Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: reduction of a felony to misdemeanor

The judge does not have the authority to reduce the charge to a misdemeanor unless the prosecutor agrees. If the prosecutor is unwilling to make that kind of deal you will have to either accept what she is willing to offer or take your chances at trial.

If the jury finds that you are guilty but that the damage was low enough it can convict you of a misdemeanor instead. But if the damage is clearly above the felony threshhold and the only real question is whether you did it, then you're either going to be convicted of a felony or acquitted outright. A misdemeanor conviction won't even be an option.

There's no way to tell you what you can expect st the next hearing without more information. (You haven't even told us what kind of hearing it's going to be.) My sense is that this was a rather serious act of vandalism and that getting a misdemeanor deal will not be easy, but I might see things differently if I knew more.

Good luck.