{"id":566,"date":"2020-07-21T20:00:42","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T00:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=566"},"modified":"2026-01-08T07:50:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:50:02","slug":"florida-court-discusses-involuntary-commitment-of-sexual-violent-predators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-involuntary-commitment-of-sexual-violent-predators\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Court Discusses Involuntary Commitment of Sexual Violent Predators"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In some instances in which a criminal defendant suffering from a mental health condition is convicted of a sex crime, rather than sentencing the defendant to incarceration, the court will involuntarily commit the defendant. A defendant that is involuntarily committed is entitled to a yearly mental health evaluation, though, and if the court finds that a defendant should be released, the involuntary commitment will end. The grounds for ending an involuntary commitment were recently discussed in a Florida <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/florida\/fifth-district-court-of-appeal\/2020\/5d19-3407.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">case<\/a> in which an appellate court overturned the lower court ruling. If you suffer from a mental health condition and are charged with a sex crime, it is wise to consult a dedicated Tampa sex crime defense attorney to discuss whether you may be able to avoid a conviction.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Facts and Procedural History of the Case<\/h2>\n<p>It is reported that the defendant was charged with numerous counts of sexual battery and rape. Following a jury trial, the defendant was convicted and deemed a sexually violent predator. It was determined that the defendant was suffering from a mental health condition as well. Thus, he was involuntarily committed under the Florida Civil Commitment of Sexually Violent Predators Act (the Act). The defendant appealed his involuntary commitment, which was affirmed by the appellate court. Pursuant to the Act, the defendant underwent an annual review of his mental health in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Allegedly, at a limited probable cause hearing, the defendant\u2019s expert testified that it was safe to release the defendant and that he was not likely to commit acts of sexual violence. At a subsequent non-jury trial, the State\u2019s witness testified that she examined the defendant on numerous occasions and that his mental condition had changed, and he no longer posed a risk of sexual violence. The court nonetheless continued the defendant\u2019s commitment, finding that his condition had not changed. Thus, the defendant appealed.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-involuntary-commitment-of-sexual-violent-predators\/#more-566\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In some instances in which a criminal defendant suffering from a mental health condition is convicted of a sex crime, rather than sentencing the defendant to incarceration, the court will involuntarily commit the defendant. A defendant that is involuntarily committed is entitled to a yearly mental health evaluation, though, and if the court finds that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sex-crimes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Involuntary Commitment of Violent Predators<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find out how Florida handles involuntary commitment for sexually violent predators and what rights and rules apply in these hard cases.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-involuntary-commitment-of-sexual-violent-predators\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Involuntary Commitment of Violent Predators\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Find out how Florida handles involuntary commitment for sexually violent predators and what rights and rules apply in these hard cases.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/gavel-sexually-violent-predator-commitment.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Involuntary Commitment of Violent 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minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-involuntary-commitment-of-sexual-violent-predators\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-involuntary-commitment-of-sexual-violent-predators\/","name":"Involuntary Commitment of Violent 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