State given 60 days to answer for not moving Hoopa man
A Hoopa man has yet to be transported to a state hospital three months after being found not guilty by reason of insanity, but he is moving up on the waitlist, a state official said Wednesday.
“The department’s really happy to report that Mr. Aubrey is actually No. 9, according to Napa State Hospital, as of this morning,” said Debra Gass, who appeared on behalf of the California Department of State Hospitals during an “order to show cause” hearing at the Humboldt County courthouse presided over by Judge John Feeney.
Antone Aubrey, 33, who in late July was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the February 2018 fatal shooting of his sister 33-year- old Angel Aubrey in
Hoopa, was No. 13 on the hospital’s waitlist Oct. 8 when Gass said she initially responded to defense attorney Russell Clanton’s order to show cause for failing to transport Aubrey after receiving a commitment order Aug. 27. Despite the department’s regulations and the COVID-19 pandemic slowing down the process, Gass said she was “very hopeful that he will get a placement soon.”
“Mr. Aubrey is considered classified as a 1026 not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity patient,” Gass said. “The department have regulations in Title 9 for priority admission for Penal Code Section 1370 incompetent-to-stand-trial defendants, and our current waitlist for that population is 1,276, so Mr. Aubrey— it looks good right now.”
Feeney gave the state Department of State Hospitals an additional 60 days to find a space for Aubrey in a state hospital.
“I’m pleased to hear thatMr. Aubrey hasmoved up to No. 9 on thewaitlist,” Feeney said. “That’s progress, that’s for sure.”
Clanton said he might be more understanding of the constraints the department is dealingwith if he had not dealt with the transportation process dozens of times before.
“This is historically true,” Clanton said. “Predates COVIDby years, this slowreaction to the court’s order of transport.”
Housing an individual like Aubrey, who has schizophrenia, in a jail “seems inhumane,” Clanton said.
“There is a notorious history of foot- dragging in getting individuals like Mr. Aubrey transported to the state hospital system,” Clanton said. “It typically takes the kind of process that I’ve been involved in on behalf of Mr. Aubrey to even get the attention of the state hospital system. And that it is only at a point in time where the court directs an order to show cause and interest in finding them in contempt for violating what is a court order now directed at them twice, do they magically come up with a bed and transport the patient.”
Aubrey’s next hearing is set for 10:15 a.m. Dec. 21.