People v. Superior Court of L. A. Cnty.

*40 In 1995 George Vasquez was convicted of four counts of committing lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14 years of age ( Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a) ), and was sentenced to 12 years in state prison. Prior to Vasquez's release, on September 7, 2000 the People filed a petition to commit Vasquez as a sexually violent predator (SVP) under the Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA; Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6600 et seq. ). 1 Vasquez was detained in state hospitals for over 17 years awaiting trial on the petition, as a series of six appointed attorneys slowly moved his case toward trial.

*41 Fourteen years into Vasquez's confinement, the public defender's office suffered a 50 percent cut to its attorney staffing and the loss of paralegals, which further slowed down Vasquez's third deputy public defender in her preparation for trial. After two more years of sluggish progress, this attorney was transferred out of the SVP unit just months before Vasquez's January 2017 trial date. After Vasquez's fifth attorney requested yet another continuance to prepare for trial, Vasquez objected, declaring, *24 "Enough is enough." At this point-16 years after the petition was filed-the trial court…