People v. Superior Court (Smith) (Dec. 13, 2018, No. S225562) ___ Cal.5th___ [2018 WL 6564828]
Under the Sexually Violent Predators Act, an individual designated as a sexually violent predator (SVP) may be subject to civil commitment. The designation is determined in a trial, where the government relies upon evaluations from mental health professionals chosen by the State Department of State Hospitals.
In this case, after protracted litigation delays, the district attorney who had originally petitioned to commit Smith as a SVP more than a decade earlier requested an updated mental health evaluation and sought an order permitting the DA’s retained expert to review the Department evaluation and related documents. The trial court denied the request. The Court of Appeal granted the DA’s petition for writ relief, explaining that the DA already had “lawful possession” of the documents under the Act and the government’s interest in protecting the public from SVPs outweighed Smith’s privacy interest in the documents.
The Supreme Court granted review and affirmed. The Legislature had amended the Act two years earlier to clarify that evaluation records “shall be provided to the attorney” filing a SVP petition. The Court rejected Smith’s contention that the amendment could not retroactively apply to permit the DA to review his earlier evaluations, explaining that the earlier documents were used in connection with Smith’s updated or replacement evaluations and therefore fell within the scope of documents the statute permitted the DA to review. The Court further held that the Act permits the DA to share the confidential mental health evaluation records with his retained expert. According to the Court, the Act allows attorneys for both sides to “use the records in proceedings” under the Act, which necessarily encompasses expert witness evaluation of the confidential mental health documents.
Prepared by H. Thomas Watson and Peder K. Batalden, Horvitz & Levy, LLP
California Society for Healthcare Attorneys
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