People v. Superior Court

The Orange County District Attorney seeks extraordinary relief from the trial court’s order sustaining Rodolfo Najera Blanquel’s demurrer to felony charges of Vehicle Code section 23152, subdivisions (a) and (b). (All further statutory references are to this code unless otherwise specified.) The information alleges that Blanquel’s offenses are felonies because he “was previously convicted of a [felony] violation of [sjection 23152[,] [subdivision (a)] ... on [or] about [the] 21st day of October[] 1992, within the meaning of . . . [sjection 23550.5.”

Section 23550.5 was signed into law on July 3, 1998, and took effect on July 1, 1999. On its effective date, the statute provided: “(a) A person is guilty of a public offense, punishable by imprisonment in the state prison or in a county jail for not more than one year and by a fine of not less than three hundred ninety dollars ($390) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) if that person is convicted of a violation of [s]ection 23152 or 23153, and the offense occurred within 10 years of any of the following: [ft] (1) A prior violation of [s]ection 23152 that was punished as a felony under [sjection 23550 or this section,…