Hinrichs

Beverly Hinrichs, an officer in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (the Department), appeals from the denial of her petition for a writ of mandate challenging discipline imposed upon her by the Department. Hinrichs’s petition challenged, on both procedural and substantive grounds, the Department’s decision to issue a written reprimand to her for violation of its use-of-alcohol regulation. The trial court concluded Hinrichs’s substantive challenge to the discipline imposed was not ripe, as she was still in the process of exhausting her administrative appeals, and rejected her procedural challenges. We conclude the trial court erred and the order must be reversed.

Government Code section 3303, subdivision (g) specifies the procedural rights to be accorded an officer in these circumstances. Among other things, Hinrichs was entitled to discovery of any nonconfidential reports or other documents created and collected by the Department in the course of investigating her alleged misconduct. The Department failed to comply with that requirement, and we cannot say the failure was harmless procedural error under the circumstances.

Moreover, although we reject Hinrichs’s…