Court Opinion

ID: 9950274
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-03-13 18:02:39.006947+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:36:19.188275
License: Public Domain

Filed 3/13/24 P. v. Epps CA4/1
                 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for
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                COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

                                                 DIVISION ONE

                                         STATE OF CALIFORNIA

 THE PEOPLE,                                                          D082774

           Plaintiff and Respondent,

           v.                                                         (Super. Ct. No. SCE171653)

 JEFFREY O’NEIL EPPS,

           Defendant and Appellant.

         APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of San Diego County,
Carlos O. Armour, Judge. Appeal Dismissed.

         Laura Beth Arnold, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for
Defendant and Appellant.
         No appearance for Plaintiff and Respondent.
         In 1998, Jeffrey O’Neil Epps pled guilty to the crime of robbery. (Pen.

Code,1 § 211.) He also admitted an allegation of a prior strike. (§ 667,
subd. (a).) He was sentenced to state prison for nine years.

1        All further statutory references are to the Penal Code.
      In September 2003, Epps was admitted to a state hospital as a
mentally disordered offender (MDO) pursuant to section 2962. Since that
time, his commitment has been extended every year pursuant to sections
2970 and 2972. In April 2023, the District Attorney’s office filed a petition to
extent Epps’s involuntary treatment another year. In June 2023, Epps and
the People waived their respective rights to a jury trial. In August 2023, at
the conclusion of Epps’s bench trial, the court found that Epps suffers from a
severe mental disorder that is not in remission or cannot be kept in remission
without treatment, and that he represents a substantial danger of physical
harm to others by virtue of that severe mental disorder, and ordered that he
be committed to a state hospital until August 2024.
      Epps filed a timely notice of appeal.
                                 DISCUSSION
      Appointed appellate counsel has filed a brief summarizing the facts and
proceedings below. Counsel presents no argument for reversal concerning
the order continuing appellant’s involuntary commitment as an MDO and
requests this court to review the commitment proceedings in accord with
People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436 and Anders v. California (1967) 386
U.S. 738.
      In making this request, counsel notes the Supreme Court’s decision in
Conservatorship of Ben C. (2007) 40 Cal.4th 529 (Ben C.), which held that the
Wende/Anders independent review procedures do not apply to civil
commitments pursuant to the Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act (Welf. &
Inst. Code, § 5000 et seq.). (Ben C. at p. 539.) Counsel also acknowledges
that in People v. Taylor (2008) 160 Cal.App.4th 304, the Second District

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considered whether the Wende/Anders procedures apply to MDO
commitment cases and concluded they did not. We agree with People v.
Taylor and decline to apply Wende/Anders procedures to this MDO case.
      In accordance with recommendations set forth in Ben C., supra, 40
Cal.4th at page 544, counsel has prepared a brief setting forth the facts and
the law, and has provided appellant with a copy of the brief and the record on
appeal. Counsel informed Epps of his right to file a supplemental brief. Our
court has also informed Epps of his right to file a supplemental brief, but he
declined to do so.
      Because appellant has failed to raise an arguable issue on appeal from
an order of recommitment, we decline to retain this case (as is permitted by
Ben C.) and instead dismiss the appeal. (Ben C., supra, 40 Cal.4th at p. 544;
People v. Serrano (2012) 211 Cal.App.4th 496, 501.)
                                 DISPOSITION
      The appeal is dismissed.

                                                                      IRION, J.

WE CONCUR:

      HUFFMAN, Acting P. J.

                     RUBIN, J.

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