Does the court engage in unlawful judicial plea bargaining?

The majority also holds the court engaged in unlawful judicial plea bargaining, since the court went beyond merely promising to reduce the wobblers to misdemeanors if Jalalipour pleaded guilty, and actually did so before taking his plea. But a court can lawfully indicate a sentence which contemplates the exercise of its discretion to declare wobblers to be misdemeanors under section 17, subdivision (b). (People v. Clancey (2013) 56 Cal.4th 562, 579580, 155 Cal.Rptr.3d 485, 299 P.3d 131 (Clancey ).) And, as discussed above, the court here properly declared the wobblers to be misdemeanors at the time of granting

[181 Cal.Rptr.3d 912]

probation as authorized by section 17(b)(3). Thus, no unlawful judicial plea bargaining occurred.