Here's another questionable use of systemic resources.
Defendant pleads guilty to misdemeanor vehicle theft. He gets sentenced to three years probation. The victim wants $440 in restitution for gas to court etc., but there's never a restitution order entered, nor any request for restitution submitted to defendant or his counsel. At sentencing, the court reserves jurisdiction over any restitution, but during the entire three-year restitution period, no one ever does anything about getting a restitution order; no request, no service, nothing.
Defendant successfully serves his probationary period, so the probation office recommends dismissal of the misdemeanor count -- the usual way these things are resolved. But the prosecutor's office says that the defendant never paid the $440 restitution order, and the defendant (correctly) responds that no such order was ever entered nor any formal request even made.
The trial court says it's not going to dismiss the charge since restitution was never paid, and this appeal follows. The Court of Appeal reverses. As Justice Chou explains: "It is one thing to deny expungement because a defendant has not complied with an order to pay a specified amount as a condition of probation; it is quite another to deny expungement because the defendant has not paid an amount he was not ordered to pay and did not even know about before his probation expired."
Makes sense.
But here's the thing that doesn't make sense: That we're having this whole fight over $440.
California had to pay for (1) defendant's appointed appellate counsel (plus his counsel in the expungement proceeding), (2) the five lawyers on the caption in this case from the Attorney General's Office, and (3) the salaries of all the people in the Court of Appeal who worked on this matter. I promise you that the costs of this appeal were WAY in excess of $440.
Wouldn't it have been far easier and more efficient for the A.G.'s office to just write a check to the victim for $440? (Money, I might add, he's now not getting after the A.G.'s office lost the appeal.)
I get that sometimes you spend money to advance a cause. But I'm not sure that this matter couldn't have been resolved more efficiently (and successfully) than how it ended up.
Over $440.
