Booker

In these consolidated appeals and petition for writ of mandate, the People of the State of California challenge orders of the Solano County Superior Court granting the pretrial motions of defendants Booker and Rodgers to declare charged violations of Unemployment Insurance Code section 2101, subdivision (a) to be misdemeanors as a matter of law for all purposes.

In unrelated prosecutions, the District Attorney of Solano County filed an information charging defendant Larry Booker with a felony violation of Unemployment Insurance Code section 2101, subdivision (a), and an information charging defendant Nancy Rodgers with the same felony count in addition to two counts of perjury in violation of Penal Code section 118. The defendants challenged the charged felony violations of Unemployment Insurance Code section 2101, subdivision (a) by filing a joint “Motion to Declare the Charged Crime to be a Misdemeanor.” The defendants argued that the misdemeanor penalty provisions of Unemployment Insurance Code section 2117 rather than the discretionary misdemeanor/felony punishment provisions of Unemployment Insurance Code section 2122 specify the penalty for the charged violations…