Berman

After plaintiff and respondent Vincent Collins Berman completed a term of incarceration imposed pursuant to his plea of guilty in the Orange County Superior Court, he was placed on parole. At some point in time, defendant and appellant, Matthew Cate, as Secretary of California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (hereinafter the Department) increased the proposed term of petitioner’s parole from three to five years. Petitioner filed a petition for writ of mandate in the Riverside Superior Court seeking specific performance of an alleged term of his plea agreement mandating that his term of parole not exceed three years. The superior court granted the petition and issued a peremptory writ of mandate directing the Department “to release Petitioner from parole immediately in compliance with and enforcement of Petitioner’s plea agreement. . . .”

The Department appeals, contending that the filing of a petition for writ of mandate in the Riverside Superior Court was the wrong procedural vehicle in the incorrect venue for resolution of the issue. As to the merits of the petition, the Department maintains that a three-year period of parole was neither a term of…