provides that the defendant must be present before the trial can proceed. Section 1451 of the same code contains the provision that a new trial in a justice’s court may be granted “when the trial has been had in the absence of the defendant, unless he voluntarily absent
[124]
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