JEFFREY WALKER, Petitioner, v. THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, Respondent; THE PEOPLE, Real Party in Interest.
S263588
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA
August 30, 2021
First Appellate District, Division Four, A159563; San Francisco City and County Superior Court, 2219428, 195198
Justice Cuéllar authored the opinion of the Court, in which Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justices Corrigan, Liu, Kruger, Groban, and Jenkins concurred. Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye filed a concurring
WALKER v. SUPERIOR COURT
S263588
Opinion of the Court by Cuéllar, J.
The Sexually Violent Predator Act (
What concerns us in this case is what kind of evidence the trial court may consider in making its initial SVPA probable cause determination. Specifically, we must resolve whether superior courts can admit certain heаrsay evidence in psychological evaluation reports in finding probable cause to commit individuals under the SVPA. Petitioner Jeffrey Walker challenges the Court of Appeal‘s denial of his writ petition, arguing that the trial court admitted inadmissible hearsay in two evaluations in finding probable cause: factual details underlying two rape offenses that he had been charged with, but not convicted of, and resulted in convictions that did not qualify as predicate offenses for commitment under the SVPA. He contends that the trial court‘s decision to admit this hearsay concerning nonpredicate offenses represented prejudicial error.
We agree. Contrary to the Court of Appeal‘s reasoning,
Because the inadmissible hearsay was foundational to the trial court‘s probable cause determination, we must reverse and remand to the Court of Appeal, with instructions for it to remand the matter to the trial court so it can conduct a new probable cause hearing consistent with this opinion.
In June 2015, the District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco filed a petition to commit Walker as an SVP.2 At the time, Walker was nearing the end of a state prison term for a pandering conviction. (
Two mental health evaluations supported the petition. Thomas MacSpeiden and Roger Karlsson, psychologists appointed by the Director of the State Department of State Hospitals (DSH), evaluated Walker shortly before the district attorney filed the petition. MacSpeiden and Karlsson were appointed pursuant to
In their evaluation reports, the psychologists discussed Walker‘s 1990 conviction for rape, a predicate ” ‘[s]exually violent offense’ ” under the SVPA. (
MacSpeiden and Karlsson obtained the details underlying the 1990 rape conviction from a September 1991 report from Walker‘s probation officer. The evaluations related the following details regarding the offense: Walker unsuccessfully approached the victim at a nightclub. He eventually pulled her onto the dance floor and danced with her, though she attempted to push him away when he tried to pull her closer. He then pulled her to the club‘s parking lot. She believed she could get in her car to drive away. When they arrived at her car, she pushed him away as he tried to pull her closer. She reluctantly agreed to give him a ride to his house. When they arrived at the
The psychologists obtained the details underlying the 1989 rape allegation from the 1991 probation report, and they obtained the details underlying the 2005 rape allegation from a police inspector‘s affidavit in support of an arrest warrant. In his evaluation, MacSpeiden quoted the documents’ description of events, which in turn summarized and quoted the victims’ account of Walker‘s conduct and statements leading up to, during, and after the alleged rapes. Karlsson also quoted the police affidavit, and he summarized the probation report‘s description of events.
In particular, the evaluations conveyed the following about the 1989 rape allegation: Walker met the victim at a car show, and he told her he was a photographer for a company hiring models. They met up five nights later, and Walker drove her to a park and took photographs of her. He then asked her to change into a swimsuit she had brought along. When she went into the bathroom to change clothes, Walker followed her, refused to leave, pushed her against the wall face first, groped her, and called her a ” ‘bitch.’ ” While repeatedly pushing her face into the wall, he forcibly had sex with her; he then forced her onto the floor facedown and continued to rape her. Afterward, Walker drove the victim to her car, and he grabbed her and forcibly kissed her before she left.
Regarding the 2005 rape allegation, the evaluations indicated that Walker introduced himself to the 2005 alleged rape victim as the employee of a local radio station that was looking for help promoting the station at clubs. She readily conveyed her interest. They met a few days later, after he contacted her and informed her that he had some promotions at a few San Francisco clubs. He drove her up to San Francisco, and during the drive he instructed her on the procedures for working in a strip club and the prices to charge for certain sex acts. The victim had never worked at a strip club or as a prostitute. Once they arrived in San Francisco, Walker parked the car and told her he needed to show her ” ‘the game.’ ” He went around to the passenger door, entered the car, and placed his hands between her legs. The victim told him to stop and kept her legs closed, but Walker refused. He attempted to take her underwear off, and he digitally penetrated her. She continued to tell Walker to stop and was very upset, but Walker persisted and eventually forcibly had sex with her. He then took her to various strip clubs in an attempt to employ her. The victim went along out of fear. She turned over the money she made at the clubs to Walker. When they returned to his car, he forced her to orally copulate him. He then drove her home.
During the probable cause hearing, Walker‘s attorney cross-examined the psychologists about their evaluations, including their reliance on the 1989 and 2005 rape allegations.
MacSpeiden testified that the two rape allegations constituted key rationales for his evaluation, even though he knew neither resulted in a rape conviction. According to MacSpeiden, the two allegations and Walker‘s 1990 rape conviction all had “essentially the same” “modus operandi.” Because of this modus operandi, and because the rape allegations resulted in charges, he determined it was important to describe them in his report, and he believed in reaching his evaluation and continued to believe during his testimony that the allegations were true and the documents relaying them were reliable and appropriate evidence for him to rely on. He did contend that he would have still arrived at the same evaluation even without the rape allegations, because Walker had 11 sex offense charges between 1988 and 2007 — a pattern of illegal sexual conduct. But he admitted that charges do not carry the same weight as convictions for purposes of his evaluation, and that he had none of the factual details underlying the charges besides the rapе allegations.
Karlsson also testified that his evaluation was informed by the 1989 and 2005 rape allegations. He explained that he relied on the probation report and police affidavit relaying these allegations because the documents were from sworn officers, and he therefore had no reason to believe the records had untrue information. But he indicated that he had not considered whether the 1989 allegation involved force, stating, “I would need to read my report and recalibrate my opinion of that.” And he stated that had he not been able to factor either the 1989 or 2005 rape allegation into his evaluation, his overall opinion could have been different.
After cross-examining the psychologists, the defense called four witnesses at the probable cause hearing: (1) the 2005 victim‘s ex-boyfriend, who testified that the victim admitted she had falsely accused Walker of rape; (2) Bruce Yanofsky, one of the initial psychologists to evaluate Walker, who testified that Walker did not qualify as an SVP; (3) the police officer
Walker then repeatedly but unsuccessfully sought to dismiss the petition. He first moved to dismiss the petition in September 2016, arguing that the psychologicаl evaluations contained inadmissible hearsay in violation of our recent decision in People v. Sanchez (2016) 63 Cal.4th 665 (Sanchez). The trial court denied the motion. In March 2017, Walker unsuccessfully moved to have the trial court reconsider the denial of his motion to dismiss. Walker filed another motion to dismiss in October 2019, this time citing Bennett v. Superior Court (2019) 39 Cal.App.5th 862 (Bennett), a decision holding that facts regarding two dismissed rape allegations against the defendant, relayed by psychologists in their SVPA evaluation reports and probable cause testimony, were inadmissible hearsay under Sanchez. The trial court denied Walker‘s motion. Walker filed a petition for writ of mandate with the Court of Appeal, but it summarily denied the petition. In January 2020, Walker filed yet another motion to dismiss, citing Bennett as well as Couthren, supra, 41 Cal.App.5th 1001, a decision that also applied Sanchez at an SVPA probable cause hearing to bar the admission of hearsay in psychological evaluations. But the trial court again denied Walker‘s motion to dismiss.
Walker challenged the denial of his last motion to dismiss by filing another petition for writ of mandate in the Court of Appeal. After issuing an order to show cause, the court denied Walker‘s writ petition. (Walker v. Superior Court (2020) 51 Cal.App.5th 682, 686 (Walker).) In reaching this holding, it disagreed with Bennett and Couthren: It created a split of authority over whether the SVPA permits the trial court at an SVPA probable cause hearing to admit hearsay regarding nonpredicate offenses contained in expert evaluations. (Walker, at pp. 694, 701–702.) We granted review to resolve the split.
II.
To determine whether trial courts conducting SVPA probable cause hearings may admit hearsay concerning nonpredicate offenses in evaluation reports, we must apply the SVPA‘s general requirements, including those govеrning probable cause hearings; and the SVPA‘s hearsay rules, as established by the statute and decisional law. We examine these threads individually before proceeding to weave them together.
The SVPA provides for the involuntary civil commitment of certain sex offenders before the end of their prison or parole revocation terms. (
The trial represents the final step in the “complex administrative and judicial process” required to civilly commit an individual as an SVP. (Cooley, supra, 29 Cal.4th at p. 244.) The process leading up to a trial begins when the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation screens inmates at least six months before their release date (
The superior court must review the petition once it‘s received to determine whether probable cause exists to commit the individual as an SVP. As an interim step, the SVPA allows a potential SVP to request a review of the petition under
They are entitled to specific procedures at the hearing, too. The trial court “shall review the petition and shall determine whether there is probable cause to believe that the individual named in the petition is likely to engage in sexually violent predatory criminal behavior upon his or her release.” (
The parties must comply with the rules of evidence. (
No one disputes that the evaluation reports at issue here are hearsay and contain hearsay. As with many SVPA evaluation reports, and as the People concede, the MacSpeiden and Karlsson reports were offered for their truth. The People sought their admission as competent evidence of the experts’ opinions and the facts on which they relied. (See Couthren, supra, 41 Cal.App.5th at p. 1010.) The experts expressly drew upon secondary sources — most relevantly, a probation report and police affidavit — for their contents, including the truth of out-of-court statements like victim statements. (See id. at pp. 1010–1011.) Each level of out-оf-court statement, from the evaluation reports to the probation and police reports to the victim statements, ordinarily must fall under a hearsay exception to be admitted into evidence. (id. at p. 1011.)
Trial courts have conducted many probable cause hearings since Parker was decided. They‘ve generally understood
Parker‘s hearsay rule permits the admission of the evaluations. Although the rule plausibly effectuates section 6602‘s spare language, we need not definitively resolve its legal validity. (Cf. Cooley, supra, 29 Cal.4th at p. 248, fn. 8 [noting Parker‘s hearsay rule in passing].) Walker does not challenge the admissibility of the reports; nor does he challenge the admissibility of hearsay in the reports writ large, including content otherwise admissible via hearsay exceptions outside the SVPA. (See Walker, supra, 51 Cal.App.5th at pp. 695–696 [similar].)3 The dispositive question here concerns a narrower question: the admissibility of particular hearsay content in the
reports. (Cf. Bennett, supra, 39 Cal.App.5th at p. 883 [the issue is not “whether the prosecution may present an expert‘s conclusions at the probable cause hearing through the introduction of the expert‘s report,” but instead experts relating particular inadmissible hearsay].) More specifically, we must determine whether hearsay about nonpredicate offenses — otherwise inadmissible hearsay — may be admitted through expert reports under
When the appellate courts decided the cases that led us to grant review here, they understood their disagreement to be about the implications of Sanchez, supra, 63 Cal.4th at page 686 (an expert may not testify to case-specific hearsay facts, about which the expert has no personal knowledge, “unless they are independently proven by competent evidence or are covered by a hearsay exceрtion“). (Walker, supra, 51 Cal.App.5th at pp. 694–695; Couthren, supra, 41 Cal.App.5th at pp. 1006, 1019–1021; Bennett, supra, 39 Cal.App.5th at pp. 878–880.) Though the parties’ briefing emphasized Sanchez, we don‘t need to further parse that case to decide this one.
We can instead resolve this case as a straightforward question of statutory interpretation: whether the SVPA or decisional law on the statute create a hearsay exception covering expert report content like what‘s at issue here. (
For the reasons that follow, the Court of Appеal erred in determining otherwise.
B.
1.
We interpret the SVPA de novo. (Kirby v. Immoos Fire Protection, Inc. (2012) 53 Cal.4th 1244, 1250.) As with any question of statutory construction, our core task here is to determine and give effect to the Legislature‘s underlying purpose in enacting the SVPA and any particular provisions at issue. (California Teachers Assn. v. San Diego Community College Dist. (1981) 28 Cal.3d 692, 698; Calatayud v. State of California (1998) 18 Cal.4th 1057, 1065; Goodman v. Lozano (2010) 47 Cal.4th 1327, 1332.) We first consider the words of the statute, as statutory language is generally the most reliable indicator of legislation‘s intended purpose. (In re H.W. (2019) 6 Cal.5th 1068, 1073.) We consider the ordinary meaning of the relevant terms, related provisions, terms used in other parts of the statute, and the structure of the statutory scheme. (Larkin v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd. (2015) 62 Cal.4th 152, 157.) If the relevant statutory language is ambiguous, we look to appropriate extrinsic sources, including the legislative history, for further insights. (In re H.W., at p. 1073.)
Even assuming
The Court of Appeal‘s reading of the subdivision relied on a chain of dubious inferences. First, it determined that courts must consider the psychological evaluations because the SVPA requires the evaluation reports as the basis for the petition. (Walker, supra, 51 Cal.App.5th at pp. 686, 694–695.) Based on this “necessary” role, the court inferred that the reports’ facts are ” ‘impliedly intended to be pleaded by averments or proper attachment to the petition’ ” and the reports “must be deemed incorporated into the petition” (id. at p. 695) — meaning “section 6602‘s directive for a trial court to ‘review the petition’ at a probable cause hearing necessarily requires the court to review the evaluations, as well” (Walker, at p. 696). Second, it reasoned that trial courts may, as part of their review of the evaluations, consider hearsay contained therein. (Id. at pp. 686, 688; see also id. at p. 696 [
Even if the petition does incorporate the underlying reports, that doesn‘t mean that courts “review[ing] the petition” under
The legislative history also fails to buttress the Court of Appeal‘s interpretation. Legislators have left unchanged the relevant language in the subdivision since the first version of the SVPA bill. (See Parker, supra, 60 Cal.App.4th at p. 1465, citing Assem. Bill No. 888 (1995–1996 Reg. Sess.) § 3, as introduced Feb. 22, 1995;
Nor have our prior interpretations determined that the Legislature, in enacting
This conclusion comes into sharper focus when we compare
It‘s telling that an explicit exception to the Evidence Code‘s hearsay rule does exist for criminal preliminary hearings. Proposition 115, adopted by the voters in 1990, amended
Other SVPA provisions reinforce our qualms about reading into
Consider what
But the Legislature carefully limited the scope of this hearsay exception to one category of proof: establishing predicate convictions. (See,
The Court of Appeal‘s argument that
That the Legislature can suspend evidence rules in analogous contexts — but chose not to do so in SVPA probable cause hearings for hearsay concerning nonpredicate offenses — is reinforced by provisions in the Welfare and Institutions Code. Consider, for example, the Lanterman–Petris–Short Act (LPS Act;
The People raise a variety of arguments that largely track the Court of Appeal‘s reasoning (Walker, supra, 51 Cal.App.5th at pp. 695–699) and fail to persuade. They first argue that the subdivision establishes an implied hearsay exception — covering any hearsay in evaluation reports — by mandating that courts “review the petition” and thereafter assess probable cause. (
The People also contend that the Legislature specifically contemplated that the evaluations would contain hearsay like accounts regarding nonpredicate offenses, because the “standardized assessment protocol” in
But both strands of this argument fail. The standardized protocol merely assures that the experts offer their professional medical judgments within the “specified legal framework” establishing statutory criteria for committing an individual as an SVP. (Ghilotti, supra, 27 Cal.4th at p. 910, italics added by Ghilotti.) In no way does it allow or direct admission of hearsay in expert reports regarding the facts associated with offenses that didn‘t lead to predicate convictions. And the absence of a hearsay exception for such evidence at probable cause hearings does not necessarily impose a near-impossible burden on experts or the People. First, the facts that certain offenses are alleged might be admissible for nonhearsay purposes. Also, at least some of the hearsay documents identified by the People and Court of Appeal — e.g., probation reports, as well as court, prison, and medical records — may still come in without too much difficulty, provided they don‘t include further inadmissible hearsay material. (See, e.g.,
We‘re also not persuaded that the experts’ role justifies admitting every single line in their reports. The People contend that because the experts are “neutral” evaluators applying the standardized protocol, the evaluation reports have a degree of reliability and trustworthiness that supports an implied hearsay exception for their full admission, including any hearsay they contain regarding nonpredicate offenses. As support, the People analogize to Malinda, supra, 51 Cal.3d at pages 375–378, 385. Setting aside the markedly different statutory language in that case (ante, at p. 27), Malinda also critically differs in terms of the nature of the hearsay evidence and expertise at issue. There, we did agree with similar arguments that the Legislature implicitly created a hearsay exception, but we did so in part based on a judgment about the reliability of the hearsay evidence: The relevant experts, social workers, would bring knowledge and expertise to bear in the use of the hearsay information in the social study reports they authored. (id. at p. 377.) In particular, the social workers prepared the social studies on the basis of direct interviews with the minor and her parents (id. at pp. 373–374), and they related the contents of these interviews as part of their statutory role: as ” ‘a special arm of the court to investigate the status of the children and report’ ” back (id. at p. 377, fn. 8; see also id. at pp. 377–379).
Here, no similar justification exists for concluding the Legislature has implicitly allowed psychologists to relate, via their reports, hearsay accounts of nonpredicate criminal offenses. Yes, these experts offer diagnoses that fall within a properly qualified mental health professional‘s expertise, and in doing so they often do draw insight from a comprehensive array of sources. (Couthren, supra, 41 Cal.App.5th at pp. 1010–1011.) But these circumstances surrounding the validity of the experts’ medical diagnoses, and the experts’ apparent objectivity and neutrality, are beside the point. Nothing about these circumstances indicates the Legislature has impliedly determined the experts have relevant expertise to be able to relate the reliability either of (a) hearsay accounts in law enforcement documents like police or probation reports, which may have been prepared years or evеn decades ago, or (b) further levels of hearsay, like victim statements, contained therein. (Malinda, supra, 51 Cal.3d at p. 377; see Couthren, at p. 1018, fn. 7; Bennett, supra, 39 Cal.App.5th at p. 884, fn. 6; cf. Whitman, supra, 54 Cal.3d at pp. 1072–1074.)
To begin with, this evidence presents some inherent reliability concerns. As the People admit, “the reliability of victim hearsay statements in [police and probation reports] is lessened where, as here, the defendant has not been convicted of the crimes to which the statements relate.” (Cf. Otto, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 211.) And, more importantly, we have no particular reason to believe it would be consistent with the legislative design to conclude the mental health evaluators bring any professional judgment to bear in assessing the veracity of these hearsay statements — as the facts of this case underscore. As we‘d expect for any psychological expert, it doesn‘t appear that either MacSpeiden or Karlsson had any meaningful basis to assess the reliability of the two dismissed rape allegations in the probation and police reports, including what the alleged victims told investigating officers. The experts readily admitted that they simply assumed these documents had accurate information, and they presented the information as accurate in their reports. Given the reliability concerns, we think it implausible that it was within the ambit of the legislative purpose to allow the admission of this information as evidence merely because experts chose to include it in their evaluation reports.
Finally, the People‘s analogy to Conservatorship of Manton (1985) 39 Cal.3d 645 fails, too. Manton addressed an LPS Act provision relating to conservatorship proceedings for gravely disabled persons. That provision,
Neither the language nor the structure of the SVPA compels us to apply Manton‘s reasoning here. In contrast to
The Legislature can, of course, create a hearsay exception that prevents any duplication of evidence. (Cf. Parker, supra, 60 Cal.App.4th at p. 1469 [noting that the Legislature can “fill the procedural gap in
We separately address one argument the Court of Appeal presented, and to which the People briefly allude. The Court of Appeal argued that two prior decisions have, consistent with
Parker addressed, as a matter of first impression, “the nature” of the probable cause hearing under
Then in Cooley, where we addressed “the scope and substance of the probable cause determination” under section 6602 (Cooley, supra, 29 Cal.4th at p. 235), we remarked on Parker‘s hearsay reference in passing. Citing Parker, supra, 60 Cal.App.4th at pages 1469–1470, as part of a footnote in our general overview of the SVPA, we stated: “Although the petitioner is allowed, despite their hearsay nature, to present the contents of any reports that form the basis of the petition as evidence, the alleged sexual predator is
The Court of Appeal seized on the two cases’ brief references to hearsay, urging that the “Parker/Cooley rule” allows evaluation reports to be fully admitted at a probable cause hearing, despite their hearsay contents. (Walker, supra, 51 Cal.App.5th at pp. 693, 700.) But neither Parker nor Cooley establish a judicially created exception that would cover hearsay content regarding nonpredicate offenses.
Parker turned on whether due process requires something more than a facial review of the petition under
Although Cooley did cite to Parker‘s statement on the admission of hearsay reports, it did so in a single dictum footnote. Moreover, Cooley addressed the subject “in the context of describing matters which were not disputed by the parties and therefore not analyzed by the court.” (Couthren, supra, 41 Cal.App.5th at p. 1017.) As in Parker, Cooley provided no analysis supporting the admission of the reports or their hearsay contents as competent evidence, or concerning the application of the Evidence Code to SVPA probable cause hearings more generally. Consistent with the opinion as a whole, its focus in the footnote was generally laying out the procedural requirements that protect defendants at SVPA hearings.
C.
The admission of the contested hearsay in the MacSpeiden and Karlsson evaluation reports represented prejudicial error under the standard set forth in People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 836 (for a statutory error, we must determine whether it is reasonably probable the result would have been more favorable to appellant absent the error). As described in Cooley, “a determination of probable cause by a superior court judge under the SVPA entails a decision
On the one hand, some of the properly admitted evidence supports the existence of probable cause. Walker‘s qualifying offense was a forcible rape of a stranger. MacSpeiden and Karlsson diagnosed him with particular mental disorders predisposing him to commit sex offenses — with MacSpeiden diagnosing him with “Other Specified Paraphilia, Sexual Activity with Non-consenting Persons” and “Borderline Personality Disorder,” and Karlsson concluding he had “Antisocial Personality Disorder, augmented by a severe level of psychopathy.” And both experts scored him as having a high risk of sexual reoffense under various diagnostic tools.
On the other hand, some of the properly admitted evidence cut against the existence of probable cause. Yanofsky, one of the initial psychologists appointed by DSH to evaluate Walker, concluded that Walker did not qualify as an SVP. In his evaluation report, which the trial court admitted into evidence, he diagnosed Walker as suffering from “Other Specified Personality Disorder (Mixed Features),” i.e., antisocial and narcissistic personality traits. Yanofsky determined these traits did not affect Walker‘s “emotional and volitional capacity to such a degree” that it predisposed him to commit criminal sexual acts that would endanger the health and safety of others. He ruled out paraphilia as a differentiаl diagnosis, explaining that Walker‘s criminal sexual history, although reflecting a “sexual preoccupation,” did not necessarily appear driven by “deviance” or “to be a sustained pattern” of inappropriate conduct. Although he did score Walker as having a moderate-to-high risk of sexual reoffense under various diagnostic tools, he determined the absence of a predisposing mental health condition was dispositive. His testimony at the probable cause hearing aligned with the conclusions in his report.
Nothing in the record tells us exactly how the trial court settled on its probable cause determination by weighing the competing evidence. But the nature and role of the inadmissible hearsay make it likely that this evidence prejudicially affected the trial court‘s determination. (See Bennett, supra, 39 Cal.App.5th at pp. 884–885.)
First, the lurid hearsay details regarding the 1989 and 2005 rape allegations depicted Walker as an individual with a strong propensity and modus
Moreover, as in Bennett, the inadmissible hearsay that the court admitted critically supported the evaluation reports’ conclusions. (Bennett, supra, 39 Cal.App.5th at pp. 884–885.) Had that content been excluded, the state‘s case would have been materially weakened.
MacSpeiden emphasized the hearsay in his report. He indicated in the diagnosis section of his report — which contained the hearsay accounts of the 1989 and 2005 rape allegations — that Walker‘s “history amply demonstrates that he is sexually disordered with recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies and urges which he is unable to exclude from overt sexual behavior with non-consenting persons.” According to MacSpeiden, this “history” included a long track record of illegal sexual behavior, as shown in Walker‘s numerous arrests and charges between 1988 and 2007. But the facts and circumstances underlying the two alleged rapes were the only two offenses in this track record, outside of Walker‘s predicate conviction, that MacSpeiden had any real details to support his diagnosis. Moreover, as part of the diagnostic scoring to determine Walker‘s risk of reoffense, MacSpeiden discussed how the 1989 and 2005 prior rape allegations helped show Walker was “inclined to engage in sexually violent predatory behavior directed toward a stranger, a person of casual acquaintance . . . or an individual with whom a relationship has been established or promoted for the primary purpose of victimization.”
MacSpeiden‘s cross-examination testimony aligned with his report. He testified that the 1989 and 2005 rape allegations, which he assumed were true, constituted a central part of his evaluation. He explained that the allegations, along with Walker‘s predicate offense, showed Walker had a modus operandi of telling the victims ” ‘I‘m going to make you an important
Karlsson similarly indicated in his report that the hearsay details regarding the 1989 and 2005 rape allegations shaped his evaluation. He described these allegations as two of the three rapes Walker committed, the other being the rape underlying Walker‘s predicate conviction. In diagnosing Walker with “Antisocial Personality Disorder,” Karlsson explained that the most prominent feature of these sex offenses was “a pattern of pandering/pimping, involving introducing women to the world of prostitution and strip teasing by acting as an adult entertainment promoter,” and the use of “manipulation and coercion to make . . . victims compliant” — all things clearly drawing on the hearsay accounts of the dismissed rape allegations. On cross-examination, he confirmed that the 1989 and 2005 rape allegations informed his report, and without these allegations his opinion could have been different.
In other words, without the inadmissible hearsay, the trial court would have lacked critical evidence to establish the diagnosis and reoffense elements of the SVP determination. (Bennett, supra, 39 Cal.App.5th at p. 885; cf. People v. Yates (2018) 25 Cal.App.5th 474, 487.) For that reason, and because of the inflammatory nature of the hearsay evidence, its admission prejudiced Walker.5
III.
When the Legislature enacted the SVPA, it provided safeguards to ensure that only a select group of dangerous sex offenders may be involuntarily committed — safeguards reflecting the Legislature‘s judgment with regard to balancing risks to community safety and the liberty interests of individuals facing the prospect of long-term confinement. The probable cause hearing serves as a critical safeguard in this scheme. The provision governing the probable cause hearing,
We reverse and remand with instruction to the Court of Appeal to, in turn, remand the matter to the superior court for a new probable cause hearing consistent with this opinion.
CUÉLLAR, J.
We Concur:
CANTIL-SAKAUYE, C. J.
CORRIGAN, J.
LIU, J.
KRUGER, J.
GROBAN, J.
JENKINS, J.
WALKER v. SUPERIOR COURT
S263588
August 30, 2021
Concurring Opinion by Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye
I concur in Justice Cuéllar‘s majority opinion, which holds that the lack of an express hearsay exception in the statute governing sexually violent predator (SVP) probable cause hearings precludes the admission of hearsay regarding nonpredicate crimes contained in expert evaluation reports. I am concerned, however, that our ruling will complicate, if not frustrate, the intended screening function of SVP probable cause hearings, and I write separately to urge the Legislature to provide additional guidance addressing the proper conduct of such hearings.
A hearsay exception is not the only provision missing from
Although
At the time of Parker, supra, 60 Cal.App.4th 1453, admission of the contents of the evaluation reports was uncontroversial because expert witnesses were permitted to testify concerning the basis for their opinions, even if those opinions were premised on hearsay. (E.g., People v. Montiel (1993) 5 Cal.4th 877, 918.) Parker therefore had no reason to opine separately on the admission of the type of hearsay considered today and, as the majority notes, did not do so. (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 34–35.) That practice came to an end with People v. Sanchez (2016) 63 Cal.4th 665, which held that case-specific hearsay on which an expert relies is offered for its truth and must be supported by admissible evidence. (Id. at pp. 682–683.) Relying in part on Sanchez, one Court of Appeal has already ruled that the absence of a hearsay exception in
I am concerned that these rulings will prevent the SVP probable cause hearing from serving its intended purpose, which I understand to be an efficient screening function to determine whether a trial is required. Like a probable cause hearing before a criminal trial, the purpose of a
It was this concern for the efficient conduct of SVP probable cause hearings that led the Court of Appeal below to imply a hearsay exception into
The only solution for this problem is a legislative one. The Parker procedures have served as a fair and efficient guide to the conduct of SVP probable cause hearings for more than 20 years. I encourage the Legislature to make the statutory amendments necessary to preserve those procedures, beginning with an exception for hearsay contained in the expert evaluation reports. Even better, I hope the Legislature will reexamine SVP probable cause hearing procedures and formulate clear statutory guidelines for the conduct of such hearings. Our polestar is to implement our Legislature‘s intent, but reliable implementation is difficult when, as in
CANTIL-SAKAUYE, C. J.