Serial harasser Bill Gene Hobbs was released in March from Atascadero State Hospital, where Hobbs was serving parole at the hospital after being sentenced to 5½ years in jail and prison for grabbing, groping, forcibly kissing and chasing more than a dozen known victims.

How did San Francisco’s most notorious serial harasser, Bill Gene Hobbs, wind up back on city streets, free to slide — seemingly unsupervised — into his old ways after brief stints in jail, prison and a state mental hospital?

The answer starts with 13 words:

“Hopefully, he is telling us the truth, and he will take his medication.” 

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

San Luis Obispo County Superior Court Judge Barry LaBarbera spoke those words in March when he ordered that Hobbs be released from Atascadero State Hospital, where Hobbs was serving parole after being sentenced to 5½ years in jail and prison for grabbing, groping, forcibly kissing and chasing more than a dozen known victims. 

Three psychologists testified about Hobbs’ condition. They all agreed that Hobbs had a serious mental health disorder that was not in remission. Two further testified that Hobbs represented “a substantial danger of physical harm to others.”

Yet despite noting that Hobbs showed “little insight” into his disorder and that there “is certainly an argument that he represents a substantial danger” to the public, LaBarbera was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Hobbs met the criteria required by state law to remain in the state hospital, so he had to be released. 

Unsurprisingly, this didn’t end well.   

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

In late October, Chronicle reporters witnessed Hobbs, in an erratic and agitated state, harassing women in San Francisco’s Duboce Triangle neighborhood. He was arrested soon after for alleged parole violations.

City residents were left dumbstruck and frustrated. How was a known serial groper with “EVIL” tattooed across his fingers so quickly back on the streets, seemingly no better than when he left? 

Officials offered little explanation beyond stating that Hobbs had served his full prison sentence and had been paroled to the community after a brief stint in Atascadero.

To understand what went wrong, the editorial board obtained court documents, reported here for the first time, that not only reveal the nature of Hobbs’ condition, but also expose stunning gaps in state law that governs the treatment of violent offenders with severe mental illness.  

“Hopefully … he will take his medication” aren’t just the words of an overly credulous judge; they effectively represent state policy.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

California law doesn’t just permit offenders with violent histories to be released from mental hospitals despite still being severely ill and potentially dangerous. In some cases, it requires this to happen. And the state has few protocols to ensure these individuals, once released, safely reenter society — leaving local communities to suffer the consequences. 

If this sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve been here before. In 2023, exactly one week after his release from Atascadero after a court found he was no longer eligible for involuntary confinement, a man named Fook Poy Lai was accused of stabbing a Chinatown worker in the neck. Lai is currently in a state hospital after being found mentally incompetent to stand trial. 

Our coverage of Lai’s case prompted a change to California law that gave the state and counties more time to coordinate comprehensive plans for individuals released from state mental hospitals.

But Hobbs’ case shows that more robust changes are needed to the legal framework that governs violent offenders with serious mental illness. And it suggests that the state needs to take a more central role in caring for the hardest-to-treat and most dangerous individuals. 

Bill Gene Hobbs was seen in San Francisco in October after his release from Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Obispo County.

*** 

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

As the end of Hobbs’ prison sentence neared, state doctors determined that he met the criteria required by state law to be considered an “Offender with a Mental Health Disorder” and could be forced to serve his parole in a state hospital instead of being released to the community. He was sent to Atascadero on Nov. 3, 2024.

Although California lawmakers disincentivized indefinite involuntary confinement and created stronger protections for civil liberties after the cruel warehousing of mentally ill people during the era of mass institutionalization, there are still multiple ways a person can wind up being involuntarily treated by the state.

Many offenders enter a state hospital from the criminal justice system after being found mentally incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity. But in this editorial, we’ll exclusively focus on the statutes and practices that govern Offenders with a Mental Health Disorder who are paroled to a state hospital from prison.

There are six criteria to be considered an Offender with a Mental Health Disorder, and they manage to be dense and vague at the same time:

1) The prisoner has a severe mental health disorder that, among other things, “substantially impairs” their thoughts, perception of reality or judgment, 2) has been sentenced to a potentially qualifying crime, 3) their mental illness was a cause of or aggravating factor in that crime, 4) their disorder is not in remission or can’t be kept in remission without treatment, 5) the prisoner has been treated for that disorder for at least 90 days within the year before parole, and 6) because of the disorder, the prisoner represents a substantial danger of physical harm to others.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

In its most recent budget projections, the California Department of State Hospitals estimates that 1,033 people who meet these criteria will be in its hospitals by June 30, 2026 — out of a total state hospital population of 5,772. 

Offenders have the right to appeal this classification, and if the state prison department’s Board of Parole Hearings upholds it, they can take their appeal to a court. 

If the court finds someone doesn’t meet even one of the six criteria, the law says they must be released within 30 days.  

On Feb. 6, Hobbs filed an appeal in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court. He also waived his right to a jury trial — meaning that a judge would decide whether he needed to stay in the state hospital or could be released. 

The 67-page transcript of Hobbs’ March 18 trial features testimony from three psychologists —........

© San Francisco Chronicle