Garcetti

Michael P. Judge, Public Defender, Albert J. Menaster, John Douglas and Jack T. Weedin, Deputy Public Defenders, for Real Party in Interest.

On July 17, 2000, the trial court dismissed a petition filed by the District Attorney of Los Angeles County (petitioner) alleging that real party in interest, Paul Marentez (Marentez), was a sexually violent predator as described by the Sexually Violent Predators Act (Welf. & Inst.Code, ง 6600 et seq.) in that he had been convicted of two specified sex crimes against children under 14 that involved substantial sexual conduct and therefore constituted "sexually violent offenses," and he had a diagnosed mental disorder that made him a danger to the health and safety of others in that it was likely that he would engage in sexually violent criminal behavior if released from the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections. The trial court dismissed the petition following a statutorily mandated probable cause hearing in which the burden was on petitioner to establish that there was probable cause to believe that Marentez was likely to engage in sexually violent predatory criminal behavior if released from custody. (Welf. & Inst.…