California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Rivera, 183 Cal.Rptr.3d 362, 233 Cal.App.4th 1085 (Cal. App. 2015):
Id. at pp. 438439, 106 Cal.Rptr.3d 518, 226 P.3d 998.) A grant of probation is intended to afford the defendant an opportunity to demonstrate over the prescribed probationary term that his or her conduct has reformed to the degree that punishment for the offense may be mitigated or waived.... When a trial court grants probation without imposing a sentence, sections 17 and 1203.4, read together, express the legislative purpose that an alternatively punishable offense remains a felony ... until the statutory rehabilitation procedure has been had.... (Id. at p. 439, 106 Cal.Rptr.3d 518, 226 P.3d 998.) If ultimately a misdemeanor sentence is imposed, the offense is a misdemeanor from that point on, but not retroactively. (Ibid. ; see People v. Moomey (2011) 194 Cal.App.4th 850, 857, 123 Cal.Rptr.3d 749.)
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