Does a defendant who has pleaded not guilty and will have a preliminary hearing occupy a vastly different position than one who is considering waiving his constitutional rights and admitting guilt pursuant to a pre-indictment plea offer?

A defendant who has pleaded not guilty and will have a preliminary hearing occupies a vastly different position than one who is considering waiving his or her constitutional rights and admitting guilt pursuant to a pre-indictment plea offer. "'"[T]he purpose of a preliminary hearing is, in part, to assure that a person is not detained for a crime that was never committed . . . ."' [Citation.] Preliminary hearings are '"designed to weed out groundless or unsupported charges of grave offenses and to relieve the accused of the degradation and expense of a criminal trial."' [Citation.] Preliminary hearings . . . 'operate as a judicial check on the exercise of prosecutorial discretion' and help ensure '"that the defendant [is] not . . . charged excessively."'" (People v. Plengsangtip (2007) 148 Cal.App.4th 825, 835.) Preliminary hearings thus serve to protect both the liberty interest of the accused and the judicial system's and society's interest in fairness and the expeditious dismissal of groundless or unsupported charges, thereby avoiding a waste of scarce public resources. Requiring prosecutorial disclosure

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