Brady Error in an Infraction Case

By Robert Phillips, Deputy District Attorney (Ret). 

Brady Error in an Infraction Case:  Some time ago, the San Diego City Attorney’s Office quit sending its deputies into court to answer up “For the People” in the prosecution of infractions, leaving the in-court trial procedures to the judge, defendant and his or her defense counsel (if any), and the prosecution’s witnesses (usually the citing law enforcement officer).  It was an issue of “resource allocation pressures;” certainly understandable in today’s tight budgets and limited personnel.  The City Attorney’s Office continued to issue subpoenas and handle appeals, but that was basically it.  Since late 2017, the San Diego City Attorney took it a step further in infraction prosecutions and relinquished its discovery duties as well to the citing law enforcement agency.  Taking itself out of the middle, the City Attorney merely referred anyone making a discovery request in an infraction case to the law enforcement agency that issued the citation being contested.  In the recent case of People v. Houser (Apr. 13, 2022) 78 Cal.App.5th Supp 1, the Fourth District Court of Appeal (Div. 1) addressed the ....

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