People v. Municipal Court (Henry)

Opinion

PARAS, J.

Real party in interest Vernal Henry is charged in municipal court with nine counts of misdemeanor vandalism. Among his pretrial motions was one to recuse the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office. Henry argued that recusal was necessary because a deputy district attorney was the victim of a similar incident and a possible trial witness, and because a former deputy district attorney was also listed as a vandalism victim in the police investigation reports. Neither the present nor the former deputy was a named victim in any count of the complaint.

Henry’s motion to recuse was denied by the municipal court. He petitioned the superior court for a writ of mandate, contending that the motion should have been granted because under the circumstances the prosecution’s office could not be impartial or maintain the appearance of impartiality. The superior court issued the writ and ordered the municipal court to vacate its denial of the motion. The People then petitioned this court for an order staying the trial and for a writ of prohibition and/or mandate to restrain the municipal court from complying with the superior court’s order.

We stayed further proceedings in the municipal court and issued an alternative writ of prohibition, thus resolving the question of applicability of the writ procedure to this dispute. (See

Caputo

v.

Municipal Court

(1960) 184 Cal.App.2d 412, 421 [7 Cal.Rptr. 435];

City of Los Angeles

v.

Superior Court

(1959) 51 Cal.2d 423, 429 [333 P.2d 745].) Henry’s contention that appeal is the sole appropriate remedy to the People is thus no longer viable, and we turn to the merits of the municipal court’s recusal ruling.

1

[693]

Recusal is a matter of discretion. It is appropriate when a defendant shows the district attorney’s prosecutorial zeal is affected by factors extraneous to objective and impartial consideration of the case.