In Re Baker

Opinion

ALARCON, J. pro tem.

*

The petitioner, Byron Lee Baker, seeks release from further confinement resulting from his commitment by the Superior Court for Los Angeles County to the Department of Mental Hygiene for an indeterminate period as a mentally disordered sex offender.

The petitioner sets forth a number of alleged procedural and constitutional errors relating to the commitment proceedings. Similar contentions were made by the petitioner in a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed in the Superior Court for San Luis Obispo, the county in which the petitioner is now confined. On October 22, 1969, Judge Richard Harris of the Superior Court of San Luis Obispo County granted a writ of habeas corpus because of his determination that the procedure leading to the petitioner’s commitment was invalid because of “the requirements for strict compliance with statutory procedure in this type of case.”

[57]

Judge Harris ordered that petitioner be returned to the custody of the Sheriff for Los Angeles County to be held pending determination by the Los Angeles Superior Court as to whether the “petitioner is subject to the ‘Mentally Disordered Sex Offender’ provisions of the Welfare and Institutions Code and/or otherwise dispose of said petitioner as law and facts require.”

On December 1, 1969, the Los Angeles Superior Court ordered the petitioner returned to the Superior Court for San Luis Obispo after finding that the petitioner had been “validly committed on the mentally disordered sex offender provisions of the Welfare and Institutions Code.”

The petitioner has applied to this court for relief from the action of the Superior Court in San Luis Obispo for its failure to order his complete release and from the determination of the Superior Court of Los Angeles that he was validly committed as a mentally disordered sex offender. We agree with Judge Harris that the commitment proceedings violated the petitioner’s statutory rights and that he is entitled to some relief but not to his complete release.

On October 28, 1966, the petitioner was convicted of a violation of Penal Code section 647a, subdivision 1 in Municipal Court for the East Los Angeles Judicial District. On November 28, 1966, that court certified the petitioner to the superior court pursuant to section 5501 (now § 6302) of the Welfare and Institutions Code. The superior court trial judge failed to inform the petitioner of his right to make a reply and present witnesses at the hearing held to determine whether he was a mentally disordered sex offender as required by Welfare and Institutions Code section 5503 (now § 6305). This error makes invalid the order of November 29, 1966, temporarily placing the petitioner in Atascadero State Hospital for observation and diagnosis for 90 days.