Former Officer Who Shot It Out With SLO County Sheriff’s Deputies is Let Out of ASH
By Leslie Parrilla, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
May 30–A judge Tuesday ordered a former police officer to be released from a mental hospital, six months after he was found not guilty by reason of insanity of charges stemming from a shootout with sheriff’s deputies in Nipomo.
Retired San Jose police Officer Arthur Allen Mogilefsky, 61, was found not to be a danger to society after six months at Atascadero State Hospital, according to a physician’s report.
Superior Court Judge Ginger Garrett ordered the Nipomo resident to be monitored by an outpatient treatment system.
"They feel he is now safe to be returned to the community," Deputy District Attorney Karen Gray said. "If (people in the program) don’t do well in conditional release, they can be returned to the hospital."
Mogilefsky’s attorney, Robert Sanger of the Santa Barbara-based law firm Sanger and Swysen, said he was pleased with the judge’s decision.
"This is a guy who was a police officer and a lawyer and lived his whole life without getting in trouble until his medications were modified by this doctor," Sanger said. "Anybody with this condition, bipolar, has to be on medication."
While Mogilefsky is on the state Forensic Conditional Release Program, progress reports are due to be sent to the court every three months. The state Department of Mental Health program requires patients to follow a plan that includes involuntary outpatient mental health services such as group therapy, home visits and psychological assessments.
If Mogilefsky does well in the program, he can be released after a year or even sooner.
Mogilefsky was arrested after a Feb. 10, 2003, shootout with sheriff’s deputies at his home when they tried to serve him with a protective order.
In November, a jury originally found him guilty of assault with a deadly weapon against a peace officer, brandishing a firearm at a peace officer and negligent discharge of a firearm. But because Mogilefsky entered a plea of insanity, he was found not guilty of those crimes.
The same jury found him not guilty of three counts of attempted murder.
Trial testimony showed the medication Mogilefsky was taking for bipolar disorder was being reduced at the time of the incident.
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