People v. Brewer

235 Cal. App. 4th 122, 185 Cal. Rptr. 3d 104, 2015 Cal. App. LEXIS 236
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 13, 2015
DocketC075255
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 235 Cal. App. 4th 122 (People v. Brewer) 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. Brewer, 235 Cal. App. 4th 122, 185 Cal. Rptr. 3d 104, 2015 Cal. App. LEXIS 236 (Cal. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinions

Opinion

DUARTE, J.

When a criminal defendant is found mentally incompetent to stand trial (1ST), the trial court orders such defendant to be delivered by the sheriff to a state hospital or other treatment facility for treatment to restore [128]*128the defendant to mental competence, or places the defendant on outpatient status. (Pen. Code, § 1370, subd. (a)(l)(B)(i).)1

In 2005, the Sacramento County Public Defender (the Public Defender) filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus on behalf of David Osburn and others, contending the Sacramento County Sheriff (the Sheriff) had unlawfully detained petitioners at the county jail by failing to transfer them on a timely basis to a state hospital for restorative treatment. After several rounds of briefing, and an evidentiary hearing, the trial court issued an order (the Osburn Order) commanding that the Sheriff deliver to Napa State Hospital (NSH) all criminal defendants ordered committed to NSH pursuant to section 1370 within seven days of the commitment. The Osburn Order was amended to require the prisoners’ delivery within seven days of the commitment or as soon as the packet of documents required under section 1370 (the section 1370 packet) was available. There was no appeal from the Osburn Order.

In 2013, the Public Defender sought an order to show cause for contempt, alleging the Sheriff had violated the Osburn Order by holding several defendants who had been found 1ST at the jail rather than timely transferring them to NSH. In response, the State Department of State Hospitals (the Department) moved to set aside the Osburn Order. The trial court denied the motion but modified the Osburn Order to extend the seven-day deadline to 14 days. The Department appealed from this 2013 order “denying [the Department’s] motion to set aside the transfer deadline established by this Court” in the Osburn Order.

On appeal, the Department contends (1) the trial court acted in excess of its jurisdiction, and violated the separation of powers doctrine, by inserting a 14-day deadline into section 1370 and thereby undermining the Department’s duties; (2) the original Osburn Order and the 2013 modification were contrary to established habeas corpus procedures and constituted improperly promulgated local rules; and (3) the Osburn Order should be set aside due to changes in the law and because it results in unequal treatment of defendants found 1ST in different counties.

We view the Osburn Order as an injunction (as did the trial court) and the Department’s 2013 motion to vacate as a motion to dissolve the injunction. Such a motion can be granted upon a showing of a change in the facts, a change in the law, or because the interests of justice so require. (Code Civ. Proc., § 533.) During the pendency of this appeal, there was a material change in the law. Recent amendments to section 1370 and other statutes affect various aspects of the Osburn Order. Accordingly, we remand the [129]*129matter to the trial court to reconsider its ruling on the Department’s motion in light of the change in the law, and to conduct a new evidentiary hearing. We dissolve the Osbum Order pending reconsideration of the ruling.

BACKGROUND

The Statutory Scheme for and the Constitutional Rights of 1ST Defendants

If at any time before judgment in a criminal trial a doubt arises as to the defendant’s mental competence, the court shall order a hearing into the present mental competence of the defendant. (§ 1368.) If the defendant is found mentally competent, the criminal process shall resume. (§ 1370, subd. (a)(1)(A).) “If the defendant is found mentally incompetent, the trial, the hearing on the alleged violation, or the judgment shall be suspended until the person becomes mentally competent.” (Id., subd. (a)(1)(B).)

“In the meantime, the court shall order that the mentally incompetent defendant be delivered by the sheriff to a state hospital . . . ,” or other approved available treatment facility that “will promote the defendant’s speedy restoration to mental competence.” (§ 1370, subd. (a)(l)(B)(i).) Alternatively, the court may order the defendant placed on outpatient status. (Ibid.) Before a court makes a commitment order to a state hospital, the court shall order the community program director, or his designee, to evaluate the defendant and submit to the court, within 15 judicial days, a written recommendation as to whether the defendant should be committed to a state hospital or other treatment facility or required to undergo outpatient treatment. (§ 1370, subd. (a)(2).)

The court is also required to provide the section 1370 packet to the treatment facility. These documents include the commitment order, a computation of the defendant’s maximum term of commitment and amount of credit for time served, criminal history information, arrest reports, any court-ordered psychiatric examination or evaluation reports, the community program director’s placement recommendation, records of any finding of incompetence arising out of a complaint charging a felony specified in section 290, and medical records.2 (§ 1370, subd. (a)(3).)

Once the defendant has been admitted to a state hospital, a progress report on his restoration to competence is required. “Within 90 days of a commitment ... , the medical director of the state hospital or other treatment facility [130]*130to which the defendant is confined shall make a written report to the court and the community program director for the county or region of commitment, or a designee, concerning the defendant’s progress toward recovery of mental competence . . . .” (§ 1370, subd. (b)(1).)

In Jackson v. Indiana (1972) 406 U.S. 715, 738 [32 L.Ed.2d 435, 451, 92 S.Ct. 1845], the United States Supreme Court held “a person charged by a State with a criminal offense who is committed solely on account of his incapacity to proceed to trial cannot be held more than the reasonable period of time necessary to determine whether there is a substantial probability that he will attain that capacity in the foreseeable future. If it is determined that this is not the case, then the State must either institute the customary civil commitment proceeding that would be required to commit indefinitely any other citizen, or release the defendant. Furthermore, even if it is determined that the defendant probably soon will be able to stand trial, his continued commitment must be justified by progress toward that goal.” (Fn. omitted.)

The next year, our Supreme Court reviewed “the constitutionality of the procedures ([§ 1367 et seq.]) for the commitment to, and release from, state hospital of defendants in criminal cases who have been found to lack sufficient mental competence to stand trial.” (In re Davis (1973) 8 Cal.3d 798, 801 [106 Cal.Rptr. 178, 505 P.2d 1018], fn. omitted (Davis).) The court concluded that the petitioners’ initial commitments were proper, but “acknowledge[d] that some provision must be made to assure that petitioners do not face an indefinite commitment without regard to the likelihood that they will eventually regain their competence, for such an indefinite commitment has been held to offend constitutional principles of equal protection and due process. [Citation.] [¶] Accordingly, we adopt the rule of the Jackson

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
235 Cal. App. 4th 122, 185 Cal. Rptr. 3d 104, 2015 Cal. App. LEXIS 236, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-brewer-calctapp-2015.