The defendant’s due process rights were not violated where the court held a single hearing on two petitions to revoke probation. The defendant, who had been placed on probation under Proposition 36, argued on appeal that his statutory and constitutional rights were violated when the trial court considered two petitions, filed on March 4 and March 7, 2005, in a single revocation proceeding. One of the petitions concerned a first drug-related probation violation, under Penal Code section 1210.1(e)(3)(A), and the other concerned a subsequent drug-related violation, under section 1210.1(e)(3)(B). The Court of Appeal rejected the defendant’s argument, noting that while each section requires a hearing, nothing in the statute requires that the hearings be separate, and such an interpretation would result in an absurd waste of judicial resources. Because the trial court did not act outside the authority of the statute, the defendant was not deprived of due process.
Case Summaries