Davenport v. Superior Court

Opinion

RIVERA, J.

This writ proceeding presents the question of whether a trial court must dismiss a petition to commit a person as a sexually violent predator (SVP) when the original SVP evaluations were prepared using an invalid protocol and replacement evaluations result in a split of opinion. We conclude the answer is no.

I. BACKGROUND1

While petitioner Roger Davenport was serving a term in a California state prison, prison officials referred him to the State Department of Mental Health (DMH) to determine if he met the criteria for commitment under the SVP Act (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6600 et…