Tulare County Deputy Sheriff Travis Shaw was charged in Tulare County courts with misdemeanor excessive force by a custodial officer

Tulare County Deputy Sheriff Travis Shaw was charged in Tulare County courts with misdemeanor excessive force by a custodial officer (P.C. 149). Jury trial in the matter started on Monday, January 13, 2003. On Wednesday, January 15, 2003, defense attorney E. Marshall Hodgkins, who represented Shaw, made a motion after the prosecution’s case in chief was completed, under Penal Code § 1118.1 (The basis of such a motion is that considering the prosecution evidence alone, the case is insufficient to go to the jury for their verdict).

In other words, there is no viable theory, which has been presented through the prosecution’s evidence, which would support a verdict of guilty. The judge granted this motion and dismissed the criminal case against Shaw.

The granting of a Penal Code § 1118.1 motion by the defense is the ultimate slap in the face to the prosecutor. The granting of such a motion, by the judge presiding over the case, in effect tells a prosecutor that if this is all you have to present against an individual, maybe you never should have filed the case in the first place!