Magallan

Petitioner Amulfo Magallan was charged by complaint with a felony. He filed a suppression motion in advance of the preliminary examination. Magallan then filed a discovery motion seeking material related to his suppression motion, which the prosecutor had refused to provide. The magistrate granted his discovery motion. The prosecution filed a writ petition in the superior court challenging the magistrate’s order on the ground that the magistrate was precluded by statute from ordering this discovery. A panel of three superior court judges, who were the same three judges who formed the superior court’s appellate division, heard the petition and issued a writ. The superior court ordered the magistrate to deny the discovery motion.

Magallan challenges by this writ petition both the jurisdiction of that panel to hear the writ petition and the merits of its decision. We hold that the superior court panel did not lack subject matter jurisdiction simply because the same three judges also formed the superior court’s appellate division, as the record does not establish that they were sitting as the appellate division when they held a hearing on the writ petition. On the merits,…