California Highway Patrol v. Superior Court

I. Introduction

In this criminal action, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) petitions for a writ of mandate directing respondent court to vacate its order granting the Pitchess motion (Pitchess v. Superior Court (1974) 11 Cal.3d 531 [ 113 Cal.Rptr. 897 , 522 P.2d 305 ]) filed by real party in interest Luis Luna (defendant) and compelling production of certain documents from two CHP officers’ personnel records. The documents pertain to an investigation of one officer’s “time card issue” and another investigation regarding “a problem” with a police report written by a second officer. Both officers were involved in defendant’s arrest. The trial court agreed with defendant that these documents were discoverable pursuant to the California Supreme Court’s ruling in People v. Wheeler (1992) 4 Cal.4th 284, 295 [ 14 Cal.Rptr.2d 418 , 841 P.2d 938 ] (hereafter Wheeler), that nonfelony conduct involving moral turpitude is admissible to impeach a criminal witness.

Petitioner CHP argues that the trial court abused its discretion by ordering production of these documents because defendant’s Pitchess motion did not meet the good cause standard applied by this court in City of San…