In Re Powell

Petitioner was charged in a complaint filed in the Police Court of the city of Fresno by the district attorney of the county of Fresno with the crime of failure to provide for minor children. A warrant of arrest was issued and petitioner was duly arraigned in said court. He entered a plea of not guilty to the charge, waived a trial by jury and was tried and found guilty by the court. He thereupon waived time for the rendition of judgment and was by the court sentenced to be imprisoned in the county jail of the county of Fresno for the term of one year. Petitioner now contends that he is unlawfully imprisoned for the reason that the Police Court of the city of Fresno did not have jurisdiction of the offense with which he was charged and that therefore the judgment by virtue of which he is under sentence of imprisonment is void.

Prior to the amendment of section 1425 of the Penal Code by the legislature of the state of California in the year 1929, the offense with which petitioner was charged herein was triable only in the superior courts. The 1929 amendment of section 1425 of the Penal Code enlarged the jurisdiction of justices’ courts in cities, cities and counties, towns and…