Crayton v. Superior Court

Opinion

WOODS, P. J.

By petition for writ of prohibition a felony defendant seeks to compel the trial court to dismiss a felony complaint on the ground that he has entered a plea of nolo contendere to and been sentenced upon a misdemeanor offense that arose out of the identical underlying criminal conduct now being prosecuted as a felony.

The issue presented is whether a defendant, who has in no way manipulated prosecutorial procedures nor judicial proceedings to conceal the fact of dual prosecution, perpetrates a fraud upon the court by entering a guilty plea to misdemeanor charges without…