Court Opinion

ID: 9607394
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:58:12.152986+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:38.595665
License: Public Domain

Hill, J.
(concurring in the result) — I concur in the result of the majority opinion. I do not agree with the conclusion of the majority that the violations of the law with which the defendant is charged are petty offenses.
Whether the offenses are serious or petty is not the issue in this case. We are concerned with whether the fact that the legislature has provided there shall be no jury trial in the municipal police court (designed as it is to process a large number of offenders with comparative rapidity) interferes with the defendant’s constitutional right to a jury trial. It is my view that a trial in the Kennewick Police Court would not deprive the petitioner of the right to a jury trial. Under the statute, if convicted in that court, he is entitled to appeal to the superior court where he would have the right to a jury trial.
Actually, our present procedure in such cases gives a defendant two opportunities to secure an acquittal, once before a judge of the police court, and once before a superior court jury; and if he succeeds before either, the prosecution is ended.
If petitioner were successful in his contention that he cannot be tried in the first instance except by a jury, the result would be not two jury trials, but a filing direct in the superior court whenever a jury was demanded in the municipal police court.
I am of the same opinion that this court expressed in *844Bellingham v. Hite, 37 Wn.2d 652, 225 P.2d 895 (1950), i.e., that the constitutional right to a jury trial in criminal cases is secured, although such trial is not authorized in the first instance, provided there is a right of appeal without any unreasonable restrictions to a court in which a jury trial may be had.
Rosellini, C. J., and Hamilton, J., concur with Hill, J.