Ng

We hold the trial court abused its discretion in relieving appointed counsel pursuant to a motion under People v. Marsden (1970) 2 Cal.3d 118 [ 84 Cal.Rptr. 156 , 465 P.2d 44 ] where there was no factual showing defendant’s right to the assistance of counsel would be impaired by the continued representation. Therefore, the court erred in denying defendant’s subsequent motion, made within one week after the erroneous grant of the Marsden motion, to reverse the earlier order.

We also hold that a trial judge lacks standing to oppose a petition for extraordinary relief where there is no issue affecting the court’s operating procedures or budget. In addition we determine that the trial judge should be disqualified in the interest of justice.

Facts

Petitioner is charged in a multicount information with, inter alia, 12 counts of murder, which are alleged to have occurred more than 12 years ago. The case has an extremely complicated history, involves massive amounts of evidence and has already resulted in one opinion from the California Supreme Court (Ng v. Superior Court (1992) 4 Cal.4th 29 [ 13 Cal.Rptr.2d 856 , 840 P.2d 961 ]).

The Orange County Public Defender was…