Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/3d/2/118.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 23:08:53+00:00

Document:
THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. MICHAEL JOHN MARSDEN, Defendant and Appellant.
Stephen H. Silver, under appointment by the Supreme Court, and Long & Levit for Defendant and Appellant.
Thomas C. Lynch, Attorney General, Jerome C. Utz and Joyce P. Nedde, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
On August 22, 1968, the District Attorney of Monterey County filed an information charging defendant and Laura Catheryn Repine with five counts of forgery, a violation of section 476 of the Penal Code. It was asserted that defendant and Miss Repine fraudulently cashed $100 money orders at five different motels in Monterey County on August 3 and 4. The money orders had been stolen from a grocery store and were cashed by means of fictitious identification. Defendant was arraigned on August 30, and the court appointed Michael Antoncich as defense counsel. Defendant pleaded not guilty, but was convicted on all five counts after a two-day jury trial. He was sentenced to the state penitentiary.
Defendant's only contention on this appeal is that he was deprived of his constitutional right to the effective assistance of counsel because the trial court denied his motion to substitute new counsel without giving him an opportunity to state the reasons for his request.
"THE DEFENDANT MARSDEN: I don't know how to go about making the motion, Your Honor, but I don't feel that I am being competently or adequately represented by counsel.
"THE COURT: All right. Any comment wished to be made by anyone else on this point? All right. Well, the comment has been made for the court so it's noted, it's on the record.
"THE DEFENDANT MARSDEN: Thank you.
"THE COURT: All right, that's all."
"THE COURT: The Court doesn't recall hearing a motion made or asking [2 Cal. 3d 121] any relief from the Court on the part of the defendant Marsden, that's why when he made his statement, the Court said your statement is noted in the record, however, in the interests of caution, the Court will consider it a motion that according to the defendant Mardsen he claims his attorney is not representing him properly and therefore the Court will infer that he wishes another attorney or wishes to represent himself, I don't know which. What do you say on that, Mr. Marsden?
"THE DEFENDANT MARSDEN: Yes, sir, I don't feel that I am getting adequately represented or competently represented, I'd like to make a motion.
"THE DEFENDANT MARSDEN: For proper counsel. I'm not adequate to give it myself and I don't feel I'm being adequately represented. I think the transcript, court's transcript prior to this meeting here can reveal that fact."
"THE COURT: You seem to be [an] intelligent sort of a person. In the times you have been before the court have you been represented by an attorney?
"THE DEFENDANT MARSDEN: Yes, I have.
THE COURT: And during these previous occasions when you have been represented by an attorney, have you ever discharged your attorney?
"THE DEFENDANT MARSDEN: No, I haven't.
"THE COURT: Have you ever represented yourself without an attorney in any of these prior proceedings?
"THE COURT: Well, the Court denies the defendant's motion. The Court [2 Cal. 3d 122] feels Mr. Antoncich is alert and has raised questions during the course of this hearing that have been good questions to raise. The Court feels he has taken good care of his client to the present time, at least.
"THE COURT: (Interrupting) And so the Court--yes?
"THE DEFENDANT MARSDEN: Could I bring up some specific instances?
"THE COURT: I don't want you to say anything that might prejudice you before me as to the case, you see.
"THE DEFENDANT MARSDEN: I don't think it would.
"THE COURT: I don't want to take that chance.
"There are lots of times when a person--lots of times, and I emphasize that, where a defendant is represented by an attorney where he has just sufficient knowledge to be ignorant and lots of times people want to tell their attorneys how to run a case, which they are not qualified to do. I think possibly you are a bright person and who thinks a case should be conducted in a certain way, which you are not qualified to determine.
"THE DEFENDANT MARSDEN: Your Honor.
"THE COURT: Therefore the Court denies the motion. The Court is not going to have a case that has--where the prosecution has been completed and then a person raises this sort of thing where the Court doesn't feel it's appropriate. If this were done, and the Court has this type of thing come up from time to time, you never could complete a case, you'd get in the middle of the case, a defendant, particularly a bright one, raises some question and you never could come to the completion of a trial.
"THE DEFENDANT MARSDEN: Your Honor, I believe I can show cause. Would the Court show me how I could go about doing this?
"THE DEFENDANT MARSDEN: (Interrupting) I'm ignorant of the law.
"THE COURT: That's right, that's why you have lawyers. Mr. Marsden, the Court is prohibited from giving legal advice to people, so I can't advise you as to legal procedures. I commit a misdemeanor, a criminal offense, if I give legal advice to anybody, whether defendant or anyone else. That's all for this matter, the jury is waiting."
[1b] The People contend that there was no need to hear the defendant's examples of misconduct because he had limited the scope of his motion to the record before the court when he stated, "I think the transcript, court's transcript prior to this meeting here can reveal that fact." The People thus presume the defendant was referring to the reporter's transcript and was concerned only with occurrences within the trial judge's presence. However, such deduction disregards the defendant's lay status and his admitted ignorance of the law. His reference to the "transcript" may have been his fumbling method of describing the totality of occurrences in the course of his trial, and not a specific use of a term of art. The semantics employed by a lay person in asserting a constitutional right should not be given undue weight in determining the protection to be accorded that right. Indeed, the very reason we are compelled to resort to speculation as to the defendant's understanding of the word "transcript" is that he was not permitted to explain his meaning and to proceed with enumeration of asserted instances of inadequate representation. Such an explanation would have enabled the trial court to determine the extent to which defendant's claims were reflected in the "court's transcript." As it stands, we are unable to determine the basis for the defendant's motion or whether the defendant's showing could have been sufficient to justify ordering a substitution of attorneys.
Moreover, it is possible that defendant's reference to the transcript was designed to indicate significant omissions, such as failure to call percipient witnesses or to adequately cross-examine witnesses concerning bias or details not previously related. The trial judge would be no better equipped to determine the validity of such claim of inadequate representation than he would be to review any other out-of-court events, unless the defendant were permitted to explain the reasons for asserting his attorney's incompetence.
Further support for the defendant's contention that it was error to deny his motion without an opportunity for explanation comes from the line of authority beginning with People v. Youders (1950) 96 Cal. App. 2d 562, 569 [215 P.2d 743]. (See, e.g., People v. Monk (1961) 56 Cal. 2d 288, 299 [14 Cal. Rptr. 633, 363 P.2d 865]; People v. Prado (1961) 190 Cal.App.2d [2 Cal. 3d 125] 374, 377 [12 Cal. Rptr. 141]; People v. Hood (1956) 141 Cal. App. 2d 585, 589 [297 P.2d 52].) These cases hold that claims of incompetency of trial counsel must be raised by defendant at trial and generally may not be raised for the first time on appeal. "If defendant felt his counsel did not adequately represent him he should have complained to the trial court and given that court an opportunity to correct the situation. In the absence of such complaint the acts of defendant's counsel are imputed to him." (People v. Youders (1950) supra, 96 Cal. App. 2d 562, 569.) If a defendant is required to complain of error at trial so that the error can be corrected at that level, he should be given ample opportunity to explain and if possible to document the basis of his contention. A right is vacuous indeed if it must be asserted at trial but may not be supported before the trial judge by more than the bare complaint.
We are unmoved by the rationale of the trial judge for his unwillingness to hear the defendant's basis for dissatisfaction with counsel. An expressed concern that defendant's evidence might "prejudice you before me as to the case," lacks substance. In a jury trial it is difficult to comprehend how a defendant's statement made out of the presence of the jury to support his claim that his counsel is inadequate could adversely affect a judgment on the merits of the case. During most trials, judges hear numerous motions and argument in chambers dealing with prior convictions, the voluntariness of confessions, the admissibility of evidence, and other procedural matters, without permitting such proceedings to jaundice their views on ultimate conclusions. Furthermore, if there were some remote prejudicial effect, it would be outweighed by the importance of replacing an incompetent attorney.
The trial judge also indicated that he was precluded by law from advising defendant how he might successfully show cause to justify the replacement of trial counsel. "[T]he Court is prohibited from giving legal advice to people, so I can't advise you as to legal procedures. I commit a misdemeanor, a criminal offense, if I give legal advice to anybody, whether defendant or anyone else." We are referred to no statute or authority which precludes a judge from advising a defendant as to the procedures for effectively challenging the competence of his attorney, and research has disclosed none. To the contrary, in People v. Redmond (1969) 71 Cal. 2d 745, 758 [79 Cal. Rptr. 529, 457 P.2d 321], this court commended judges who consider it part of the judicial function to aid and advise defendants appearing before them without counsel. "Although a trial judge may not be required to aid a defendant who represents himself, it is a common practice in both civil and criminal cases for trial judges, by advice and suggestion, to assist persons who represent themselves.... It is in the highest tradition of [2 Cal. 3d 126] American jurisprudence for the trial judge to assist a person who represents himself as to the presentation of evidence, the rules of substantive law, and legal procedure, and judges who undertake to assist, in order to assure that there is no miscarriage of justice due to litigants' shortcomings in representing themselves, are to be highly commended."
In the case at bar, although defendant was represented by counsel, he was groping for the proper manner in which to demonstrate the alleged lack of competence of his attorney, and the trial judge would have been well within the bounds of judicial propriety in giving any helpful suggestion which might have aided defendant in the presentation of his complaint. Furthermore, the judge was not being called upon to offer advice, but only to listen to defendant's reasons for requesting different counsel.
Tobriner, Acting C. J., Peters, J., Burke, J., Sullivan, J., and Molinari, J., concurred.
I dissent. I would affirm the judgment for the reasons expressed by Mr. Justice Caldecott in the opinion prepared by him for the Court of Appeal, First District, Division Three (People v. Marsden, 1 Crim. 7601, filed October 10, 1969, certified for nonpublication).

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