Fleming

*77 Opinion

I. INTRODUCTION

Penal Code section 424 provides that each officer of any school district in this state who is charged with the “receipt, safekeeping, transfer, or disbursement of public moneys,” and who, without authority of law, appropriates such moneys to his or her own use, may be punished by a prison term of two, three or four years. 1 In this case, criminal charges have been brought via a grand jury indictment against the former superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District (the District), petitioner James Fleming, for authorizing subordinates to compile two lists of individuals who strongly supported a recall of the District’s school board back in 2005.

In response to the superintendent’s petition for writ of mandate attacking the indictment, this court issued an order to show cause and scheduled oral argument in order to consider the legal question of whether the superintendent’s authorization fell within the purview of his lawful duties as District superintendent. In sum, we now hold that because Fleming was within his lawful authority to authorize his subordinates to compile the two lists, his authorizations were not criminal under section 424.…