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Bailon v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County6/3/2002
ts the People by giving them 10 days if necessary." (Medina, 79 Cal.App.4th at p. 1286, italics added; Owens v. Superior Court, supra, 28 Cal.3d at p. 245; Griffin, supra, 235 Cal.App.3d at pp. 1746-1747.) There is nothing in the statute, the legislative history or case law to suggest that there is anything talismanic or immutable about the10-day time period.
In the typical case in which the defendant agrees to a continuance of trial beyond the time frame that is his statutory right under section 1382, the continuance is usually for more than one court day and, as the trial court in Griffin observed, "if it is a court continuance to a date that far off, we don't know what our trial situation is." (Id. at p. 1743.) If the prosecutor does not agree otherwise, the People are automatically entitled to a 10-day grace period beyond the continued trial date under section 1382.
However, because the prosecutor may assess his or her readiness to proceed on the continued date and find that a shorter time is a "reasonable time" under the circumstances (where, for example, the prosecutor also wants a brief continuance and is already up against the last day for trial, and the defendant is only willing to continue the matter if the next court day is the last day on which he may be tried, as in this case), we see nothing to prevent the prosecutor from agreeing to a date less than 10 days after the continued trial date. When a shorter time period is in the prosecutor's interest (or is not objectionable), it makes no sense for the prosecutor's hands to be tied under these circumstances. (And see People v. Haendiges, supra, 142 Cal.App.3d Supp. at p. 14 ["we see no reason to disapprove the practice . . . provided that the policy articulated by the Legislature is not flouted"].) If the defendant may waive the benefits of the statute, we can see no reason why the People should not be able to do the same.
Indeed, recognizing the People's ability to stipulate to a shorter time in an appropriate case gives truer effect to the legislative intent underlying section 1382 than a construction imposing the full 10-day period on the prosecutor arbitrarily (and perhaps to the prosecution's disadvantage). (Sykes v. Superior Court, supra, 9 Cal.3d at p. 88, italics added [section 1382 implements the defendant's constitutionally and statutorily guaranteed rights to a speedy trial, and the prosecutor has a duty "to expedite these proceedings to the greatest degree that is consistent with the ends of justice"].) "This court should respect the legislative intent behind section 1382," and the defendant's "fundamental right should not be weakened nor gamesmanship encouraged." (Owens v. Superior Court, supra, 28 Cal.3d at p. 249 [rejecting the People's argument that section 1382's requirement that a person charged with a felony must be brought to trial within 60 days should be interpreted so as to give the People additional time by staying the operation of the statute during any continuances requested by the defendant].) Accordingly, we hold that the People may agree to waive the benefit of the 10-day grace period provided by section 1382 and thus may agree to a last day that is truly a last day for trial.
The "Stipulation."
Having determined that the prosecution may agree to a true last day for trial and waive the 10-day grace period of section 1382, we now consider whether, in this case, the prosecution did agree to December 26 as the true last day for trial, waiving the statutory grace period.
The record of the proceedings on December 21 reveals the following:
Both sides understood that Monday, December 24--a single day before the Christmas holiday--was the last
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