Haraguchi

Prosecutors are public fiduciaries. They are servants of the People, obliged to pursue impartially in each case the interests of justice and of the community as a whole. Mien conflicts arise that compromise their ability to do so, they can and should be recused. But defendants bear the burden of demonstrating a genuine conflict; in the absence of any such conflict, a trial court should not interfere with the People’s prerogative to select who is to represent them.

In this and a companion case, Hollywood v. Superior Court (2008) 43 Cal.4th 721 [ 76 Cal.Rptr.3d 264 , 182 P.3d 590 ], we consider the extent to which involvement in literary and cinematic endeavors may give rise to conflicts requiring recusal. Here, the lead prosecutor moonlighted as a novelist, writing a fictional account of a heroine prosecutor’s decision whether to try a rape case involving an intoxicated victim. The novel was published shortly before her scheduled prosecution of petitioner Massey Harushi Haraguchi for the rape of an intoxicated victim. In this case, as in Hollywood , the trial court found no conflict. In opinions issued the same day, the same Court of Appeal—relying in part on the unusual…