REDWOOD CITY — For the fourth time in two years, a San Mateo County jury will be asked to determine whether a convicted rapist is ready to be released from a state mental hospital.

Meanwhile, local prosecutors are favoring provisions in a state Senate bill and a ballot initiative that would shift the burden from juries to doctors.

A civil recommitment trial started Tuesday for Ava Zinlu, who went by Michael Zasimovitch before he allegedly changed his name at the direction of the devil.

Zinlu, 53, has been living in Atascadero State Hospital’s sex offender wing since 1998, following the completion of prison terms for raping a malehitchhiker in Santa Barbara County in 1978, kidnapping his stepsister in San Mateo County in 1982 and then raping a fellow inmate at the Redwood City jail that same year.

Under the state’s Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) program, sex offenders who suffer from mental disorders and have served time for crimes involving more than one victim — like Zinlu — can be labeled an SVP and committed to a state hospital.

They are eligible to be released every two years pending a civil recommitment trial, where prosecutors in their convicting county face off against defense attorneys before the jury. Two out of Zinlu’s past three trials have ended in hung juries, which has caused his hearings to become more frequent.

There are two proposals that would change that system by which SVPs are recommitted: the Jessica’s Law initiative on the November ballot, and Senate Bill 1128.

In addition to stricter penalties for sex crimes offenders, each proposal has provisions calling for indeterminate commitments for SVPs. Instead of an automatic hearing every two years, the patients would be released upon the recommendation of their doctors. They would still have the option to petition the court for their release.

Such a provision to the SVP program would make sense, said Assistant District Attorney Karen Guidotti, head of the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office sex crime unit.

Guidotti’s unit is responsible for 10 SVPs at Atascadero, and litigates around four recommitment hearings a year. Though she hasn’t done a cost analysis for those hearings, Guidotti said, they are burdensome for everyone involved.

“It’s a voluminous amount of paperwork, and it’s a time-consuming process to retry their cases every two years — when, in fact, very little changes every two years,” Guidotti said. “At least the new proposed law would give the SVP the ability to come back every year, not in front of a jury, but in front of a judge, to see to it they still meet the SVP qualifications. And it would bring us into conformity with other states.”

Guidotti said SB 1128 also creates an incentive for SVPs to complete the treatment program at the state hospital. Under the current law, attorneys can’t submit into evidence that a patient refuses treatment, though it often comes out in doctors’ testimony.

At Zinlu’s trial, which resumes today, the District Attorney’s Office will petition for his recommitment, just as it has three times since 2004. Zinlu’s defense attorney will argue that he is ready for release, as there has been no documented crime attributed to him for two decades.

“That case is a prime example of enormous time and taxpayer money being spent,” Guidotti said. “But we can’t afford not to. He’s too dangerous to not spend that time and money.”

Contact staff writer Malaika Fraley at (650) 306-2425 or by e-mail at mfraley@sanmateocountytimes.com.