Ernst

Defendant was convicted in the Municipal Court for the Long Beach Judicial District for violating Vehicle Code section 23102, subdivision (a) (driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor). On appeal the Appellate Department of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County rendered a decision of unqualified reversal of the judgment of conviction.

In the court where defendant was previously tried he moved to dismiss the action on the grounds that a retrial would place him twice in , jeopardy. The motion was denied and the matter was set for retrial. Defendant then petitioned the superior court for a writ of prohibition to block further prosecution. A judge; of the superior court, sitting in a department other than the appellate department, granted the petition. The People have appealed. We reverse.

The judgment from which this appeal is taken rests entirely upon the interpretation which the superior court judge in these writ proceedings, placed upon the opinion of the appellate department of that same court. That interpretation was in turn based soley on the judge’s reading of the language of the opinion without reference to the underlying record. The opinion itself, as…