People v. Henderson

117 Cal. App. 3d 740, 172 Cal. Rptr. 858
California Court of Appeal·Decided April 3, 1981·No. 10458·Published·Cited by 20 cases

Opinion

117 Cal.App.3d 740 (1981)
172 Cal. Rptr. 858

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
ROY EUGENE HENDERSON, Defendant and Appellant.

Docket No. 10458.

Court of Appeals of California, Third District.

April 3, 1981.

*744 COUNSEL

Quin Denvir, State Public Defender, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, Roy M. Dahlberg and Peter P. Vlautin, Deputy State Public Defenders, for Defendant and Appellant.

George Deukmejian, Attorney General, Robert H. Philibosian, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Daniel J. Kremer, Assistant Attorney General, A. Wells Petersen and Jay M. Bloom, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

PUGLIA, P.J.

Defendant appeals from an order extending for one year his commitment to the Department of Mental Health as a mentally disordered sex offender (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6316.2).[1]

*745 In 1975 defendant pleaded guilty to violation of Penal Code section 273a, subdivision (1) (willfully causing a child to suffer unjustifiable physical pain and mental suffering under circumstances likely to produce great bodily injury and death). He was adjudged a mentally disordered sex offender (MDSO), committed to the Department of Mental Health and confined in Atascadero State Hospital. In 1978 his term of commitment was extended for one year ending on August 7, 1979. (See People v. Henderson (1980) 107 Cal. App.3d 475 [166 Cal. Rptr. 20].) On April 18, 1979, the People again petitioned under section 6316.2 to extend defendant's commitment for an additional year. Following a trial without a jury, the court found defendant to be a person, as described in section 6316.2, who continues to suffer from a mental disorder or defect as a result of which he is predisposed to the commission of sexual offenses to such a degree that he presents a serious threat of substantial harm to the health and safety of others. Accordingly, the court ordered an additional one-year extension of defendant's commitment.[2]

This appeal ensued. We shall affirm.

I

At the extension hearing, staff members from the Atascadero State Hospital testified to statements made by defendant during the course of his treatment there. There was testimony that defendant stated he was sexually stimulated by violence and had experienced such stimulation when he had beaten the victim of the offense underlying the MDSO commitment, that defendant stated he had experienced "bondage fantasies" and that defendant's stated "concept of the masculine role" is to "do it to others before they do it to you."

(1) Defendant's primary contention is that the admission into evidence of the statements made by him to hospital staff violated both his constitutional privileges against self-incrimination (U.S. Const., 5th Amend. Cal. Const., art. I, § 15; Evid. Code, § 940) and the psychotherapist-patient privilege (Evid. Code, §§ 1010, 1012). Since defense counsel did not object at trial to the admission of any of these statements by asserting either privilege, defendant must be regarded as *746 having waived the privileges which he now purports to assert for the first time on appeal. (See People v. Huerta (1957) 148 Cal. App.2d 272, 274-275 [306 P.2d 505]; cf. People v. Solomos (1978) 83 Cal. App.3d 945, 953 [148 Cal. Rptr. 248].)

Nonetheless, in the interests of judicial economy, we shall consider the merits of the issues raised relative to admissibility of defendant's statements to treating hospital staff.

(2) The privilege against self-incrimination "`"can be claimed in any proceedings, be it criminal or civil, administrative or judicial, investigatory or adjudicatory ... it protects any disclosures which the witness may reasonably apprehend could be used in a criminal prosecution or which could lead to other evidence that might be so used."'" (Italics in original; Cramer v. Tyars (1979) 23 Cal.3d 131, 138 [151 Cal. Rptr. 653, 588 P.2d 793], quoting from In re Gault (1967) 387 U.S. 1, 47-48 [18 L.Ed.2d 527, 557, 87 S.Ct. 1428]; Murphy v. Waterfront Com'n (1964) 378 U.S. 52, 94 [12 L.Ed.2d 678, 704, 84 S.Ct. 1594 conc. opn., White, J.].) The privilege protects against compelled testimonial communications which tend to incriminate the declarant (People v. Rucker (1980) 26 Cal.3d 368, 378-379 [162 Cal. Rptr. 13, 605 P.2d 843]; People v. Poggi (1980) 107 Cal. App.3d 581, 586 [165 Cal. Rptr. 758]).

There is no prospect that defendant's extrajudicial statements to hospital staff could be used to incriminate him. Defendant had already been convicted of the underlying offense and obviously could not again be subjected to prosecution for the same crime. More importantly, the purpose of the extension hearing in which the statements were used does not comprehend the defendant's incrimination. (3) Whether an MDSO extension hearing is denominated a civil proceeding (see In re Bevill (1968) 68 Cal.2d 854, 858 [69 Cal. Rptr. 599, 442 P.2d 679]) or a criminal proceeding (see People v. Burnick (1975) 14 Cal.3d 306, 314, 324 [121 Cal. Rptr. 488, 535 P.2d 352]), its objective is confined by section 6316.2 to a determination whether defendant by reason of mental disease, defect or disorder is predisposed to the commission of sexual offenses to the degree that he presents a serious threat of substantial harm to the health and safety of others. Evidence admissible in such a hearing must necessarily have a tendency to prove or disprove the ultimate issue as defined by statute. Moreover, establishment of the ultimate issue does not authorize imposition of a penal sanction, a point made abundantly clear in People v. Saffell (1979) 25 Cal.3d 223 [157 Cal. Rptr. 897, 599 P.2d 92]: "While judicial attention to the MDSO is *747 invoked by his commission of a criminal act, the entire statutory scheme providing for the diversion of MDSOs from the mainstream of the criminal justice system clearly indicates that `in MDSO cases, subsequent confinement of the ... person is for purposes of treatment, not punishment' (In re Moye [1978] 22 Cal.3d 457 at p. 466 [149 Cal. Rptr. 491, 584 P.2d 1097], italics in original; [citations].... [¶] [N]ot only is medical treatment the raison d' etre of the mentally disordered sex offender law, it is its sole constitutional justification. It is settled that "A person committed as a mentally disordered sex offender is not confined for the criminal offense but because of his status as a mentally disordered sex offender." ... (In re Bevill (1968) supra, 68 Cal.2d 854, 858.)'" (Italics in original; Saffill, supra, 25 Cal.3d at pp. 229-230.)

(4) Defendant maintains, however, that a 1979 amendment to section 6316.2 supplants tr

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