My question involves traffic court in the State of California, County of San Mateo.
Ticket issued by CHP officer on 3/15/12 for VR-22349(a), 80+mph on I-280 Freeway.
Sent informal request for discovery to DA on 6/16/12. I have attached their reply verbatim. Sorry, can't post attachments yet.
RE: Traffic Case Citation Number XXXXX
We are in receipt of your discovery request. The District Attorney's Office does not
appear in traffic court, as is allowed by law. See: People v Marcroft (1992) 6 Cal.App.4th Supp.
1, at pp. 3-4. Under local court rules, discovery requests made by a person cited for a traffic
violation are governed by Rule 9.9:
An informal discovery request can be made anytime after a case is filed.
1. The defendant or his/her attorney must make this request in writing and the original is to be filed
with the police agency that issued the citation.
2. The citing police agency has 15 days to respond and provide the requested material and information.
3. A copy of the informal request shall be filed with the District Attorney’s Office who in turn will
provide the Court Clerk’s office Traffic Division with a copy of the request.
4. If the police agency does not respond to the request within 15 days of service, the defendant may
seek a court order to compel Discovery.
5. The motion to compel discovery must be filed at the earliest possible date and at least five court days
prior to the trial date. Written notice must be served on all parties at least five court days prior to the
hearing. The original written motion to compel discovery and the proposed order should be filed in
the Court Clerk’s office Traffic Division with a copy served on the police agency that issued the
citation and the District Attorney’s Office. The motion should indicate a hearing date that is before
the trial date.
This office will stamp your discovery request as received and will then forward it to the
appropriate branch of the traffic court, as per the local court rules. Any further questions or
filings regarding your case should be made directly to the traffic court.
Very truly yours,
STEPHEN M. WAGSTAFFE,
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
In my initial reading of it, I understood that the DA had forwarded the request to the CHP. Now, I am not so sure anymore. What do the experts think?
Thank you all,
Max

