By Jorge Casuso

July 7, 2026 -- A mental health policy at the center of a high profile racial attack in Santa Monica has been amended under a bill signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week.

Assembly Bill 46 gives judges more discretion by allowing them to fully consider public safety implications when evaluating requests to give defendants a diversion to undergo mental health treatment instead of standing trial.

The bill sponsored by Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen (D–Elk Grove) requires the court to find the defendant "will not pose a substantial and undue risk to the physical safety of another person if treated in the community."

The law, Newsom wrote in a statement issued after signing the bill on June 29, "preserve(s) mental health diversion for people who can benefit from it while ensuring judges have the discretion they need to protect victims, safeguard communities, and make decisions based on the full picture before them."

The bill was signed nine months after a California Appeals Court panel ruled on September 30 that a homeless man charged in three racially motivated attacks in Santa Monica last year must stand trial.

The unanimous ruling was issued after the LA County District Attorney's office appealed a Superior Court decision that allowed Job Uriah Taylor, 27, to enter a rehabilitation program instead of facing prosecution for assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder.

The charges included hate crime allegations against Taylor, who on March 3, 2024 attacked three black victims with a metal pipe, including 64-year-old Christian Hornburg, who suffered a traumatic brain injury.

The attacks came shortly after Taylor was released from a psychiatric facility and failed to take his medications, according to the Appellate Court ruling.

The Appeals Court ruling vacated a March 12 order issued by Superior Court Judge Lana Kim allowing Taylor to enter into a two year diversion program that provides permanent supportive housing for mentally ill homeless incarcerated in LA County Jail.

Kim, who has a record of allowing violent offenders to enter rehabilitation programs instead of facing prosecution, issued the ruling under California's mental health diversion process that took effect in June 2018.

Under the policy, the court must be satisfied that, if treated, the defendant "will not pose an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety."

AB 46 revises the standard to "require the court to find that the defendant will not pose a substantial and undue risk to the physical safety of another person if treated in the community."

The bill also requires that the opinion of mental health experts "include that the proposed mental health diversion plan is clinically appropriate to address the symptoms of the defendants mental disorder, as specified."

In the Santa Monica case, the three-justice Appeals Court found that Kim "made no express finding that Taylor would not pose an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety if granted diversion.

"On the contrary, substantial evidence either indicated or intimated that Taylor would likely abandon any mental health regimen if allowed to do so, with potentially catastrophic consequences."

According to Newsom's office, AB 46 "clarifies the law following court decisions that limited how judges could evaluate public safety concerns in diversion cases."

The new bill "removes a narrow legal standard that restricted courts’ ability to deny diversion and establishes broader judicial discretion to determine whether diversion is appropriate based on public safety."