White

The issue in this case is whether a defendant’s various mental conditions, including frotteuristic disorder, exhibitionist disorder, bipolar disorder, and antisocial disorder, which two experts opined would likely result in future acts of sexual battery, satisfy the requirement of the Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA) (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6600 et seq.) that a defendant “will engage in sexually violent criminal behavior.” We hold that the trial court properly interpreted the statutory language of the SVPA in finding that under the circumstances in this case sexual battery constitutes sexually violent criminal behavior.

Following a bench trial, the trial court found defendant and appellant Robert Earl White to be a sexually violent predator (SVP). The court’s written statement of decision examined two portions of section 6600, subdivision (a)—the requirement that defendant suffered a conviction of a “sexually violent offense,” and the additional requirement that due to his mental disorder defendant is likely to engage in predatory “sexually violent criminal behavior.” The court determined that two requirements are not synonymous, and the latter provision is broader…