Conservatorship of O.R. CA1/3

BACKGROUND

O.R. suffers from a mental illness and is cognitively impaired. In 2010, the trial court found O.R. gravely disabled as a result of his mental disorder and appointed a conservator pursuant to the LPS Act. (§§ 5008, subd. (h)(1)(A), 5350.) Between 2010 and 2019, the Department successfully petitioned for one-year renewals of the conservatorship (§ 5361). In August 2020, the Department again petitioned for renewal, alleging O.R. remained gravely disabled as a result of his mental disorder. O.R. waived his right to a jury trial. At a December 2020 bench trial, the Department offered the testimony of Michael Levin, M.D., a psychiatrist qualified by the court as an expert on psychiatry and grave disability. Levin testified that O.R. is gravely disabled and unable to care for himself. At the conclusion of the bench trial, the court found O.R. gravely disabled, renewed the conservatorship, and reappointed the Department as O.R.’s conservator. (See Conservatorship of K.P. (2021) 11 Cal.5th 695, 710–712, 719.)

DISCUSSION

People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436 (Wende) establishes that “[i]n an indigent criminal defendant’s first appeal as a matter of right, the Court of Appeal…