Reid

Introduction

On September 26, 1996, Romel Demetrias Reid (petitioner or Reid) filed a petition for writ of mandate and/or prohibition naming the Santa Clara County Superior Court as respondent and the People of the State of California (the People) as real party in interest. In his petition Reid asked this court to direct respondent to vacate its order preventing defense counsel from directly contacting the victims in this case. We denied the petition on October 18, 1996. On November 26, 1996, the California Supreme Court granted Reid’s petition for review, and transferred the matter to this court with directions to vacate our previous order and to issue an alternative writ. On December 5, 1996, we stayed all further proceedings in the matter pending our review of the petition and issued an order for the real party to show cause why the petition should not be granted.

This case presents the issue whether a trial court may prohibit all representatives of a criminal defendant from personally contacting the victims during preparation of the defense to protect victims from “embarrassment,” “harassment," “adverse publicity,” or a violation of “their privacy . . . due to the…