People v. Superior Court of L.A. Cty.

Opinion

EPSTEIN, Acting P. J.

A magistrate purported to reduce two felony charges to misdemeanors because she believed the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing was insufficient to hold the defendant to answer felony charges. Neither offense was a felony-misdemeanor (wobbler) as to which the reduced crime was a misdemeanor. We conclude the magistrate was without power to reduce the offenses to these misdemeanors, and that her doing so amounted to a dismissal of the felony charges. The district attorney brought a Penal Code section 871.5 motion, but the superior court declined to…