In Re Karagozian

Petitioner, a deputy public defender in the office of the Public Defender of Fresno County, was assigned to defend Calvin Riggs in a criminal trial which commenced in the Superior Court of Fresno County on May 30, 1974, Judge Blaine Pettitt presiding; petitioner instituted this proceeding to challenge the validity of a civil contempt order holding him in contempt of court for his obstreperous and contumacious behavior during the course of that trial. The order, entered on June 12, 1974, specified 11 separate acts and, in pertinent part, read as follows:

The pertinent facts are undisputed.

On the second day of the criminal trial, the trial judge interrupted petitioner’s voir dire of a prospective juror, stating that the court had covered the subject and that petitioner was not to ask that question again. The judge explained, “We have gone through this process now for going on about seven hours, and I am exercising the prerogative of the Court, as I have informed you earlier, to control the voir dire process.”

A few moments later, the judge excused the prospective jurors, and petitioner made a motion to dismiss the entire panel; he stated that the judge’s remarks, when…