People v. Superior Court (Kneip)

Defendant and real party in interest Raymond G. Kneip is charged with 34 counts of committing lewd or lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a)), and 8 counts of committing lewd or lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 by use of force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury (§ 288, subd. (b)). The People seek a writ of mandate following the trial court’s dismissal under section 995 of eight counts of the information. They contend dismissal as to four such counts charging lewd acts with force (counts 3, 4, 6, 7) was error, because the evidence taken at the preliminary hearing supports the charges.

Writ review by the People of a dismissal under section 995 is authorized. (P eople v. Superior Court (Day) (1985) 174 Cal.App.3d 1008 [ 220 Cal.Rptr. 330 ].) The legal issue presented by the petition is whether defendant must have exercised some physical coercion on the victims in order to be charged with the section 288, subdivision (b) offenses, or whether coercion can be implied from the circumstances and psychological pressure. We will issue the writ because the trial court erroneously…