The State - News from June 5, 1986

A state Court of Appeal in San Jose temporarily blocked the sterilization of a severely mentally retarded woman, an operation that would have been the first of its type since 1969 in California. Deputy California Public Defender Ezra Hendon sought the stay, arguing that the judge who issued an order allowing the operation failed to follow legal procedures by failing to determine that Valerie Nieto, 30, could become pregnant, or that less drastic birth control measures would work. The tubal ligation had been scheduled for Friday. Nieto’s mother and legal conservator wants to have her sterilized because Nieto would be unable to care for a child. The appellate court order gives the mother’s lawyer two weeks to file arguments for the sterilization.