By Jannat Alam
SACRAMENTO — Exasperated Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Savage publicly admonished quarrelling attorneys in his court last Thursday afternoon, after an extended and unnecessary argument over the caliber of weapon the defendant had in his possession.
The defendant, Ralph Munoz, was arrested on Oct. 8 of last year and charged with illegal possession of a firearm. Munoz had been previously convicted of an unrelated felony, and is consequently prohibited from owning firearms under California law.
Assistant Public Defender Morgan Karalash represented Munoz, and was going to accept the prosecutor’s offer for a no-contest plea—the defendant agreed to be sentenced to four years incarceration, in exchange for the sentencing to be delayed by approximately six months.
Deputy District Attorney Matthew Moore agreed, but not without noting a correction to the information presented by the defense. Citing an amended complaint, Moore remarked that there must have “been some confusion” regarding which count the defendant was pleading to, claiming the plea was to Count 3 rather than Count 1 as represented by PD Karalash.
Karalash responded to Moore’s remark by admitting she had seen the amended complaint, and considered it inconsequential, and that she had indicated that it “was still the same underlying offense charge.”
Judge Michael Savage, quickly nipping the attorney’s squabble in the bud, moved to file the plea. While reading the terms of the defendant’s plea deal, Judge Savage mentioned a detail that Munoz was found with a 9mm handgun, at which point Karalash interrupted.
Karalash claimed that the handgun actually had a caliber of 10mm, and referenced the original police report filed as opposed to the subsequent complaint.
Moore responded by reminding the court that there were two handguns found on the scene, a 9mm Smith and Wesson and a 10mm Glock 29, and that Munoz was arrested along with another defendant.
DDA Moore admitted he alleged his initial complaint of this case on an assumption of which handgun belonged to which defendant; however, the co-defendant in the case, Jose Munoz, had already pleaded to possession of the 10mm Glock 29, leaving Ralph Munoz with the 9mm Smith and Wesson.
At PD Karalash’s urging, Moore requested Judge Savage approve an amendment to the original complaint, updating the record to the defense’s stipulation.
Judge Savage, visibly exasperated by the amount of attorney argument over unnecessary case minutiae, admonished Karalash over the request for amendment.
“It’s absolutely fascinating to me that it was a 10 instead of a nine…” sarcastically began Judge Savage, “…but so what?”
Continuing to say that the caliber of the handgun has no consequential bearing on the contents of the plea deal, Judge Savage then admonished both attorneys, noting that the two are “going on about complete irrelevancies.”
Perturbed by the judge’s comments, both defense and prosecution moved on with the arraignment, and allowed Judge Savage to accept the defendant’s plea deal. The court will meet again to sentence Munoz on June 24, 2021.
Jannat Alam is a third year at UCLA, majoring in English. She is from Fontana, California.
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