LAIWALA

Defendant Sadrudin Laiwala was originally convicted by court trial of grand theft of a trade secret (Pen. Code, § 499c). In February 2004, this court reversed the conviction on the ground that the record contained “insufficient evidence that information taken by [Laiwala] qualified as a trade secret under Penal Code section 499c.” The trial court was directed to enter a verdict of not guilty, and the trial court complied with the remittitur in June 2004.

In July 2004, Laiwala petitioned the superior court for a finding of factual innocence, and the district attorney filed opposition to his petition. After a hearing at which Laiwala and the district attorney presented both live testimony and documentary evidence and the superior court adopted the evidence section of this court’s opinion reversing the conviction as a factual foundation, the superior court denied Laiwala’s petition. Laiwala filed a timely notice of appeal. We conclude that Laiwala established, and the district attorney failed to refute, that there is no reasonable cause to support a finding that the information at issue was a trade secret. Consequently, Laiwala was entitled to a finding of factual…