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Name: People v. Butte
Case #: C041978
Opinion Date: 04/14/2004
Citation: 117 Cal.App.4th 956
Summary

Appellant’s convictions for 35 sex offenses perpetrated between 1979 and 1998 were reversed as being barred by the statute of limitations, in light of Stogner v. California (2003) 539 __ U.S. __. In the published portion of the opinion, the appellate court addressed appellant’s contention that the information provided him with inadequate due process notice of the charges because the offenses were charged as having occurred over a period of years. The appellate court here found that since appellant waived his right to a preliminary hearing, he forfeited his right to complain on appeal that he was provided with insufficient notice of the charges against him. An information puts a defendant on notice of the number and kinds of charges against him; the time, place, and circumstances of the charged offenses are left to the preliminary hearing – the “touchstone of due process notice to a defendant.”