Cuccia

Defendant Stephen Cuccia, Jr., was found guilty of five counts of selling unregistered securities, one count of misrepresenting a security, and one count of attempted grand theft. He contends, among other things, that the trial court improperly forced him to testify out of order and erred by refusing to allow him to testify after the prosecutor was permitted to reopen rebuttal. We agree both incidents resulted in error and, while neither error is per se reversible, we conclude the cumulative effect of the errors violated defendant’s due process right to a fair trial. We therefore reverse on that basis and remand the case for a new trial.

Our conclusion the case must be reversed moots the remaining issues raised on appeal except for defendant’s contention the verdicts are not supported by substantial evidence. If correct, he would be entitled to an acquittal because the prohibition against double jeopardy would prevent his retrial (People v. Hill (1998) 17 Cal.4th 800, 848 [ 72 Cal.Rptr.2d 656 , 952 P.2d 673 ]). However, we conclude there was sufficient evidence to support the verdicts on all seven counts.

Facts

In the mid-1990’s, defendant operated a business called…