Many of you know Rudy Michaels, a longtime SCBA member. He recounted a story about jury instructions I'd like to share with you. It seems Rudy, then an Assistant Public Defender in Alameda County, was assigned a case wherein a farm worker had entered his foreman's house trailer late one night when the foreman was absent. The man crawled into bed with the foreman's wife. When the wife felt the curly mop of hair on the man's head and realized that it was NOT her bald husband, she screamed. The farm worker fled the scene, leaving his sock. It wasn't long before the sock led to the man, in a weird Cinderellaesque fashion, and a trial ensued with charges of burglary—entering the trailer with intent to commit a crime. Judge Agee read the jury instruction and rattled off the many types of premises listed in Section 459 of the Penal Code which, if entered with intent to commit a crime, turned the entry into a burglary. Horrified, Rudy realized that house trailers were not on the list. After a meeting in chambers with the Assistant District Attorney and judge, Rudy spent a long night at the law library researching whether a court had ever ruled that the failure to include a given structure could be overcome by implication. The usual rule is that when the Legislature provides a list, it is inclusive, and whatever is omitted is left out intentionally. Rudy found nothing on point one way or another.

The following morning the jury found the man guilty. The judge proposed that rather than set aside the verdict, he would sentence the defendant to time served. The man had been in the county jail for several months and the ADA didn't object; Rudy was delighted with the result. The next year, everyone in the Alameda County PD's office was given a list of amendments to the laws they frequently used. In the list was Section 459 of the Penal Code amended to include house trailers. Next to this was an asterisk. The footnote read: Courtesy of Rudy Michaels.

If you want to change the law without going through a trial like Rudy's, you might consider joining the SCBA Conference of Delegates. See Emory King's article on the 2006 Conference at the State Bar Annual Meeting for more information.

In addition to the law changes that come around every year, so too are changes in the SCBA's Bar Council, sections, and affiliates. We welcome the "new blood" (see articles on our new SCBA President Stacy Boulware Eurie, the Barristers, and ABAS officers) and we look forward to hearing from all of the different sections, committees, and affiliates that make up our exciting and diverse SCBA in 2007.