People ex rel. State Department of State Hospitals v. S.M.
Annotate this Case
Defendant, adjudicated a mentally disordered offender (MDO), appealed from an order that he be involuntarily administered antipsychotic medication by the Department. The Court of Appeal affirmed a prior order and affirmed the renewal of the prior order.
The court held that the California Code of Regulations recognizes the Department's standing to petition to renew the involuntary medication order; the trial court's alleged error of depriving defendant of his statutory right to represent himself in a proceeding to determine whether, during his commitment, the Department could involuntarily medicate him with antipsychotic drugs, was not structural; the trial court did not abuse its discretion in offering defendant a continuance instead of excluding the testimony of his current treating psychiatrist; and the trial court did not prejudicially err by admitting the opinion of a non-testifying psychiatrist.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.