People v. Superior Court

The Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA) (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6600 et seq.) 1 provides that, under certain circumstances, a person who has been committed as a sexually violent predator (SVP) can be conditionally released into the community under a program of outpatient supervision and treatment. (See §§ 6608-6609.3.) In October 2010, the Placer Superior Court determined that the real party in interest in this proceeding, Tibor Karsai, who has been committed as an SVP since 1998, should be conditionally released. A year and one-half later, after an exhaustive but ultimately unsuccessful search for an acceptable residence for Karsai, the superior court ordered that Karsai was to be conditionally released into Santa Barbara County without a fixed residence, i.e., as a transient.

In this mandamus proceeding, the District Attorney of Santa Barbara County (Santa Barbara) seeks a writ of mandate to prevent Karsai’s release without a fixed residence, contending “there is no provision [of law] whatsoever that allows an SVP to be released as a transient.” Santa Barbara also contends the superior court erred in determining that Santa Barbara County was Karsai’s county of domicile…