Haddad
Haddad v. Superior Court
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Ashburn, J.
Application for alternative writ of prohibition forbidding trial of the case of People v. Richard Joseph Haddad and John Louis Forti, No. 273608 in the Los Angeles Superior Court, and arresting any other or further proceedings therein. The charge is conspiracy to violate Penal Code section 311.2, which provides: “Every person who knowingly: sends or causes to be sent, or brings or causes to be brought, into this State for sale or distribution, or in this State prepares, publishes, prints, exhibits, distributes, or offers to distribute, or has in his possession with intent to distribute or to exhibit or offer to distribute, any obscene matter is guilty of a misdemeanor.” The trial is set for August 5,1963.
It is alleged in the petition that on or about November 30, 1962, 21 deputy sheriffs who had no search warrant made a massive raid upon two homes and two business establishments of petitioners, seizing some 200,000 books from the bindery and the garage of petitioners and divers and numerous other items pertaining to a book publishing business; that between 15 and 20 deputy sheriffs worked approximately four hours removing the seized material from the bindery.