Citations
- 189 Cal. App. 3d 1010
Full opinion text
Opinion
ANDERSON, P. J.
—This is an appeal from an order subjecting appellant William Bones to involuntary postcertification treatment as a dangerous person under the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, Welfare and Institutions Code sections 5000-5550 (hereafter LPA). We hold that (1) the appeal should not be dismissed for mootness; (2) the trial court did not err in ordering appellant to testify; and (3) appellant waived any objection he may have had as a result of the assertedly self-incriminating tendency of his testimony.
I. Background
The LPA provides a multistaged procedure for the involuntary treatment of a person who, by reason of a mental disorder, is dangerous to others, dangerous to himself, or gravely disabled. (See Tieger & Kresser, Civil Commitment in California: A Defense Perspective on the Operation of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (1977) 28 Hastings LJ. 1407 (hereafter Civil Commitment).) The first stage is a “72-hour hold” for treatment and evaluation. (Id., at p. 1412; §§ 5150, 5200, 5206, 5213.) Thereafter the subject may be certified for an additional 14 days of intensive treatment. (Civil Commitment, supra, at p. 1408; §§ 5250, 5251.) At the end of this period the subject may be confined for up to 180 additional days of “postcertification” treatment. (§ 5301.) Such further confinement may be ordered by the superior court on the ground, among others, that the subject has “made a serious threat of substantial physical harm upon the person of another after having been taken into custody, and ... as a result of mental disorder or mental defect, presents a demonstrated danger of inflicting substantial physical harm upon others” (§ 5304, subd. (a)(1).) The confinement may be extended for another 180 days by way of a further petition. (§ 5304, subd. (b).) In addition or as an alternative, a conservator may be appointed for a person who is “gravely disabled” due to mental disorder, and in connection with the conservatorship the subject may be placed in an appropriate facility. (Civil Commitment, supra, at p. 1410; §§ 5350, 5358.)
The order under review granted a petition for extension of postcertification treatment filed in April 1985 by Dr. William Schwartzman of the Napa State Hospital, where appellant had already been under treatment for at least six months. The matter was called as a jury trial. Before the jury was impanelled county counsel moved for permission to call appellant as a witness. The court granted the motion. Appellant then testified before the jury, in critical part, that on several occasions while on his property near Sebastopol he had heard children’s screams; that the screams emanated from a nearby house; that he believed children were being molested in the house; that he believed the molester or molesters should be killed or at least beaten; and that he would kill or beat them upon being released from the hospital if he found the molestation was continuing and the police failed to take appropriate action. Appellant testified that he had never reported the screams to the police. Although he claimed there were other witnesses present when the screaming was heard, he was unable to recall who they were. He stopped hearing the screams after being placed in the hospital, but he believed the reason for this was that the victims’ bodies had been “stretched.” He also testified about a small black box, operated by aliens, which was capable of controlling minds and had been used on occasion to control his mind.
Appellant’s counsel moved for a mistrial on the ground that it was error to compel appellant to testify. The motion was denied. Thereupon appellant agreed to waive jury trial and to submit the matter to the court on the basis of his own testimony, the written reports of a psychologist and a psychiatrist, and the affidavits of two other professionals. The reports and affidavits indicated that appellant was evasive with counselors about whether he still heard the screams and that he continued to be convinced that a number of his neighbors were child molesters whom he should kill if the police did not take appropriate action. The court issued orders granting the petition and remanding appellant to the care of Napa State Hospital.