Guerrero

Defendant and his codefendant, Roger Barron, were convicted by a jury of three sex crimes committed upon a 17-year-old girl, Irene L.: forcible rape (Pen. Code, § 261, subd. 2), oral copulation (Pen. Code, § 288a) and unlawful sexual intercourse (Pen. Code, § 261.5).

Defendant does not quarrel with the sufficiency of evidence, hence we feel we can dispense with the customary statement of facts and proceed directly to the contentions on appeal: apart from a claim of sentencing irregularity, the only issue raised is the trial court’s ruling permitting the prosecutor to testify.

The incident in question arose as the result of the prosecutor’s interview of a possibly “hostile” witness, George Carignan, in the absence of an investigator. Carignan told the prosecutor that he had. been present with the alleged rapists, defendant, and Barron, on the evening in question, including the occasions when they “went off with the victim;” he, defendant and Barron were members of the Orpheus Club; he had known the other two “almost their entire lives”; he had visited them in jail two or three times; he knew Irene to be 16 or 17 and had so told defendant and Barron. He was then requested…