People v. Dunn

California Court of Appeal Jan 13, 1986 No. Crim. 14245Published

Before: Puglia

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Holding. The court held that the right to be sentenced by the judge who accepted a plea bargain, as established in People v. Arbuckle, does not apply when the judge is unavailable due to retirement rather than internal administrative scheduling.

Issues

Whether a defendant is entitled to withdraw a guilty plea when the judge who accepted the plea is unavailable for sentencing due to retirement.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“We hold that Arbuckle does not apply in a case where the judge’s unavailability is due not to internal administrative problems or convenience of the court but to retirement of the judge”

“a negotiated plea does not carry with it an implied promise that the judge accepting the plea will not resign, retire, expire or be removed from the bench pending imposition of sentence.”

Opinion

PUGLIA, P. J.

Defendant appeals from the judgment of conviction following her plea of guilty to one count each of forgery and welfare fraud (Pen. Code, § 470; Welf. & Inst. Code, § 11483). She was sentenced to a total term of three years and eight months in state prison.

On appeal, defendant contends: (1) her

Arbuckle

rights were violated

(People

Arbuckle

(1978) 22 Cal.3d 749 [150 Cal.Rptr. 778, 587 P.2d 220, 3 A.L.R.4th 1171]); and (2) the trial court abused its discretion in denying her motion to withdraw her guilty plea. The superior court has issued a certificate of probable cause (Pen. Code, § 1237.5). We shall reject defendant’s contentions and affirm the judgment.

The facts of the offenses are not essential to the determination of this appeal. Suffice it to say that defendant (1) forged an endorsement on a check payable to another person and cashed it and (2) impersonated her sister-in-law in order to receive welfare payments to which she was not entitled.

[574]

On July 18, 1984, defendant appeared before the Honorable Sheldon Grossfeld and withdrew her not guilty plea to 19 counts of welfare fraud and forgery. She pled guilty to two counts in consideration for which the court dismissed the remaining counts on motion of the People. She was also promised that no additional charges would be filed arising out of the current investigation by the welfare department. Defendant was not advised she had a right to be sentenced by the same judge who accepted her guilty plea

(People

Arbuckle, supra,

22 Cal.3d 749), nor did she enter into an

People v. Dunn

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PUGLIA, P. J.

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