People v. Superior Court

Opinion

KINGSLEY, J.

This is another episode in the running battle between Judge Dodson of respondent court and the District Attorney of Santa Barbara County, over the efforts of Judge Dodson to apply his own, highly individualistic, methods of reducing court congestion and speeding the trial process in that county. To date the judge has lost two rounds; 1 for the reasons set forth below, we conclude that he is entitled to win this one.

Defendant, and real party in interest, is, admittedly, an habitual writer of bad or of forged checks. In 1970, he was charged, in respondent court, in superior…