Beeson

1. Introduction

Donald Lynn Beeson (defendant) appeals from the trial court’s judgment granting the People’s petition for defendant’s continued involuntary treatment as a mentally disordered offender (MDO). Defendant claims that the court erred in ordering defendant’s continued confinement because insufficient evidence supported one of the criteria set forth in the MDO law, namely, that defendant’s mental disorder could not be kept in remission without treatment. Defendant further claims that the court erred in refusing to instruct the jury that it should presume that defendant was not an MDO for purposes of the proceeding.

We conclude that, based on the testimony of the staff psychiatrist at the mental hospital where defendant received his treatment, substantial evidence supported the jury’s finding that defendant could not be kept in remission within the meaning of the statute. As to defendant’s second claim, we conclude that, in the context of a proceeding on a petition for continued treatment under the MDO law, the court was not required to instruct the jury to presume that defendant was not an MDO for purposes of the current proceeding. Based on these conclusions,…