In People v. Villarreal (1977) 65 Cal.App.3d 938, a deputy district attorney having authority to enter plea bargains accepted a plea bargain with the public defender providing defendant would plead guilty to possession of LSD for sale in return for county jail time and probation rather than a prison sentence. When the district attorney later heard of the plea bargain, he became very agitated because of his office policy there would be no such bargains for local time in connection with crimes involving the sale of drugs. He told the chief probation officer defendant should go to prison. As a result, the latter announced a policy to his deputies to give harsh recommendations in such cases and directed a supplemental probation report to be written recommending defendant be sentenced to prison. The court followed this recommendation. The Court of Appeal reversed the judgment holding in pertinent part that the district attorney was "guilty of a gross impropriety" in "not only deliberately breaching a plea bargain entered into by his deputies, but . . . also by making a successful, ex parte attempt to induce the probation department to change its favorable recommendations even though the probation reports were completed and filed with the superior court in anticipation of a presentencing hearing." ( People v. Villarreal, supra, 65 Cal.App.3d at p. 944.) Regarding the actions of the probation department, the court stated: "Nor can we condone the conduct of the probation officer. He not only acquiesced to the wishes of the district attorney, but he adopted a policy which in our view is totally inconsistent with the function of a probation department. It is elementary that a county probation department is an arm of the superior court and that one of its main purposes is to assist the court in arriving at a just decision in denying or granting an application for probation . It is also fundamental that the probation decision should not turn solely upon the nature of the offense committed, but '. . . should be rooted in the facts and circumstances of each case.' (ABA Project on Standards for Crim. Justice, Stds. Relating to Probation (Approved Draft 1970) std. 1.3(a): quoted in People v. Edwards, supra, 18 Cal.3d 796, 801, fn. 6.) Consequently, in preparing presentencing reports, probation officers should evaluate each case on its own merits, unfettered by fixed and inflexible policies adopted to conform with the ideas of prosecuting authorities. (See generally ABA Project on Standards for Crim. Justice, Stds. Relating to Probation (Approved Draft 1970) stds. 1.3, 2.2, 2.3.) It seems clear to us that the degree of objectivity so essential to minimum requirements of due process was lacking in this case." (Id., at p. 945.)