In Re Easterbrook
Opinion
Opinion
Petitioner, Alex Easterbrook, seeks by way of habeas corpus to set aside respondent court’s order finding petitioner in contempt and sentencing him to five days in jail.
Petitioner is the appointed counsel for Finas Winston Sturns, Jr., a criminal defendant whose case is currently being tried in San Mateo County Superior Court. On February 29, 1988, Sturns made a Marsden motion seeking to obtain new counsel, which respondent court denied. Sturns also made a Faretta motion to represent himself, which he later withdrew.
On February 29, 1988, Stums filed a civil complaint for malpractice against petitioner in San Mateo County Superior Court. The complaint alleges that petitioner failed to seek writ relief in this court after the denial of Sturns’s Penal Code section 995 motion; failed to file various pretrial motions—including motions to suppress evidence, to interview prosecution witnesses, to allow access to the law library, to obtain cocounsel status, to declare a conflict between Sturns and the San Mateo County Private Public Defenders Program; and took a position antagonistic to petitioner’s defense. The complaint seeks relief in the sum of $500,000 in damages.