Can a defendant waive his right to represent himself in court?

6 See People v. Brown (1986) 179 Cal.App.3d 207, 214, 224 Cal.Rptr. 476, where the court stated: "It is settled that the attorney of record has the exclusive right to appear in court for his or her client and to control the court proceedings, so that neither the party himself nor another attorney can be recognized by the court in the conduct or disposition of the case. (People v. Merkouris (1956) 46 Cal.2d 540, 554-555 [297 P.2d 999]....)"

7 See also Parren v. State, supra, 523 A.2d at page 599, where the court stated "[T]he right to counsel and the right to defend pro se cannot be asserted simultaneously. The two rights are disjunctive. There can be but one captain of the ship, and it is he alone who must assume responsibility for its passage, whether it safely reaches the destination charted or founders on a reef."

8 As the court stated in People v. Lopez, supra, 71 Cal.App.3d at page 574, 138 Cal.Rptr. 36, in the context of reviewing what admonitions a court should give a defendant before allowing him to waive his right to counsel: "... 'Thus, whatever else may or may not be open to [a defendant] on appeal, a defendant who elects to represent himself cannot thereafter complain that the quality of his own defense amounted to a denial of "effective assistance of counsel." ' In other words, by choosing to represent himself, he will be throwing away one of the criminal defendant's favorite contentions on appeal."