Can a defendant withdraw a plea of not guilty in order to make a motion for dismissal under section 995 of the Penal Code?

(d) The new counsel sought leave to withdraw the pleas of not guilty entered earlier in order to make a motion for dismissal under Penal Code, section 995. The request was denied. While a defendant may, as of right, move to set aside the indictment or information under section 995 of the Penal Code if the motion is made before plea, a motion to withdraw a plea for the purpose of making a motion under section 995, or in order to interpose a demurrer or other objection, is subject to the discretion of the trial court. (People v. Staples (1906), 149 Cal. 405, 86 P. 886.) Here, as in the case cited, counsel merely interposed his motion, with no showing of the details of the grounds he intended to urge, much less that they were in any way meritorious. While we think that it would have been better practice, in light of the recent substitution, to have granted the request, we cannot say that the discretion of the trial court was abused. In addition, it appears that the trial court, after the matter of guilt or innocence had been submitted to him on the transcript of the preliminary examination, granted counsel over two months within which he submitted written arguments as to the sufficiency of the evidence and sought, unsuccessfully, to obtain a writ of prohibition from this court. ⁴ In effect, although not in form, defendant secured the same consideration of his point as though a motion under section 995 had actually been allowed.