18 P.2d 384 | Cal. Ct. App. | 1933
On July 9, 1932, a criminal complaint was filed with the justice of the peace of Mecca Judicial Township in Riverside County, charging petitioner with the unlawful possession of intoxicating liquor. A warrant was issued for his arrest and he entered a plea of not guilty to the charge and the case was set for trial by Justice of the Peace Max M. Zimmerer of Mecca Township. At the time set for the trial Judge Zimmerer was ill and, at his request, Justice of the Peace R.M. Aitchison of Thermal Township presided at the trial, which resulted in the defendant being found guilty. Judgment was pronounced upon him and he sought a writ of habeas corpus from this court to effect his release from confinement by the sheriff of Riverside County.
The principal ground relied on by petitioner is that neither Justice Zimmerer nor Justice Aitchison were justices of the peace, and that neither Mecca Township nor Thermal Township was in existence as a judicial township of Riverside County after July 6, 1932.
[1] On June 6, 1932, the board of supervisors of Riverside County passed an ordinance dividing the county into nine judicial townships. This abolished the judicial townships of Mecca and Thermal and incorporated them within the boundaries of the judicial township of Indio.
It is the contention of petitioner that this ordinance went into effect thirty days after its passage and immediately abolished the two judicial townships in question and deprived the two justices of the peace of their offices. All of his argument in support of this contention has been decided adversely to him in the case of Proulx v. Graves,
Petitioner relies upon the decision of Deupree v. Payne,
[2] Petitioner contends that he was convicted upon the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice. It was held in the case of In re Kelso,
[3] In his petition petitioner asserts that he was held in custody under a void commitment because the justice of the peace neglected to sign the certification on this document. The return of the sheriff shows a certification was properly executed on the seventeenth day of October, 1932. In the case of In reNakanishi,
The writ heretofore issued is discharged and the petitioner is remanded to the custody of the sheriff of Riverside County.
Barnard, P.J., and Jennings, J., concurred. *662