City of Santa Cruz v. Superior Court

The City of Santa Cruz seeks a peremptory writ of mandate to compel the superior court to vacate its pretrial criminal discovery order directing city to provide internal police records, some statutorily privileged, for an in camera inspection. Because the defendant makes no adequate showing that such material may be relevant for use in his defense to a pending charge of Penal Code section 245, subdivision (b) (assault on a peace officer with a weapon), he is not entitled to discovery of confidential material, and the writ shall issue.

Facts

Defendant, George Rush, is charged with Penal Code section 245, subdivision (b), assault on a peace officer with a weapon. He made a pretrial discovery motion supported by his attorney’s declaration, on information and belief, that the information sought was discoverable because the arresting officers, Gangloff and Sepulveda of the Santa Cruz Police Department, used excessive, unreasonable and unnecessary force to arrest Rush. The attorney’s declaration continues by summarizing the police reports: According to Officer Gangloff, Rush was fighting when Gangloff intervened and separated the combatants. Rush attacked Gangloff with a beer…