Procunier v. Superior Court

Opinion

TAYLOR, P. J.

Petitioners Raymond K. Procunier, Director of the California Department of Corrections, William T. Stone, superintendent of the Correctional Training Facility at Soledad, and Evelle J. Younger, Attorney General of the State of California, seek mandamus to set aside portions of an order granting discovery issued by the Superior Court of Monterey County on July 5, 1973.

Real party defendants, Arturo Fidel Losoya and Robert Aguirre, inmates at the California Correctional Training Facility at Soledad, were charged by indictment with violating Penal Code section 187 (murder). In addition, defendant Aguirre was charged with violating Penal Code section 4500 (assault with a deadly weapon by a prisoner undergoing a life sentence), and defendant Losoya was charged with violating Penal Code section 4501 (assault with a deadly weapon by a prisoner undergoing a sentence less than life). Defendants filed joint motions for pretrial discovery, and after a hearing held on June 15, 1973, the court, in an order dated July 5, 1973, granted defendants’ motion for discovery as to 33 items. Petitioners contend that the court’s order granting Items 5, 24, 32 and 37 violated petitioners’ privilege to refuse to disclose official information.

Item 5 of the discovery order requires petitioners to disclose lists of names of inmates located in the North Facility and O Wing of the Central Facility of the Correctional Training Facility at Soledad determined by the Department of Corrections to be members of organizations known as the Mexican Mafia, Nuestra Familia, or the Aryan Brotherhood. Item 32 requires disclosure of any and all information in the possession of peti

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timers tending to connect defendants with an organization known as the Nuestra Familia. Item 37 requires the disclosure of any and all information in the possession of petitioners tending to connect two named witnesses with an organization known as the Aryan Brotherhood. Item 24 requires the disclosure of departmental records of defendants, including cumulative summaries, psychological evaluations, past records of convictions, incident or disciplinary reports, social studies, and medical records.

Under Evidence Code section 1040, a public entity has a privilege to refuse to disclose official information when disclosure is forbidden by a statute of this state or is against the public interest. Government Code section 6254, subdivision (f), of the California Public Records Act (Gov. Code, § 6250 et seq.) specifically exempts from disclosure “Records of complaints to or investigations conducted by, or