Mental health hearing scheduled in Butler case
A former Adventist Health Sonora nurse accused of attempting to hire someone to murder her husband in September 2020 appeared on Thursday in Tuolumne County Superior Court, where a hearing was scheduled for
Feb. 17, in a process that could end with a judge deciding whether she will receive mental health treatment as opposed to criminal prosecution.
Heidi Ann Butler, 39, has pleaded not guilty and was present Thursday in Department 1 at the new Justice Center courthouse southeast of downtown Sonora. She was wearing a scarf, a white shawl, gray tights, and brown suede boots with white fur trim as she sat with her appointed attorney, Public Defender Scott Gross.
“What we’re asking for is a contested setting hearing, so we can get a hearing for an expert we can calendar in March,” Assistant District Attorney Eric Hovatter told Presiding Judge Kevin Seibert.
Gross filed an application for mental health diversion for Butler in late June, in which a defensehired, Sacramento-based mental health professional Dr. Luigi Piciucco provided a psychological assessment of Butler that was prepared in October 2020.
Gross’s motion in late June also included a state
ment from Dr. David Bohannon, a treatment psychiatrist at her former workplace.
The District Attorney's Office intends to have its own doctors look at, examine, and assess Butler.
Ultimately, mental health specialists for Butler's defense and for the prosecution will appear at a hearing next year and will try to convince Seibert that she either qualifies for mental health diversion, or she is mentally competent to stand trial.
The hearing on Thursday took less than five minutes. Seibert, Gross and Hovatter agreed on the Feb. 17 date, and Butler walked out of the courtroom alone.
Butler has been out of custody since posting bond for her $100,000 bail on Sept. 22, following Seibert's move to lower her bail from $1 million.
Court records showed that Seibert has denied at least four media coverage requests from a CBS News 48 Hours field producer since late June.
Cindy Cesare with CBS News 48 Hours has requested permission from Siebert for TV camera and recorder coverage and audio in June, July, October, and on Dec. 9.
Seibert's last denial of Cesare's requests is dated Monday this week.
In Gross's June motion, Piciucco concluded Butler had bipolar disorder with depressive episodes, anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and a paranoid/negativistic personality. He said she should receive intensive psychotherapy to process childhood and marital abuse and stated she never committed a violent act in the solicitation accusation
Bohannon, a doctor of osteopathic medicine at Adventist Health Sonora, said in a letter that Butler had been his patient since Jan. 13 for mental health treatment.
“She continues to be seen on a monthly basis and is also involved in individual therapy on a weekly basis,” he wrote. “Given her complex social and economic stressors, the patient is going through at this time, she has been handling herself exceptionally well.”
Gross's June motion included a statement attributed to Butler in which she discussed her work schedule and her marital problems with her husband.
“I snapped,” she said in her statement. “I was enraged and I said the words `I wish him dead.' ”
Gross said in his June motion that he believed the court should find, based on Piciucco's report, that Butler “meets all the requirements, her mental health diagnosis was a significant cause of the crime, and there is no danger of her committing a `super strike' if treated in the community.”
The “super strike” reference was Gross's response to the prosecution's use of the term, intended to describe the felony Butler has been charged with: a single count of solicitation of murder.
In an October preliminary hearing, the prosecution called two deputies with the Sheriff's Office as witnesses. Det. Jeffrey
Lee and Deputy Skylar Waid recounted how their investigation of Butler began with her coworker, a nurse named Deanna Gore, reporting her suspicions to the FBI.
The FBI forwarded the report to the Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office and took up the investigation with Gore, who later recorded a pretext phone call implicating Butler.
In November 2020, the California Board of Nursing through the State Attorney General's Office sought to have Butler's license as a registered nurse suspended while she is out on bail. The board's website shows the court officially granted the suspension on Feb. 19.