Competency Trial for ayres: Monday, 6/6/2011, 9AM

Reminder: Trial 6/6/2011 at 9am

william hamilton ayres will stand trial on Monday, June 6th at 9am at the Southern Branch of Superior Court  at 400 County Center, Redwood City California. (Case #SC064366)

This is a competency trial, not the criminal re-trial. ayres’ attorney Jonathan McDougall is trying to convince the court that ayres should not be put on re-trial on charges relating to his molestation of many young boys, repeatedly, and over the course of many years, under the guise of providing psychiatric care. McDougall is claiming that his client is not competent to assist in his own defense in such a trial.

ayres was slated for re-trial on April 12th, 2010, but McDougall managed to get the trial vacated on dubious claims that his client might not be competent to defend himself. Doctor’s reports were ordered,  and after delays due in part to the difficulty in finding an impartial pair of doctors to evaluate ayres, both reports came back stating that ayres is in fact COMPETENT to defend himself.

The defense weasel then asked for a jury trial to attain even further delays.

The competency trial was scheduled for January 10, 2011, but on the morning of the trial, one of the two doctors mysteriously changed their report to state that ayres was not competent. The trial date was then vacated, and a third doctor was asked to provide an evaluation. After more delays, the third report came back stating that ayres is in fact COMPETENT to defend himself.

The judge then reset the jury trial to June 6th, 2011.


Thoughts on Monday’s Trial:

If all goes well, and McDougall doesn’t pull any further delay stunts on Monday, it’s likely that the first couple of days will be logistics and jury selection. At the time that this new date was scheduled, McDougall was already whining about the availability of some of his witnesses, so even if the trial DOES actually get underway this time, some of his “witnesses” will not be available until June 13th. Previously, the estimates were for a two week trial, and if that still holds, I suppose we can probably anticipate the trial running for most of the rest of June.

McDougall has a habit of waiting until trial day to “report” whatever nonsense is the current delay-du-jour, so it’s likely that he’s spent the last 5 months or so waiting for the start of trial to pull the trigger on his next delay. Usually there’s nothing the court appears to be able to do about it, so I’m not putting great odds on the actual start of the trial on Monday.

william hamilton ayres, was one-time president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and  recipient of San Mateo County’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” nominated for “ his tireless effort to improve the lives of children and adolescents” by then Supervisor (now Assemblyman) Rich Gordon. ayres was also the low-bid provider for evaluation of juveniles in the juvenile court system for quite some time.  ayres has had significant backing and support of the San Mateo County political and legal machine over the years, in spite of several complaints made to therapists and police. Some of those who supported him in the past have either dug heels in, or have expressed deep sadness and regret. Either way, there is enough embarrassment about what the soulless ayres has dragged them through, that it appears that everyone is reluctant to deal with the mess, and it seems that everyone is hoping the whole thing just fades away so that no one has to face the obvious systemic culpability.