People v. St. Andrew

Defendant Clifford St. Andrew appeals from a judgment of conviction entered on jury verdicts finding him guilty of rape by threat (Pen. Code, § 261, subd. 3) and forcible oral copulation (Pen. Code, § 288a). The issues on appeal can best be understood and evaluated against the background of the rather unusual circumstances in which the crimes are alleged to have been committed.

The defendant was a hospital attendant working the night shift in the psychiatric ward of a San Francisco hospital. The prosecutrix, Mrs. S., was a patient in that ward. According to her testimony, the defendant came to her on the night of April 22, 1978, and over a period of about two hours during which he went in and out of her room a number of times, he made increasingly aggressive sexual advances to her, culminating in acts of oral copulation and sexual intercourse.

According to Mrs. S., the defendant said nothing during this period except for an early remark that she had “good stomach muscles” and that he would return to give her a body rub. Mrs. S. said nothing at all, she voiced no protest and she did not resist. In connection with the oral copulation, she explained, “I was afraid he would…

After the same searching and troubled consideration given this case by my colleagues, I concur in the judgment and in the reasoning which supports it, except that I do not endorse the majority’s implication that the trial court had a duty to advise counsel of the proper means of invoking Code of Civil Procedure section 170.6.

I may add that I do not see in what way Code of Civil Procedure section 170.6 involves, or affects, the interests of justice.

A petition for a rehearing was denied February 27, 1980, and respondent’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied March 27, 1980.

Defendant Clifford St. Andrew appeals from a judgment of conviction entered on jury verdicts finding him guilty of rape by threat (Pen. Code, § 261, subd. 3) and forcible oral copulation (Pen. Code, § 288a). The issues on appeal can best be understood and evaluated against the background of the rather unusual circumstances in which the crimes are alleged to have been committed.

The defendant was a hospital attendant working the night shift in the psychiatric ward of a San Francisco hospital. The prosecutrix, Mrs. S., was a patient in that ward. According to her testimony, the defendant came to her on the night of April 22, 1978, and over a period of about two hours during which he went in and out of her room a number of times, he made increasingly aggressive sexual advances to her, culminating in acts of oral copulation and sexual intercourse.

According to Mrs. S., the defendant said nothing during this period except for an early remark that she had "good stomach muscles" and that he would return to give her a body rub. Mrs. S. said nothing at all, she voiced no protest and she did not resist. In connection with the oral copulation, she explained, "I was…