Castillo

On August 10, 2007, the jury found appellant Javier Castillo to be a sexually violent predator (SVP) under the Sexually Violent Predators Act (SVPA) (Welf. Inst. Code, § 6600 et seq.). 1 The trial court ordered Castillo committed to the State Department of Mental Health for a two-year period.

In his timely appeal, Castillo contends the trial court erroneously and prejudicially (1) failed to specially instruct the jury that it must find Castillo's mental disorder caused him serious difficulty in controlling his dangerous behavior and (2) admitted prosecution evidence concerning the nature of the treatment programs offered to SVP's at the state mental health hospitals where Castillo had been committed. In supplemental briefing, Castillo claims his commitment was illegal because the Department of Mental Health violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) (Gov. Code, § 11340.5 , subd. (a)) in promulgating the mental health evaluation protocol used in the evaluations relied on by the People in support of the SVP petition against Castillo. In a related claim, Castillo argues his trial counsel rendered constitutionally ineffective assistance by failing to challenge the legality of…