Thompson
Thompson v. Superior Court of L.A. Cty.
Opinion
Opinion
Ortega, J.
Paul Anise Thompson is charged with possessing a gun as a convicted felon with several prior convictions. Before trial, pursuant to a prosecution discovery request, the trial court ordered Thompson, over his objection, to give the prosecution raw written notes from interviews by his investigator and one of his attorneys with defense witnesses who might testify at trial. The trial court relied on Penal Code section 1054.3, part of the comprehensive criminal discovery reforms (§§ 1054-1054.7) enacted when the voters passed Proposition 115 on June 5, 1990. The trial court exempted any attorney work product from the order. Some, but not all, of the raw notes were converted into written reports, which have been given to the prosecution. Thompson brought this writ petition to challenge the order.
We conclude the trial court correctly decided that raw written witness interview notes, to the extent they record the witness’s statement rather than an attorney’s work product impressions, opinions, or conclusions about the statement, are “statements” as defined in section 1054.3 and thus subject to discovery. Because of our conclusion, we deny Thompson’s writ petition.