Rasmuson

Kenneth Rasmuson, incarcerated at Atascadero State Hospital (Atascadero) as a sexually violent predator (SVP) under the Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA) (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6600 et seq.), appeals from an order denying his petition for conditional release made pursuant to section 6608. The trial court denied the petition, finding that appellant failed to meet his burden of proving that it was unlikely he would engage in sexually violent criminal behavior upon his release. Appellant contends that (1) the order must be reversed because due process requires that the government shoulder the burden of justifying continued custodial confinement once inpatient treatment has been completed, and (2) the trial court abused its discretion in denying his petition.

We reverse.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In 1981, at age 19, appellant was convicted of forced oral copulation, sodomy and a lewd act on an 11-year-old boy. He was incarcerated until 1985, when he was released into a conditional release program. In 1987, he reoffended, committing heinous sex acts on a three-year-old boy, then abandoning the child at an isolated location in the mountains. Appellant admitted to…