Baluyut

Petitioners below are defendants charged with violation of Penal Code section 647, subdivision (a) (section 647(a)), in the Municipal Court for the Santa Clara Judicial District. They sought dismissal of the charges on the ground that the Mountain View police who arrested them engaged in a pattern of discriminatory arrest and prosecution of homosexuals under this statute, thereby denying them equal protection of the law. The municipal court judge found that defendants had established all of the factors necessary to establish constitutionally impermissible discriminatory prosecution except a specific intent on the part of the Mountain View police to punish defendants for their membership in a particular class, an element which the court believed was required by People v. Smith (1984) 155 Cal.App.3d 1103 [ 203 Cal.Rptr. 196 ] (Smith).

After the superior court denied a petition for writ of mandate by the defendants who sought to set aside the ruling of the municipal court, the Court of Appeal ordered the municipal court to grant defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaints. In the erroneous belief that the Court of Appeal decision had become final without a petition for…