Esparza

INTRODUCTION

After the People charged him with kidnapping for ransom, reward, or extortion

(Pen. Code, § 209, subd. (a)), petitioner Alexander Esparza subpoenaed the alleged

victim, his fiancée L.S., to testify in his defense at the preliminary hearing. 1 Real Party

in Interest, the San Bernardino County Public Guardian (the Public Guardian), moved to

quash the subpoena on the ground that L.S. was incompetent to testify under Evidence

Code section 701 because a probate court had recently found her “gravely disabled” and

appointed the Public Guardian as her conservator under the Lanterman–Petris–Short Act

(Welf. & Inst. Code, § 5000 et seq. (the LPS Act). The trial court ruled that the probate

court’s grave disability finding also constituted a finding that she was incompetent to

testify and granted the motion to quash.

Esparza seeks a writ of mandate compelling the trial court to deny the Public

Guardian’s motion and allow L.S. to testify at his preliminary hearing. He argues that the

trial court committed legal error by presuming incompetence to testify from a grave-

disability finding under the LPS Act. We agree with Esparza and therefore grant the

petition.

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