California Court of Appeal

Denial of defendant's motion to withdraw his pleas of no contest is affirmed where, when sentencing discretion is expressly constrained by the terms of a plea agreement and the judge who accepted the plea becomes unavailable for reasons beyond the court's or the prosecutor's control, the defendant is not automatically entitled to withdraw his plea under People v. Arbuckle (1978) 22 Cal.3d 749 in the absence of evidence that exercise of individualized judicial discretion was material element of the consideration for the plea agreement.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/08/2009
• Published 09/08/2009

Judges

• BRUINIERS, J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Matthew Zwerling and L. Richard Braucher, Richmond, for Defendant and Appellant., Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Assistant Attorney General, Laurence K. Sullivan and Martin S. Kaye, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.