Collins

By an information the defendant was accused of forgery. His motion, under section 995 of the Penal Code, to dismiss the information was granted and the case was dismissed. The People appeal from the order of dismissal.

The motion to dismiss was made upon the ground that there was no probable cause for the order of the committing magistrate holding the defendant for trial in the superior court. The asserted basis for the order of dismissal was that the magistrate had received in evidence an exemplar of defendant’s handwriting which had been obtained by police officers after the arrest and without having advised the defendant of his right to counsel or his right to remain silent.

Section 995 of the Penal Code provides, in part, that an information must be set aside if the defendant has “not been legally committed by a magistrate,” or if the defendant has “been committed without reasonable or probable cause.”

The transcript of the preliminary examination shows, in substance, as follows:

On July 10, 1964, the defendant presented to a clerk in a Whittier store a check, dated July 9, 1964, for $96.69, payable to James Walter Ross, and purportedly drawn on a La Mirada bank on an…