Rosenfeld Secures Mental Health Client's Release from Lockdown Facility; After a Year's Battle in Appellate Court, Appeal Finally Won for Man Who Shot Big Sur Firefighter
Following a year of litigation in the court of appeals and the repeated intercessions of California mental health attorney Ken Rosenfeld of The Rosenfeld Law Firm, the Monterey County Superior Court agreed to the order allowing Jacob Thomas Kirkendall to be moved from the locked mental health facility to which he'd originally been sentenced into an open environment.
SALINAS, Calif., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A California man sentenced to time in a locked custodial facility and twice denied modification to that sentence despite the terms of his plea agreement has finally had his motion for sentence modification granted. Following California's Sixth District Court of Appeal's command in February to vacate its previous order denying Jacob Kirkendall's motion to be released into a step-down mental health facility and reconsider the motion, the Superior Court of Monterey County on August 10th agreed to the order allowing Kirkendall's sentence modification.
According to appellate court documents (case #H048206), the Monterey County Superior Court twice rejected Kirkendall's motion for sentence modification; twice, following the intervention of Kirkendall's lawyer, California mental health attorney Ken Rosenfeld, the appellate court issued writs of mandate requiring the trial court to revisit Kirkendall's request.
"I'm extremely pleased that the plea agreement terms have finally been met," said Rosenfeld. "My client was facing life in prison; now he is essentially going to an outpatient non-locked facility."
Kirkendall was originally charged with attempted murder of a peace officer and assault with a deadly weapon, potentially leading to a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole. In February 2019, a plea agreement negotiated by Rosenfeld instead sent Kirkendall to the Alpine Special Treatment Center, a secure mental health facility in San Diego. The terms of Kirkendall's plea agreement specified that after "at least" a year in Alpine Kirkendall could, upon the recommendation of Alpine medical experts, be moved to a step-down facility. After a year and two months in Alpine, Kirkendall made his first request to be moved, a motion supported by a statement from the Alpine clinical director that Kirkendall had met several treatment goals and was recommended for continued treatment "on an outpatient basis." In May of 2020 the superior court denied the motion, asserting that insufficient time had been served.
The court of appeals concurred with Rosenfeld and issued an alternative writ of mandate requiring the superior court to revisit the motion. When, after an October 2020 hearing, the Monterey County Superior Court refused Kirkendall's request a second time, the sixth appellate court, determining the decision again to be based on insufficient time served, remanded the case, issuing a peremptory writ of mandate and demanding the court revisit the request with a focus on the advice of Alpine's medical experts and keeping in mind Kirkendall's Eighth Amendment rights regarding his lung condition. The August 10th agreement with the appellate court's order to release Kirkendall into a step-down facility overturns the previous ruling of Judge Pamela L. Butler.
About The Rosenfeld Law Firm
With offices in Sacramento and San Jose, The Rosenfeld Law Firm provides aggressive defense of a wide range of high-profile criminal defense cases. California criminal defense attorney Ken Rosenfeld defends such cases as first-degree murder and sex offense cases, and also provides DUI defense. In addition to mental health criminal defense, The Rosenfeld Law Firm also practices federal criminal defense and juvenile defense, as well as appellate law and prison law. As a skilled criminal law commentator, Rosenfeld makes regular appearances on KTXL TV and FOX40's Ask An Attorney. Rosenfeld was named 2020 Litigator of the Year by the American Institute of Trial Lawyers. For more information, please contact Ken Rosenfeld directly at (916) 447-2070, or visit http://www.therosenfeldlawfirm.com.
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Media Contact
Kenneth Rosenfeld, The Rosenfeld Law Firm, (916) 447-2070, [email protected]
Bernard Hinlo, The Rosenfeld Law Firm, (916) 447-2070, [email protected]
SOURCE The Rosenfeld Law Firm
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