County of Los Angeles Department of Regional Planning v. Superior Court

The County of Los Angeles (County), by and through the County Department of Regional Planning (Department), seeks a writ of mandate directing the trial court to vacate its order appointing two of the Department’s employees as confidential expert witnesses for real parties in interest, Quoc Thai Pham, Harold P. Brown, Arthur Lee Neal, Sr., and Bernard Harper. We conclude the superior court erred in refusing to vacate its expert appointment order and issue a peremptory writ of mandate directing it to do so.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This matter is before this court for the second time. At issue in the first appeal was the trial court’s ruling with respect to the enforcement of Penal Code section 3003.5, subdivision (b). 1 That subdivision, which was added when the voters enacted Proposition 83 in November 2006, provides: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, it is unlawful for any person for whom registration is required pursuant to Section 290 to reside within 2000 feet of any public or private school, or park where children regularly gather.”

On October 7, 2010, Pham, Brown, and Neal, Sr., filed an application for a temporary stay of enforcement of…