People v. Foster CA1/2

BACKGROUND

I. Procedural History In 1981, Foster violently lured a woman named Susan whom he met at a bar to his residence and raped her for two and a half hours, while strangling her into a state of unconsciousness multiple times, gouging her body with his fingers, biting her breasts, striking her face and threatening to kill her. He was 23 years old at the time. In a negotiated disposition, he pled guilty to one count of oral copulation under former Penal Code section 288a, subd. (c). Thereafter, he was committed to Atascadero State Hospital under the former Mentally Disordered Sex Offender (MDSO) Law (former Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 6300-6330).2 His commitment was extended every two years thereafter, sometimes with his consent and other times on the petition of the district attorney.

2 Under that law, following conviction of a triggering offense, sentencing was suspended and the offender was committed to a state mental hospital for treatment. (Hubbart v. Superior Court (1999) 19 Cal.4th 1138, 1143 & fn. 3.)

2 Foster was released in 2004 after a jury found he no longer qualified as an MDO.3 He soon stopped taking the medications he had been prescribed, causing an increase in…