SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, CA — The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is joining the California District Attorneys Association in its statewide call for the California Legislature to pass common sense mental health diversion (MHD) legislation with Assembly Bill 46. This legislation is sponsored by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, and co-sponsored by many district attorneys’ Offices across the state, including the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office. This bill closes legal loopholes in California’s mental health diversion law by restoring judicial discretion and ensuring the program provides treatment while protecting community safety.
Across California, reports demonstrate tragic cases in which dangerous individuals were granted mental health diversion, only to commit violent crimes later – including murder, attempted murder, domestic violence and more. Some San Bernardino County case examples of dangerous grants of mental health diversion include:
Man Repeatedly Stabs Wife in Face, Neck and Chest ,Released into the Community
- A man attacked his wife with a knife in the couple’s home, stabbing her in the face, neck and chest.
- Two family teenagers intervened and thwarted the attack.
- Emergency surgery saved the victim’s life.
- The defendant was released into the community as part of diversion despite being charged with attempted murder.
Woman Hits 66-year-old Man with Car After Breakup, Resulting in His Permanent Partial Paralysis, then She Is Granted Diversion
- Following the breakup of their relationship, a woman used her car to block the path of a 66-year-old man when he tried to walk away from her.
- When the man attempted to go around the car, the woman drove at him in anger while his back was turned. He rolled up onto the hood of the car then struck his head on the pavement.
- Although the man initially appeared to have minor injuries at the scene, he was rushed to the hospital after collapsing later that night. A brain bleed resulted in permanent paralysis to one side of his body.
- Following charges of assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury and domestic violence, and after being found to be ineligible for a drug treatment court, the defendant was granted diversion and released without bond.
Repeat Violent Offender Released on Diversion After Robbing 83-Year-Old Woman, then Failed to Comply with the Program
- A man targeted an 83-year-old woman for robbery. She struggled with him but he managed to rip her purse away from her.
- The defendant had multiple prior felony convictions for crimes of violence consisting of a prior robbery in 2004 and a prior assault with a deadly weapon in 2011. He served prison terms for both offenses.
- After being granted diversion and being released from custody, the defendant failed to comply with the court-imposed terms. He was taken back into custody less than four months later.
Mental health diversion, created under Penal Code §1001.36, was designed to help individuals suffering from mental illness receive treatment instead of incarceration. However, recent court rulings and statutory limitations have significantly restricted judges’ ability to deny diversion – even in serious and violent cases – leaving courts with limited authority to evaluate whether diversion is truly appropriate.
“Addressing mental health issues with a nexus to the criminal justice system remains an important issue for all of us, but public safety should not be sacrificed in the face of violent crime,” said District Attorney Jason Anderson. “Assembly Bill 46 paves a common-sense path and provides judges with the ability to reasonably assess the dangerousness of violent offenders.”
Under current law, once a defendant meets certain statutory criteria, judges have very limited discretion to deny diversion. Courts have even been forced to approve diversion in cases where no clear treatment plan exists, community safety is at risk,or where defendants havefailed prior treatment efforts – due to the statute’s language and its interpretation by appellate courts.
Further, once a defendant completes Mental Health Diversion, the crime is removed from the defendant’s criminal history, removing accountability for dangerous crimes as if the crime was never committed. This puts victims, law enforcement and communities at risk if the program is not implemented properly.
AB 46 addresses these concerns by allowing courts to consider whether a defendant poses a substantial and undue risk to the physical safety of another personand whether the proposed treatment plan is clinically appropriate to address the mental health condition that contributed to the crime.
AB 46 will be heard in the Senate Public Safety Committee on March 17. Members of the public are urged to contact the members of the Senate Public Safety Committee to urge the passage of AB 46 before March 17th. The contact info of each Senate Committe member is located https://spsf.senate.ca.gov/committeehome. The public can use that same link to watch the hearing live at 8:30 a.m.
MORE INFORMATION
Read the CDAA letter of support here. For more information about the mental health diversion loophole visit www.placer.ca.gov/MHD.
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