CALIFORNIA CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER: JOINTLY CHARGED DEFENDANTS, DELAYS WITH GOOD CAUSE, AND TRAILING
Defendants A and B are jointly charged in a felony. Day 60 comes up. Defendant A's lawyer is sick; he waives time. B objects. The case is continued, the court finds good cause to delay A and thus good cause to delay B under California Penal Code sec. 1050.1.
The DA has 10 days to bring A to trial after the new, agreed-to date. What about B? There's no actual case on this, incredibly.
The DA cites California Penal Code sec. 1050.1, enacted by Prop. 115 in 1990, which says that where one defendant shows good cause for a continuance, that's good cause for jointly charged co-defendants. Right, that gets the DA to the new date. But what about the 10-day trailing period?
The DA gets the 10-day trailing period on A in our hypo, because A's delay was with consent. But the Court of Appeal says that the DA doesn't get it for B, whose case was delayed only for good cause. A delay for good cause doesn't trigger the 10-day trailing period. So unless the DA has good cause to delay B for the 10 days, the DA has to proceed on that next date.
They didn't here, so the case is dismissed. Nice win for SF PD.
Smith v. Superior Court; 2009 DJ DAR 14823; DJ, 10/15/09; C/A 1st
