Talhelm

After a jury trial, Kenneth Talhelm (hereafter referred to as defendant) was found a sexually violent predator within the meaning of Welfare and Institutions Code section 6600 et seq., also known as the Sexually Violent Predators Act (hereafter the SVP Act or the Act) and committed to a state mental institution for a two-year term. On appeal, defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the finding that he is a sexually violent predator. He also raises several evidentiary issues, as well as procedural issues related to the filing of the commitment petition. Finally, he makes “as applied” federal constitutional procedural and substantive due process challenges to the SVP Act. As we shall explain more fully below, we find all but one of defendant’s arguments meritless. Furthermore, while we agree with defendant that a petition for a writ of habeas corpus was the appropriate method by which to obtain review of the trial court’s finding of probable cause, we conclude that the trial court’s summary denial of that petition was harmless error.

Factual and Procedural Background

In 1989, defendant was convicted of violating Penal Code section 288, subdivision…