In re Williams

While awaiting trial on a variety of sex crime charges, petitioner Gary Donnell Williams was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial due to developmental disability. (Pen. Code, § 1370.1.) Pursuant to its statutory obligation, the regional center provided a recommendation to the trial court to place Williams where he was to receive services designed to restore him to competency. (§ 1370, subd. (a)(l)(H)(2).) It determined the Porterville Developmental Center (Porterville or PDC) was best suited to his needs, and the trial court ordered that he be placed there. However, Porterville refused to accept Williams because of safety concerns. In the letter rejecting Williams’s placement, Porterville cited recently enacted Welfare and Institutions Code section 6510.5, which provides that “[u]nder no circumstances” can the court commit someone declared incompetent under section 1370.1 to a developmental center if the State Department of Developmental Services (DDS) states in writing that the person in question cannot be safely served at that facility. Although the trial court opined that Porterville’s refusal to accept Williams appeared to be arbitrary and capricious, it…