Based on a psychologist’s report, a judge in Solano County Superior Court decided on Monday that the woman accused of killing Vacaville Police Officer Matthew Bowen while drunk in July was not mentally fit to stand trial.
According to Penal Code section 1368, Serena CJ Rodriguez’s illegal case has been put on hold. However, Judge Wendy Getty sent the case to MHM Services, a company that provides mental health services to hospitals, community agencies, and courts. It runs a safe building in Vallejo.
After that, the judge set a placement hearing for Rodriquez for November 24 at 8:30 a.m. in Department 8 of the Fairfield Justice Center.
The defendant was checked by psychologist Janice Nakagawa, who is based in Sacramento and wrote the so-called “1368 doctor’s report.”
The results of the study don’t make it clear what MHM Services will probably suggest for Rodriguez.
While some suspects may be able to help their defense if they are found to be mentally incompetent, most of the time they are locked up in a jail-based competency program or one of five facilities run by the Department of State Hospitals until they can function normally again.
The law says that a person who is accused of a crime can’t be tried. But once it is proven that the defendant is competent, they can face more legal processes, even a trial by a jury.
For now, Rodriguez’s case has been put on hold, and he is still being held without bail in the Solano County Jail in Fairfield.
It was at the hearing that Rodriguez, 24, was present that Chief Deputy Dan Messner defended her and Deputy Public Defender Yisha Fan helped her out as a lawyer. In the well-known case, Chief Deputy Paul D. Sequeira fought for the District Attorney’s Office.
Police officers from Vacaville and the family of Matthew Bowen were in the public gallery during the morning proceedings. Officer Rodriguez is charged with killing Bowen while making a traffic stop on the side of the road.
As was already said, Rodriguez sat at the defense table with her back to the public gallery during her July 22 trial hearing in Department 1. She was chained up, wearing a jail jumpsuit, and her hair had just been cut off.
Dozens of Vacaville police officers, other department workers, Sheriff deputies, Bowen’s family members, and District Attorney Krishna Abrams were there, and there was no more room to sit down.
Then Messner seemed to tell Judge Jeffrey C. Kauffman that his client rejected all the charges and additions.
Rodriguez, however, started to talk over him and asked for a private meeting between the lawyer and the client. The judge agreed, and Rodriguez and Messner left the courtroom for a smaller room next door. Kauffman went back to his room.
After almost 30 minutes, Kauffman called Messner and Sequeira into his office to talk about a “Marsden hearing.” This is when a defendant asks the judge to fire a court-appointed lawyer because they don’t think the lawyer is helping them well or has a conflict of interest with the defendant.
The judge made room for Rodriguez’s claim in court.
Around 2:30 p.m., everyone came back to the courtroom, but Kauffman turned down Rodriguez’s plea to have a different lawyer. Messner asked that the criminal case be put on hold until the “doctor’s report” is finished.
On July 22, Rodriguez had a hearing. That same day, Bowen had a funeral service at The Father’s House in Vacaville.
Rodriguez is charged with first-degree murder in a criminal complaint that was made on July 15. Rodriguez is 5 feet 1 inch tall and weighs 100 pounds.
Additionally, Rodriguez is charged with murder and faces three additional charges: killing a police officer while doing his job; using a deadly weapon, specifically her car; and using a deadly or dangerous weapon, specifically a motor vehicle.
At Leisure Town Road and Orange Drive in Vacaville, just before 11 a.m. on July 11, Bowen, 32, was hit by a car that had hit another car. A number of government sources said online that he had died at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Vacaville by 3:30 p.m.
In a statement later that same day, the California Highway Patrol said that Rodriguez was reportedly high when she was arrested after the accident. She ran away on foot, but a bystander caught her and took her to the Solano County Jail on suspicion of murder and driving while drunk, causing injury or death.
A statement from the Vacaville Police Department said that Bowen died. He had been with the department since June 2023 and is survived by a wife and two boys.
A family friend said that both of the kids are younger than 3 years old and that Bowen lives in Dixon.
He also left behind his parents and a brother. Previously, he worked as a police officer in Concord.
Published the first time on October 22, 2024, at 5:36 a.m.