By Kathryn Wood
SACRAMENTO – Defendant Antonio Youmans was back in Sacramento County Superior Court Monday morning for a continuation of a bench trial to determine whether he is to be committed as a sexually violent predator.
Private defense attorney Robert Saria called Dr. Christopher Fisher to testify on the evaluation of Youmans. Dr. Fisher has a doctoral degree in clinical psychology, focused on forensic psychology and the evaluation and treatment of sex offenders.
Dr. Fisher stated that he conducted a mental status exam that includes a “brief analysis of a person’s attention, social skills, IQ, ability to communicate effectively, and mood.”
Youmans was charged with his offenses in 2000, after having sexual misconduct with 14 victims. Dr. Fisher said these victims were “all young children besides one female that was in his residential facility.”
The doctor said the defendant “should be diagnosed with pedophilic disorder as well as major depressive disorder,” but that Youman’s depression is “well managed” and is “not connected with pedophilic disorder.”
However, those are “two separate and distinct things,” he emphasized.
Dr. Fisher explained that pedophilic disorder is “a term describing someone who has recurrent and intense sexually arousing urges and fantasies directed at prepubescent children (and) becomes a pedophilic disorder when they have acted out and harmed or assaulted a child.”
Dr. Fisher recalls that patients have “wide ranging” behavior in the hospital with “patients that were found with child pornography… patients who would argue with us about what TV shows they could watch with child characters…patients were requesting media through the mail with child models… and patients who were trying to contact women in the neighborhood who had young children.”
However, he noted that Youmans has not engaged in any of this behavior.
Although one aspect that stuck out to Dr. Fisher is that the defendant has had “ongoing thoughts about children” and “has struggled to have relationships with adults,” adding, “These are the only sexual experiences he’s ever had” and he has been “very honest.”
Even though he “minimizes the severity of his past offenses,” Dr. Fisher contends the defendant does not meet criteria C, which is classified as “high risk and high needs.”
Dr. Fisher based this conclusion on Static-99R tests, age data studies, his release plan, and the support he would have in the community, and he disagreed with the other two experts that testified, stating that he “doesn’t believe (defendant) is likely to reoffend.”
Deputy District Attorney Denise Halstead stated that many of the victims were “related” to defendant Youmans or were a “non-biological relative through marriage.”
Dr. Fisher agreed with Halstead that there was a lack of accountability and supervision, since no one in the family knew the extent of his offending, noting that, instead, it all came “spilling out after he was arrested.”
In the past, Youmans has stated that “he’s more understood by children,” the doctor said.
When Halstead asked Dr. Fisher about whether Youmans has any “significant, healthy relationships with adults,” Dr. Fisher replied that he has two: one with his psychologist and one with a woman he met in the 90s in an online chat room. Additionally, he has gotten to know the staff and his peers in the state hospital.
However, Halstead noted that Youmans has known his psychologist since he was young, since she was his mother’s friend. Therefore, he did “not develop this relationship on his own.”
With the woman he met in an online chat room, Halstead stated that “she is a prior victim of sexual assault when she was a child,” describing this relationship as “toxic.”
Halstead additionally mentioned that, in the past, the woman has called sex offenders “monsters.”
However, Dr. Fisher stated that “she’s helped him learn things about himself” and there are some aspects of their relationship that are “healthy.”
Dr. Fisher also said Youmans was “not trying to be deceitful or manipulative” and has been very “transparent” about his past.
After arguing about the methods and tests Dr. Fisher used to come to his conclusion that Youmans is not “high risk and high needs,” Dr. Fisher stated that “a mental disorder has to be current” and that they needed to look at “Youman’s recent behavior within the past few years.”
The trial will reconvene.
Kathryn Wood is a third year at UC Davis, majoring in Political Science-Public Service and minoring in Professional Writing and Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning. She is from Petaluma, California.
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