People v. Brandon

166 Cal. App. 4th 238, 82 Cal. Rptr. 3d 617, 2008 Cal. App. LEXIS 1351
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 25, 2008
DocketE042885
StatusPublished

This text of 166 Cal. App. 4th 238 (People v. Brandon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Brandon, 166 Cal. App. 4th 238, 82 Cal. Rptr. 3d 617, 2008 Cal. App. LEXIS 1351 (Cal. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

166 Cal.App.4th 238 (2008)

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
MARSHA BRANDON, Defendant and Appellant.

No. E042885.

Court of Appeals of California, Fourth District, Division Two.

August 25, 2008.

*242 Rex Williams, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Edmund G. Brown, Jr.; Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Peter Quon, Jr., and Marvin E. Mizell, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

RICHLI, J.—

The People filed a petition to commit defendant Marsha Brandon for treatment as a mentally disordered offender (MDO). When the petition was filed, defendant was in an outpatient treatment program as a condition of parole. Before trial, however, she absconded from that program. When she was reapprehended, she was kept in jail; the trial court denied her motion to be placed back on outpatient status. The People then filed a motion to revoke her outpatient status, which the trial court granted. After a jury trial, in which the trial court allowed defendant to represent herself, she was found to be an MDO and committed to an inpatient facility for one year.

Defendant now contends that the trial court erred by allowing her to represent herself. We will conclude, however, that this contention is moot in light of the fact that defendant's initial one-year commitment has expired, and she has since been recommitted for a further one-year period.

*243 Defendant also contends that the trial court erred by revoking her outpatient status and by committing her as an inpatient instead, for three reasons:

1. Because defendant was an outpatient when the commitment petition was filed, the trial court was required to commit her, if at all, as an outpatient.

2. The People were allowed to revoke defendant's outpatient status pursuant to Penal Code section 1609, rather than Penal Code section 2972.1.

3. The motion to revoke defendant's outpatient status was untimely because it was filed after defendant's outpatient period had already expired.

We will conclude that these contentions are not moot. Neither, however, are they meritorious. Hence, we will affirm.

I

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Defendant has been diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. In 2000, she pleaded guilty to stalking (Pen. Code, § 646.9) and making a criminal threat (Pen. Code, § 422) and was sentenced to prison. On May 1, 2003, she was placed on parole. As a condition of her parole (Pen. Code, § 2962), she was committed to Patton State Hospital (Patton)—i.e., an inpatient program—for treatment.

On May 23, 2005, defendant was placed in the conditional release program. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 4360.) This was an outpatient program; it allowed her to live in the community, in a board and care home.

On February 14, 2006, the People filed a petition to commit defendant for further involuntary treatment. (Pen. Code, § 2970 et seq.) Defendant's parole period was due to terminate on May 1, 2006. Defendant's attorney, however, repeatedly waived time for trial; on June 23, 2006, over defendant's objection, he waived time "to next hearing date plus 30 days beyond."

On July 8, 2006, defendant absconded from her outpatient program. On November 16, 2006, she was reapprehended. She was held in county jail. On December 4, 2006, she filed a motion to be placed back into the outpatient program pending a trial on the commitment petition. She argued that the only way the trial court could revoke her outpatient status was by granting either a request by the director of the outpatient program, pursuant to Penal Code section 1608, or a motion by the prosecution, pursuant to Penal Code section 1609. The trial court denied the motion.

*244 On December 18, 2006, the People filed a motion, purportedly pursuant to Penal Code section 1609, to revoke defendant's outpatient status and have her placed at Patton. In support of the motion, a designee of the director of the outpatient program testified that, in May 2006, defendant had refused to renew her contract with the program, which meant that she could no longer participate. Moreover, even if she did renew her contract, she was no longer suitable for the program because her psychiatric problems had worsened, and the staff of the program could no longer protect the public from her. On February 6, 2007, after an evidentiary hearing, the trial court granted the motion.

On February 28, 2007, defendant made a Faretta motion.[1] On March 7, 2007, the trial court granted the motion. On March 15, 2007, a jury trial began. On April 5, 2007, the jury found that defendant met the criteria for being an MDO. The trial court ordered defendant committed for one year, from May 1, 2006, through May 1, 2007.

II

MOOTNESS

Upon reviewing the record, we wondered whether this appeal was moot. We invited the parties to submit further briefs addressing this issue. Having received and considered those briefs, we conclude that the appeal is only partially moot.

Defendant's commitment period (May 1, 2006, through May 1, 2007) has now expired. Even if we were to agree that defendant was improperly committed, we could not undo that commitment. Accordingly, to the extent that defendant's contentions invoke no appellate relief other than reversal of the commitment order, her appeal is moot. (People v. Merfield (2007) 147 Cal.App.4th 1071, 1074-1075 [54 Cal.Rptr.3d 834]; see also In re Lemanuel C. (2007) 41 Cal.4th 33, 38, fn. 4 [58 Cal.Rptr.3d 597, 158 P.3d 148] [juvenile extended detention proceeding under Welf. & Inst. Code, § 1800]; People v. Hurtado (2002) 28 Cal.4th 1179, 1186 [124 Cal.Rptr.2d 186, 52 P.3d 116] [sexually violent predator proceeding].)

Defendant's appeal is also moot to the extent that she is seeking a retrial on the initial commitment petition. For example, she contends that the trial court erred by granting her Faretta motion. If she is correct, her appellate remedy would be reversal and a remand for a retrial of the commitment *245 hearing. While this appeal was pending, however, the People filed a petition to recommit defendant for a further one-year period. (Pen. Code, § 2972, subd. (e).) The People have represented to us that she was in fact recommitted for a period from November 11, 2007, through November 11, 2008, and she was ordered housed as an inpatient at Patton. Because defendant has already been recommitted, there has already been a finding that she is still an MDO; a retrial would be an idle act. In essence, defendant has already received the appellate remedy that she is seeking. We conclude that this contention is moot.

On the other hand, defendant also contends that the trial court erred (in three respects) by revoking her outpatient status and committing her to an inpatient program instead. As we will discuss further in part IV, post, there is a statutory presumption that an MDO who is in an inpatient program when a recommitment petition is filed should be recommitted to an inpatient program, and an MDO who is in an outpatient program when a recommitment petition is filed should be recommitted to an outpatient program. (Pen. Code, § 2972, subds.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
166 Cal. App. 4th 238, 82 Cal. Rptr. 3d 617, 2008 Cal. App. LEXIS 1351, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-brandon-calctapp-2008.