Megladdery

This is an appeal by the People from an •order of the Superior Court of Alameda County granting-respondent, Mark Lee Megladdery, Jr., a new trial after a jury had found him guilty of two of the offenses charged in the indictment.

In an effort to secure a reversal of the trial court’s ruling, the attorney-general and associate counsel have filed briefs herein totaling four hundred and thirty pages, in which many points are argued and re-argued at great length. The main issues presented by this appeal are not complex, and may be simply stated:

1. Does the trial court possess the power, in a criminal case, to grant a new trial upon the ground that the evidence does not show jurisdiction over the offenses charged in the county where the indictment was returned and the trial had?

2. If the trial court has authority to grant a new trial on such a ground, did the trial court, as a matter of law, err in this ease in granting a new trial on this ground?

Was the new trial granted on a ground provided by law?

Before directly discussing this point a brief reference to the circumstances surrounding the granting of the motion for a new trial should be made.

Megladdery and Edwin W. Geary…