Rule 4.112. Readiness conference
(a) Date and appearances
The court may hold a readiness conference in felony cases within 1 to 14 days before the date set for trial. At the readiness conference:
(1)
All trial counsel must appear and be prepared to discuss the case and determine whether the case can be disposed of without trial;
(2)The prosecuting attorney must have authority to dispose of the case; and
(3)The defendant must be present in court.
California Penal Code section 417 states:
(a) (1) Every person who, except in self-defense, in the
presence of any other person, draws or exhibits any deadly weapon
whatsoever, other than a firearm, in a rude, angry, or threatening
manner, or who in any manner, unlawfully uses a deadly weapon other
than a firearm in any fight or quarrel is guilty of a misdemeanor,
punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not less than 30
days.
Under PC 417(a)(1) a person is guilty of a misdemeanor if they
draw or exhibit any deadly weapon (knife, bat, machete, switch-blade,
broken bottle, crowbar, etc.) that is not a firearm in a rude,
angry or threatening manner. The individual is also guilty of a
misdemeanor if they unlawfully use a deadly weapon (except a
firearm) in any fight or quarrel.
The punishment for this is a minimum of 30 days in county jail.
Under California Penal Code Section 484(a) a person commits
theft if:
(a) Every person who shall feloniously steal, take, carry,
lead, or drive away the personal property of another, or who
shall fraudulently appropriate property which has been
entrusted to him or her, or who shall knowingly and
designedly, by any false or fraudulent representation or
pretense, defraud any other person of money, labor or real
or personal property, or who causes or procures others to
report falsely of his or her wealth or mercantile character
and by thus imposing upon any person, obtains credit and
thereby fraudulently gets or obtains possession of money, or
property or obtains the labor or service of another, is
guilty of theft. In determining the value of the property
obtained, for the purposes of this section, the reasonable
and fair market value shall be the test, and in determining
the value of services received the contract price shall be
the test. If there be no contract price, the reasonable and
going wage for the service rendered shall govern. For the
purposes of this section, any false or fraudulent
representation or pretense made shall be treated as
continuing, so as to cover any money, property or service
received as a result thereof, and the complaint, information
or indictment may charge that the crime was committed on any
date during the particular period in question. The hiring of
any additional employee or employees without advising each
of them of every labor claim due and unpaid and every
judgment that the employer has been unable to meet shall be
prima facie evidence of intent to defraud.
The current law got rid of the various common law definitions
that used to be presented to juries. Today, theft includes
theft by trick, theft by larceny, embezzlement, fraud, and
other forms of obtaining property of another in which you do
not have a valid claim to. California Penal Code 484
contains more parts but I wanted to focus on 484(a) as it
defines the various types of theft.
Theft has traditionally been defined as the larcenous taking
of the personal property of another with the intent to
permanently deprive. Today, this definition is included in
section 484, but it was expanded to include embezzlement and
other crimes. For a conviction based on 484, the jurors only
have to convict based on any one of these crimes, they need
not agree or convict on all the discussed crimes.
