Yorn

Cooper, White & Cooper, Mark L. Tuft, and Denis O. Sutro for Real Party in Interest.

OPINION

RACANELLI, P.J.

We issued an alternative writ of mandamus in order to examine the questions presented by the pretrial order disqualifying petitioner's privately retained counsel in a criminal proceeding. We conclude that neither jurisdictional excess nor abuse of discretion is manifested as claimed. Accordingly, the relief requested is denied. [1]

The record discloses the following salient circumstances:

Petitioner Yorn and real party Hesemeyer are codefendants in a grand jury indictment charging them with crimes of conspiracy (Pen. Code, § 182), embezzlement (Pen. Code, § 504) and grand theft (Pen. Code, § 487, subd. 1); Yorn is additionally charged with fraudulently issuing worthless checks (Pen. Code, § 476a); the charges stem from a series of escrow transactions over a several months' period involving aggregate disbursements of $433,000 made to Yorn by Hesemeyer as local manager of National American Title Insurance Company (hereafter National). Hesemeyer filed a pretrial motion to disqualify Yorn's privately retained defense counsel, Charles O. Morgan, Jr., on grounds of a prior…