Kolber v. Superior Court
Filed 8/22/06 Kolber v. Superior Court CA2/7
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION SEVEN
| ROBERT CHARLES KOLBER, Petitioner, v. SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, Respondent; CULVER CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT et al., Real Parties in Interest. | No. B185477 (Super. Ct. No. SA052989) |
ORIGINAL PROCEEDING; petition for writ of mandate. James R. Brandlin, Judge. Petition denied in part and granted in part.
Michael P. Judge, Public Defender, Albert T. Menaster, Mojgan Aghai and Mark Harvis, Deputy Public Defenders, for Petitioner.
No appearance for Respondent.
Carol A. Schwab, City Attorney, and Heather S. Iker, Deputy City Attorney, for Real Party in Interest Culver City Police Department.
Rockard J. Delgadillo, City Attorney, Claudia McGee Henry, Senior City Attorney, and Kim Rodgers Westhoff, Deputy City Attorney, for Real Party in Interest City of Los Angeles.
In this writ proceeding Robert Charles Kolber challenges the trial court's denial of his Pitchess[1] motions seeking discovery of personnel records from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Culver City Police Department (CCPD). We find Kolber failed to show good cause for discovery of records from the LAPD. As to the CCPD, however, we find Kolber satisfied the standard for triggering the right to an in camera inspection of a portion of the police personnel records he requested. Therefore, we deny Kolber's petition for writ of mandate in part and grant it in part, and direct the trial court to conduct an in camera review of certain records from the CCPD specified below to determine if they contain relevant information which should be disclosed to Kolber.
A portion of the record in this matter was filed under seal based on good cause shown. For this reason, we file this opinion with certain parts redacted.
FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW
I. THE CHARGES AND RELEVANT INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THE POLICE REPORTS
An information charged Robert Charles Kolber with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer (one count with respect to LAPD Officer Duncan and another count with respect to CCPD Officer Ferrier),[2] one count of assault with a deadly weapon on a another individual (described below as a pedestrian)[3] and two counts of hit and run driving.[4] The following is a summary of the manner in which the offenses allegedly occurred, as set forth in police reports prepared by the LAPD and the CCPD.
In the afternoon on June 9, 2004, LAPD Officer Duncan was on patrol in uniform and driving a marked black and white police motorcycle. He was standing on the sidewalk, issuing a citation to a pedestrian, when he heard a horn honking. He looked up and saw a traffic jam in the intersection. There was a blue Toyota car facing southbound in one of the northbound lanes of the street. It appeared to Officer Duncan the Toyota had collided with a vehicle in the northbound lane which was stopped at a traffic signal.[5] Officer Duncan saw the Toyota back up â€
