Keener v. Municipal Court for Fremont-Newark-Union City Judicial District

Opinion

NEWSOM, J.

This case presents the issue — apparently one of first impression in California — whether an alternative felony-misdemeanor, when reduced to misdemeanor status more than a year after the date of the alleged crime, is barred by the one-year misdemeanor statute of limitations.

The incident in question occurred on February 6, 1975, and led to the filing of a Penal Code section 243 charge (battery upon a police officer), (a so-called “wobbler”) on March 18, 1976, beyond the one-year misdemeanor, but well within the three-year felony statute of limitations.

*215On April 21, 1977, after…