Conservatorship of the Person of K.W.
Annotate this CaseK.W.’s one-year conservatorship (Welf. & Inst. Code 5000) was established in 2015 following a contested bench trial. The Conservator petitioned for reappointment in 2016. K.W. requested a jury trial. Bravo, certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, testified as an expert in forensic psychiatry. He was a consulting member of K.W.’s treatment team and conducted a 50-minute face-to-face interview with K.W. Bravo had previously interviewed K.W. and personally observed K.W. at the county’s psychiatric emergency facilities. Bravo consulted medical records and spoke to K.W.’s former psychiatrist, a social worker, and others. Bravo diagnosed K.W. as suffering from a schizoaffective disorder with “disorganized thinking and behaviors” resulting in lack of impulse control, impaired judgment, and “paranoid and grandiose” delusions. Bravo opined that K.W. lacked insight into his mental illness and that K.W met the Act's criteria for grave disability and was unable to care for himself. The jury found K.W. gravely disabled; the court ordered reestablishment of the conservatorship. The court of appeal affirmed. Any error by the trial court in permitting the jury to consider case-specific hearsay testimony of K.W.’s behavior was harmless. The only medical evidence before the jury was an unimpeached opinion from a well-qualified expert. The jury could reasonably have rejected K.W.’s contrary view of his own abilities.
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