San Diego

The defense team representing Municipal Judge Joseph Davis, accused of beating his pregnant girlfriend during an argument, won the right Wednesday to subpoena two deputy San Diego city attorneys to testify in the case.

Municipal Judge James Edmunds permitted defense attorneys Jan Ronis and Patrick Q. Hall to place deputy city attorneys Casey Gwinn and Stuart Swett on the stand, but rejected efforts to subpoena City Atty. John Witt and three other of his deputies.

Ronis said testimony from the deputy city attorneys is key to proving the defense claim that Davis has been singled out for prosecution by “vindictive” city attorneys who harbor deep “personal animosity” toward the judge. Hall and Ronis maintain that Gwinn, who has been handling the prosecution, is biased in the case because he once was chastised by Davis, who told Gwinn he had “had a lot to learn about being an attorney.”

The defense attorneys are seeking to have charges against their client dismissed or, in the alternative, have the city attorney’s office removed as prosecutor. A hearing on those issues begins today.

Davis, appointed to the bench in 1980, faces a single misdemeanor battery charge in the beating of his live-in girlfriend, Anna Monica Garcia, on Nov. 23. Initially, Garcia made a citizens’ arrest of Davis and obtained a court order barring him from visiting their home. Since then, she has recanted and said she does not wish to press charges.