![\"Jo,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUT-L-DUDAS-6a.jpg\")
Jo, 84, spent much of 2025 with her doors and windows closed due to her son’s repeated visits, in violation of two restraining orders due to his schizophrenia diagnosis.<\/p>\nJo loves to feel the breeze blowing through her mid-city home, but for the past eight months, she said, \u201cI\u2019m afraid to open up the windows.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI make sure that every window is locked, I make sure at night I don\u2019t turn on hardly any lights. I don\u2019t want him to see that I\u2019m in here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Jo, 84, spent much of 2025 with her doors and windows closed due to her son’s repeated visits, in violation of two restraining orders due to his schizophrenia diagnosis.<\/p>\n
The 84-year-old San Diego resident is hiding from her son, Ed, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and has spent much of the last 30\u00a0years in jail, prison or a state mental hospital. Last month, he was sentenced to 140 days in jail after a jury convicted him of 10 counts of violating a restraining order that forbids him from visiting her home. Ring video cameras captured Ed returning 21 times since he was released from prison on March 20.<\/p>\n
But June Dudas, Ed\u2019s cousin, says she holds out little hope that jail time will keep him from reappearing on his mother\u2019s doorstep after his release in the spring. He has refused, she says, to participate in CARE Court, the state\u2019s voluntary program that offers wrap-around services, including housing, to those with severe mental illness. A plea for conservancy, the process where a legal guardian takes over decision-making for a person who is determined to be unable to make their own decisions, has so far gone nowhere during Ed\u2019s three jail stays this year.<\/p>\n
While Superior Court Judge Matthew Brower said during Ed\u2019s sentencing hearing that there \u201cmay be a conservancy effort undertaking or taking place at this time,\u201d Dudas noted that the legal order handed down specifies only that he be offered participation in voluntary programs after he serves his jail sentence.<\/p>\n
She struggled to contain her frustration walking out of San Diego\u2019s central courthouse after Ed\u2019s most recent hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no justice here,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s no justice for him and his illness, and there\u2019s no justice for my family, for his mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will be back on the streets. To say that the only thing that we can do is incarcerate this person, even though everybody in that courtroom understood exactly what the situation was, is just unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a pattern that experts say goes far beyond one family, one that shows how recent legislation intended to reach people like Ed has fallen short.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUT-L-DUDAS-2.jpg\")
A statement made by Jo, 84, requesting the renewal of a domestic violence restraining order, made to a judge on Nov. 19, 2025. (Ana Ramirez \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Crystal Robbins, a program manager with San Diego Fire-Rescue who works with high users of emergency services, said the system sometimes struggles to handle cases like Ed\u2019s where there is a relentless impact on family members, but for infractions that the penal code categorizes as minor. Had he, for example, punched a person in the face, as a jury decided he did to a stranger in 2020, a mental health competency examination would be more routine. That path can lead to a \u201cMurphy\u201d conservatorship, which the state\u2019s Welfare and Institutions Code reserves for those charged with felonies \u201cinvolving death, great bodily harm, or a serious threat to the physical well-being of another person.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he had had a felony, he could have potentially gotten connected to involuntary treatment for his mental health issues and things like that,\u201d Robbins said. \u201cIt\u2019s more difficult sometimes to connect patients who are too acute for voluntary programs to the care that they need outside of the criminal justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a dozen years before she was hired by the city, and now in her current job, she said families have reached out for help when misdemeanor-level misbehavior generates a sort of endless loop, forcing distraught loved ones to watch a family member cycle between the courts and the streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not everyone, but it is a theme that I\u2019ve noticed,\u201d Robbins said, adding that she was aware of two similar situations in local courts just last week.<\/p>\n
It is difficult to discern just how common Ed\u2019s situation is. Official statistics appear elusive. But San Diego County\u2019s experience with CARE Court, which started locally in October 2023, has had a high rate of petition rejections.<\/p>\n
According to the county\u2019s behavioral health department, 261 of 445 petitions have been rejected\u00a0over the past two years. According to county records, 71 of those 261 ended as a result of the subject of a CARE Court petition refusing to participate.<\/p>\n
With 24 graduates to date, and 105 people currently participating in CARE Court-directed treatment, San Diego is a frontrunner in implementing the program, but dreams of it reaching the 7,000 to 12,000 people estimated to qualify for treatment statewide have so far gone unrealized.<\/p>\n
![\"Jo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUT-L-DUDAS-9.jpg\")
Jo is in the habit of keeping the blinds of her San Diego home closed at all times after cameras captured her son, Ed, repeatedly violating restraining orders in 2025. (Ana Ramirez \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Dudas said she petitioned for Ed to participate in CARE Court twice this year, with his public defender offering it a third time during his most recent trial. She said he declined all three times. The state has also expanded its definition of grave disability, a condition that can lead to involuntary treatment if a person cannot meet their basic needs, such as food, shelter and personal safety. Dudas said that appealing on these grounds has also gone nowhere.<\/p>\n
This year, she has continually received calls from her aunt, often huddled in her bathroom, while Ed prowls outside.<\/p>\n
Jo agreed to discuss the situation provided that her and Ed\u2019s full names remain unpublished. She\u2019s homebound and in poor health and doesn\u2019t want to jeopardize a fragile housing situation. And she still hopes that her son, who she says is transformed into a gentleman when he takes his medications, will someday find a way to sustain his cognitive equilibrium.<\/p>\n
Until then, Ed\u2019s history of violence leaves her feeling unsafe in her own home.<\/p>\n
In 2011, she recalled, after he had been released from Patton State Hospital, seeming like a new man with the aid of long-acting psychiatric medication, she allowed him to resume living in her home. When the medication wore off, she said, he began self-medicating with hard drugs. She let him know that there could be no such activity in her home, and that\u2019s when the trouble started.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround three o\u2019clock in the morning, he came out, and he put his fist underneath my chin and told me to get out,\u201d she said, adding that it looked like he had a knife in his hand.<\/p>\n
That was the first time that circumstances forced her to seek a restraining order against her own son. Years later, she said, on one of his returns to her home, he explained why he kicked her out.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted to know why I wouldn\u2019t let him in the house, and I told him, \u2018because, you know, you put me out at three in the morning with nothing but my purse,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cAnd he said, \u2018the voices were telling me to kill you, and I didn\u2019t want to hurt you, so I was trying to protect you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She does not wish to see her son suffer any loss of freedom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate to go through this with him because it\u2019s no fun when your brain isn\u2019t working, but I don\u2019t know what else to do,\u201d Jo said.<\/p>\n
During his recent sentencing hearing, which came a week after a jury convicted him on 10 misdemeanor counts of restraining order violations, Judge Brower did heed the request of a deputy city attorney, ordering that Ed be offered participation in the county\u2019s In Home Outreach Team and Assisted Outpatient Treatment programs. But the judge noted that both programs are voluntary. The San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office said in an email that it cannot comment on any specific patient\u2019s case but confirmed that NaphCare, its in-house medical provider, does \u201cinitiate conservatorship referrals regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was clear in court last month that Ed does not believe he is ill. Speaking on his own behalf before sentencing, he insisted that he had faced a \u201cfederal Supreme Court lawsuit about wrongful entrapment,\u201d that he only revisited her home constantly to check his mail, wouldn\u2019t be homeless if he could just access his bank account, had recently been reinstated in the Air Force, that Jo is not his mother and that his name is not the one that has appeared on court documents.<\/p>\n
The judge did issue a new restraining order, stating that Ed \u201cdoes present a danger\u201d to Jo\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n
![\"June](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUT-L-DUDAS3.jpg\")
June Dudas testifies in San Diego County Superior Court, Nov. 10, 2025 in San Diego, Calif. (Denis Poroy \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Civil and disability rights advocacy groups have argued forcefully against increasing rates of conservatorship, asserting that taking away a person\u2019s rights is often unnecessary and unjust. Disability Rights California, a nonprofit that has been among the strongest critics, declined to comment on Ed\u2019s situation directly, but did emphasize that voluntary treatment is its gold standard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe support approaches that emphasize voluntary treatment and community-based supports, as these are proven to be more effective and respectful of personal autonomy,\u201d the organization said in an email. \u201cWhile we cannot comment on the specifics of this individual\u2019s case, we believe that systemic solutions, such as improved access to comprehensive services, housing and early intervention, are critical to reducing situations like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
But for Dudas, and many with family members who do not realize or accept that they are suffering from mental illnesses, that concern for rights can seem one-sided.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to appreciate the days that I don\u2019t have to pay attention to the Ring cameras,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I know, at the end of that, that\u2019s exactly where we\u2019re going to be again, and then I\u2019m going to have to start the process all over again and talk to all of these people all over again and try to get them engaged all over again. I mean, it just sounds like hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the court record makes it starkly clear that many have tried and failed to help Ed through involuntary means.<\/p>\n
An appellate court decision filed in 2024 by his attorney to challenge a technical detail of a six-year prison sentence for striking a stranger in the face and breaking her nose in 2020 lays out his history of run-ins with the law. The document says that he had been committed to Patton State Hospital in 2013 and 2017 and again in 2021 to have his competency to stand trial restored.<\/p>\n
Appellate judges referenced his long history of struggle with mental illness in their ruling, agreeing with a trial court\u2019s decision that Ed \u201cpresents a serious danger to others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judges wrote that his \u201ccriminal history spans three decades. Many of his convictions involve violence or serious risk of violence, including driving under the influence, burglary, exhibiting a firearm to resist arrest, disturbing the peace, elder abuse, and aggravated assault. When placed on probation in 2014, he failed to remain law-abiding and was ultimately sentenced to prison.\u201d<\/p>\n
In refusing the requests of his attorney on appeal, judges noted that Ed was \u201con probation when he committed the underlying violent crime. He was also armed with a knife; he committed to the underlying offense without provocation, and he has expressed no remorse. Most recently, his medication compliance in jail was characterized by \u2018multiple medication refusals.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
This progression, said Karen Larsen, chief executive officer of the Steinberg Institute, a nonprofit that conducts mental health policy research and advocacy, seems to argue for conservancy. Current law, she said, allows psychiatrists working in jails to refer an inmate for consideration of conservatorship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis individual is the perfect candidate for conservatorship,\u201d Larsen said. \u201cIf CARE Court\u2019s not an option, you\u2019re supposed to go to the next step, which is conservatorship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Generally,\u00a0involuntary treatment still occurs through a state law triggered by a 911 call that causes a bystander to believe that a person is a danger to themselves or others or gravely disabled.<\/p>\n
Urmi Patel, deputy director of the county\u2019s Behavioral Health Service\u2019s Healthcare Oversight Unit, declined to comment on Ed\u2019s situation, noting that health care privacy law prevents providers of mental health care from discussing specific patients.<\/p>\n
Speaking generally, she said that the county strives to make sure that services are provided in the least restrictive manner possible.<\/p>\n
The litmus test for conservancy, she said, is grave disability.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether or not somebody has a criminal history in jail or has charges or is on probation, all of that may be a part of their, let\u2019s say, their packet that\u2019s put together, but they still have to meet that criteria of grave disability in order for us to even be able to do the (temporary conservatorship),\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUT-L-DUDAS-11.jpg\")
A security camera on a porch on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Ana Ramirez \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
But Dudas says she has had trouble, across three misdemeanor arrests this year, getting anyone to order the evaluation that could lead to conservatorship, even though her cousin, she said, has been living on the streets in between his arrests, suggesting that, at the very least, he is unable to provide for consistent shelter.<\/p>\n
Dudas said that she requested such an evaluation under section 5200 of the state Welfare and Institutions Code in September, but was told such an evaluation was outside the court\u2019s purview. Section 5200 has been on the books for many decades, predating the state\u2019s current involuntary treatment law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, which the Legislature enacted in 1967.<\/p>\n
Dr. Aaron Meyer, a psychiatrist with UC San Diego Health who has been active in the public discourse on voluntary versus involuntary treatment, said that this law can provide a pathway for family members, though it does not appear to get far in San Diego County.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor families who have repeatedly been asking for a 5150 hold and seeing their loved ones deteriorate or end up in jail, section 5200 offers an alternative avenue to mental health treatment for people who are unable or unwilling to access care and are at risk of deterioration or represent a danger to themselves or others,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n
The psychiatrist, who did not comment directly on Ed\u2019s case, said that as far as he is aware, public requests for a mental health evaluation of an individual under section 5200 end up in the normal flow of emergency calls.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cMy understanding is that when you contact the conservator\u2019s office, they would direct you to call 911 for consideration of a 5150,\u201d Meyer said, referring to the section of state law that allows detention of individuals thought to possibly be a danger to themselves or others or gravely disabled.<\/p>\n
That route, Meyer said, can be difficult in complicated cases, especially when families are trying to communicate a pattern of behavior.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamilies can have a great understanding of an individual\u2019s time course that can\u2019t really be reflected in three lines on a 5150 form,\u201d Meyer said, adding that San Bernardino County appeared to allow direct 5200 complaints.<\/p>\n
A county spokesperson did not confirm Meyer\u2019s assertion that public requests for evaluation under section 5200 are referred to emergency dispatch. Informal conversation with behavioral health directors in other counties, the county said, have not turned up other locations where this section of the law is handled differently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Patel said that the county relies on psychiatric emergency and mobile crisis response teams to handle public concerns about emergent symptoms of mental illness. These resources, Patel said, are designed to deliver a comprehensive response.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe PERT team and MCRT allow us as a county to have the infrastructure and the procedures in place that if somebody was assessed and the hold was appropriate, that we didn\u2019t have to scramble to figure out how to get that person to an actual facility,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n
But there are efforts underway to make the connections between the courts and behavioral health departments more robust. Senate Bill 27, a new piece of legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October, expands the list of mental illnesses that qualify for CARE Court to include bipolar disorder with psychotic features. And the law also requires \u201cjail medical providers to share confidential medical records and other relevant information with the court for the purpose of determining (the) likelihood of eligibility for behavioral health services and programs.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUT-L-DUDAS-5.jpg\")
A shelving unit blocks a window to increase security during frequent visits from Jo’s son. (Ana Ramirez \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n