Hill

BACKGROUND

In a misdemeanor complaint filed on September 13, 2021, defendant was charged with assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury (§ 245, subd. (a)(4)) and simple battery (§ 242) against the victim, Michael L.2 The alleged offenses occurred on September 7, 2020. Defendant failed to appear for an arraignment hearing and an arrest warrant was issued. On August 7, 2023, private counsel appeared on behalf of defendant pursuant to section 977, and an arraignment hearing was continued upon defendant’s request. On September 15, 2023, defendant filed a written motion for judicial diversion pursuant to section 1001.95 et seq. According to the unverified memorandum of points and authorities, defendant was assured by the City Attorney that charges would not be filed in this case,3 he subsequently moved to Nevada for work, the prosecutor decided to file charges “because [Michael L.] . . . was claiming that [he] had a deviated septum,” and he was unaware of the charges until he received a letter in or around July 2023.

1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code. 2 To protect personal privacy interests, we refer to the victim by first name and last initial.…