My question involves traffic court in the State of: County of Kings, California.
Hi,
I was convicted of speeding last Friday (April 3, 2009), and I am reviewing what happened at trial to decide if I should go ahead with the appeal.
Background: I did a trial by declaration and lost. I had requested a trial de novo, which was granted. It took place last Friday. I was found guilty.
One thing that immediately caught my attention was the fact that the judge said something about three-and-a-half minutes prior to calling my case. One of the clerks mentioned that the case that was about to me called before mine was a trial de novo, and the judge said something to the tune of 'to be frank, they need to change the rules so that if have trial by declaration, there is no trial de novo. If you have trial de novo, it's just... it's a waste of time.'
In my opinion, that's a sign that the judge is biased against defendants who exercise their right to trial de novo. I also called the court and found out that different judges heard the TBD and the trial de novo, as required by law (a defendant can move to disqualify the judge if the same judge is scheduled to hear both TBD and de novo). Are those comments by the judge legitimate grounds to support judicial bias and prejudice in an appeal? If so, will it hurt my appeal if I did not object to the entire proceedings at the beginning of the trial or move to disqualify the judge based on this reason?
Before anyone asks, yes I have the judge on tape saying this along with the rest of my trial? The recording runs starting about an hour prior to my case and all the way until after I was done.
Trouble is, I never submitted a formal motion to allow the use of the recorder for personal notes as stipulated by Rule 1.150 (d) (2009 cali rules of court), and I got a little too nervous to ask the judge for permission to use the recorder when my case was called (I know, I know... it was the first time my ticket got all the way to the trial with the officer showing up)
I had asked the clerk, and the clerk said there was no official record kept (whether it's actually true is another question mark).
Would this hold up in the appeals court to dismiss the case or to at least kick it back for retrial?

