Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

This question is asked all the time, and there must be archives of the various responses. You can't drop charges in California. In California, only the prosecutor has the discretion to bring charges, and has the power to move the court to dismiss charges. California does not have the procedural device known as "nolle prosequi" in which the prosecutor retains the sole power to dismiss the charges. This means that the prosecutor asks the judge to dismiss the charges, and the judge has the power to say yes or no.

In the majority of cases, the judge dismisses the case at the prosecutor's request. But I know of one famous example in which the judge said no. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_Buono,_Jr.