Garcetti

Gil Garcetti, District Attorney of Los Angeles County, petitions for a writ of mandate to overturn the superior court’s order sustaining a demurrer by Barry Meril Blake (Blake) to the People’s commitment petition under the Sexually Violent Predators Act (SVP Act) (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6600 et seq.) and dismissing the commitment proceedings.

A requisite to a commitment under the SVP Act is that a defendant have been convicted of sexually violent offenses against at least two victims. (§ 6600, subd. (a).) Section 6600, subdivision (a) provides “a conviction resulting in a finding that the person was a mentally disordered sex offender *1116 . . . shall ... be deemed to be a sexually violent offense.” The essential issue presented is whether a conviction of an attempted lewd or lascivious act upon a child under age 14 (hereafter lewd act), resulting in a finding that the defendant was a mentally disordered sex offender (MDSO), qualifies as a prior conviction for purposes of the SVP Act.

We conclude that any conviction resulting in an MDSO finding qualifies as a prior conviction for purposes of the SVP Act. Therefore, the commitment petition is well pled. We reject the…