"P.D. suffers from schizophrenia. He was arrested for
violating a restraining order that protects his family. The court
found him incompetent to stand trial. It committed him to
Sylmar Health and Rehabilitation Center for mental health
treatment to restore his competency. After the criminal charges
were dismissed, Public Guardian filed a petition for a
conservatorship on the ground that P.D. is gravely disabled as a
result of his mental disorder.
Murray Weiss, M.D., testified that P.D. was
diagnosed with a mental disorder 10 years earlier, has delusions,
and requires medication to control his symptoms. When not
taking his medication, P.D. becomes angry, aggressive, and
“impulse disordered.” Dr. Weiss said that P.D. does not accept
his diagnosis and believes his medications are “poison drugs.”
Dr. Weiss opined that P.D. is unable to provide for
his basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter as a result of his
mental disorder. Without a conservatorship, P.D. will stop
taking his medication and be “homeless and hungry and living
from day-to-day and probably arrested for violating the
restraining order when he goes back to his family residence.”
P.D. testified that he does not suffer from a mental
disorder and does not need to take medication. He said that if
released, he will return to his family or seek help from unnamed
friends, none of whom he has contacted to discuss his plans. He denied the existence of an active restraining order which
prevents him from contacting his wife and which formed the
basis of his prior arrest."
You can probably figure out the rest. Suffice it to say, P.D. remains in the hospital. As he probably will for a long, long time.
