Division of Psychiatry and the Law Faculty

Charles Scott, M.D.
Chief, Division of Psychiatry and the Law
Training Director, Forensic Psychiatry Residency Program

Dr. Scott is board-certified in general psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, and addiction psychiatry. He completed his forensic psychiatry fellowship training at Case Western Reserve with Dr. Phillip Resnick. Dr. Scott is a past president of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL) and past president of the Association of Directors of Forensic Psychiatry Fellowships. He serves as a National Board Review course instructor for the AAPL Annual Forensic Psychiatry Board Review Course. Dr. Scott has published articles and book chapters on adult and juvenile dangerousness, mental health law, correctional psychiatry, psychiatric malpractice, and the assessment of malingering. He is co-editor of Principles and Practice of Forensic Psychiatry. He has also served as editor or co-editor on seven national textbooks. He has served as a consultant to the National Football League and as a forensic psychiatric expert in several national high-profile criminal and civil cases. Dr. Scott has also worked with NASA on the selection process for astronauts.

Jessica Ferranti, M.D.
Director, Workplace Safety and Psychiatric Assessment Clinic
Dr. Ferranti performs a variety of forensic mental health assessments including fitness for duty and violence risk assessment for workplace and college campuses. She is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry within the UC Davis Division of Psychiatry and the Law, teaching both general psychiatry residents and forensic psychiatry fellows. Dr. Ferranti treats patients and supervises residents in the UC Davis psychiatry outpatient clinic. Board-certified in both general psychiatry and forensic psychiatry, she serves as a forensic consultant and/or expert witness in a wide variety of criminal and civil litigation commonly performing assessments including: mental state at the time of a crime (NGRI), competency to stand trial, violence risk assessment, evaluations of claims of sexual harassment and claims of psychic damages. Dr. Ferranti’s areas of interest and research include psychotic violence, workplace violence and violence risk assessment. She has presented both locally and nationally on the topics of violence risk assessment, workplace psychiatric assessments, psychosis, and gender differences in homicide offenders.

Anne McBride, M.D. 
Director, Forensic Psychiatry Case Seminar – Child and Adolescent Series

Dr. McBride is a member of the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences clinical faculty at the level of assistant clinical professor and is the program director for the child and adolescent psychiatry residency training program. She completed her medical school training, general psychiatric residency, child and adolescent psychiatry residency, and forensic psychiatry fellowship at UC Davis. Dr. McBride works at the Sacramento County Mental Health Treatment Center with the minor emergency response team and with the UC Davis child psychiatry outpatient clinic. Her areas of interest include juvenile forensic psychiatry and general criminal forensic psychiatry. Dr. McBride is on the forensic psychiatry expert witness panels for Sacramento and Placer counties and is regularly court- appointed to evaluate criminal and juvenile defendants. She conducts assessments for competency, sanity, risk of future violence, juvenile treatment amenability, and various civil issues.

Barbara E. McDermott, Ph.D. 
Research Director, UC Davis / Napa State Hospital Clinical Demonstration Unit
Director, Forensic Psychiatry Research and Psychological Assessment Seminar

Dr. McDermott is a professor of clinical psychiatry at the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Division of Psychiatry and the Law and research director at the California Department of State Hospitals. She received a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Cincinnati in 1988. She serves as the instructor for the UC Davis Forensic Psychiatry Research and Psychological Assessment Seminar. Dr. McDermott was the recipient of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Amicus Award in 2008 because of her contributions to the field of forensic psychiatry. Most recently, Dr. McDermott was selected as a senior fellow for the University of California Criminal Justice and Health Consortium, founded by UC president Janet Napolitano to address the healthcare crisis in the criminal justice system. Dr. McDermott has an extensive background in consultation to state government systems on forensic mental health issues. She has published extensively in the areas of risk assessment and the assessment and identification of malingering, as well as other forensically relevant topics.

Jason G. Roof, M.D. 
Associate Training Director, Forensic Psychiatry Residency Program
Director, Forensic Psychiatry Criminal Case Seminar
Director, Forensic Psychiatry Landmark Case Seminar

Dr. Roof is currently an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at the UC Davis Medical Center, associate training director for the UC Davis forensic psychiatry fellowship, medical director of Jail Psychiatric Services for Sacramento County and site director for medical student and resident psychiatric education at the Sacramento County Jail. Dr. Roof completed medical school and residency training in psychiatry at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. He completed additional training in forensic psychiatry at UC Davis and is a board-certified in general and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Roof has been qualified as an expert witness in federal, state and military courts and has testified to issues involving a variety of mental disorders, sanity, competence to stand trial, dangerousness, mental health treatment of inmates, malingering, medical malpractice, testamentary capacity, wrongful death in correctional institutions, substance use and effects on intent and memory. He is part of the Sacramento County Superior Court Expert Witness panel and has completed court appointments for numerous other counties in California involving competency to stand trial, sanity, violence risk and sexual offenders. He has published on the topics of geriatric offenders, delirium, infections of the nervous system, testamentary capacity, guardianship assessments, correctional psychiatry and brain imaging techniques as they relate to the legal system. He is passionate about teaching and has presented nationally and internationally on numerous psychiatric topics to a variety of groups including medical students, residents, attorneys, interpreters, social workers, correctional mental health and others. Types of forensic evaluations and consultations performed by Dr. Roof include:

• Mental and emotional injury
• Competency to stand trial
• Competency to confess
• Insanity evaluation
• Mitigation of sentencing
• Diminished actuality evaluation
• Malingering evaluation
• Sex offender evaluation
• Fitness for duty
• Psychiatric malpractice (community and correctional environments)
• Wrongful death in a correctional institution/ Deliberate indifference
• Testamentary capacity
• Undue influence
• Conservatorship
• Guardianship
• Violence risk assessment
• Suicide and self-harm risk
• Case consultation
• Case preparation
• General evaluation of defendant
• Informational testimony

Jennifer Chaffin, M.D.

Dr. Jennifer Chaffin is a board-certified forensic psychiatrist. She is currently the Lead Psychiatrist for the Criminal Justice Mental Health division of Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services. She provides psychiatric services at the Alameda County Jail, which is the fifth largest jail in the country. She also provides services to the patients of the Alameda County Conditional Release Program (CONREP) and contracts with Jackson and Coker to provide psychiatric services at the Duel Vocational Institute in Tracy, California. In addition to her work in correctional psychiatry, she works as an independent consultant to courts and attorneys, focusing primarily on criminal competencies, insanity evaluations, violence risk assessments and sexual violence risk assessments. She has given trainings and presentations on forensic mental health issues across the country, including at the American Psychiatric Association and American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law annual conferences. Dr. Chaffin has been invested in LGBT health and advocacy since her residency, when she joined and later chaired the American Medical Association's Advisory Committee on LGBT Issues. She is also the President and serves on the Board of Directors for Women In Medicine, an organization of lesbian and female sexual minority physicians and medical students. She served on the GLMA Board of Directors from 2011 through 2014, and as the VP of the Lesbian Health Fund from 2012-2014.

Sarah Farias, Ph.D.

Dr. Farias is a Professor in Neurology and the Director of Neuropsychology Services through the Neuroscience Clinic at the UC Davis Medical Center. Her primary research interests involve the development of new measures of everyday functioning applicable to older adults with cognitive impairment and dementia, and the study of how cognitive and non-cognitive impairments influence everyday functioning. Other active research interests include aging related to the influence of vascular disease on cognitive decline, the role of cognitive reserve in moderating the effects of disease on cognition, and the development of new approaches to measure cognitive reserve in older adults. Dr. Farias also maintains an active interest in cognitive function in temporal lobe epilepsy. In particular, whether cognitive impairment is progressive in temporal lobe epilepsy and what are the underlying mechanisms of this progression.

David Gellerman, M.D.

Dr. Gellerman is currently an Associate Clinical Professor - Volunteer Clinical Faculty, at the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He completed an M.D./Ph.D. program in 1998 at the University of Southern California, his doctoral work being on regulation of glutamate receptors and synaptic plasticity. He completed residency in adult psychiatry at UC Davis in 2002, followed by Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship at UC Davis in 2003. He is board-certified in both adult and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Gellerman is current the clinical manager for outpatient services at the VA Sacramento Medical Center and Lead Psychiatrist for the VA Northern California Healthcare System. Dr. Gellerman’s interests include cultural psychiatry and spirituality and religion.

Ben Goldberg, M.D.

Dr. Goldberg is currently an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry – Volunteer Clinical Faculty, at the University of California, Davis Medical Center and site director for the UC Davis Law & Psychiatry Fellowship at Department of State Hospitals (DSH) - Napa. Dr. Goldberg completed medical school at Yale University, adult psychiatry training at the University of California, San Francisco, and forensic psychiatry training at the University of California, Davis. Additionally, Dr. Goldberg earned a M.A. in Criminal Justice from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. In his current capacity as Deputy Chief of Forensic Services at DSH-Napa (formerly Napa State Hospital), Dr. Goldberg supervises the assessment of competency to stand trial hospital-wide and supervises involuntary medication assessments for the Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) and Mentally Disordered Offender (MDO) populations at DSH-Napa. Dr. Goldberg has been qualified as an expert witness in numerous counties in California. Dr. Goldberg has published and presented on topics primarily related to drug use, drug policy, and drug-related violence.

Diane Howard, J.D.

Diane Howard is the Supervising Assistant Public Defender for Sacramento County. Ms. Howard attended the University of California at Santa Barbara where she received a B.A. in Political Science, and the University of the Pacific - McGeorge School of Law, where she obtained her Juris Doctorate. She is licensed to practice law in all courts of California. She has been a practicing attorney with the Sacramento County Public Defender’s office since 1987 and has handled numerous cases ranging from sex crimes and violent assaults to homicides. She has supervised misdemeanors, felony intake, felony trials and the domestic violence unit. She has tried multiple jury trials to verdict, including not guilty by reason of insanity cases. She has guest lectured at the McGeorge School of Law and the UC Davis Law School.

Mary Martinelli, J.D.

Mary Martinelli, a Certified Family Law Specialist with the firm of the firm Downey Brand LLP located in Sacramento and leads one of the largest family law practices in California, representing clients in sophisticated custody and property matters. She has earned the highest rating (AV) from Martindale Hubbell, a peer review organization. She has been an Adjunct professor at UC Davis School of Law and presents and writes statewide on numerous family law topics.

Mike Meek, M.D.

Info on Dr. Meek needed …

Noah Phillips, J.D.

Noah Phillips is a Supervising Deputy District Attorney for the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office. He has handled a variety of responsibilities over his 18 year career as a prosecutor ranging from misdemeanors to complex criminal litigation. Additionally, he has served as a lead attorney in several units and instructs law enforcement and lawyers in all areas of criminal law. Mr. Phillips has tried over 100 jury trials including several high profile murders. He received his J.D. from McGeorge School of Law in 1997 with honors.

The Honorable Jaime Roman

Judge Roman was appointed to the Sacramento County Superior Court in 2007. He previously served as an Administrative Law Judge for the State of California Office of Administrative Hearings from 1994-1997. Judge Roman is a former Deputy Attorney General for the State of California from 1992-1994 and a former Deputy District Attorney for Solano County from 1980-1991. He was in private practice from 1976-1980. Judge Roman received his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law in 1976. He earned his LL.M. in International Banking Law from Boston University Law School in 1992. He also received a M.S.S. degree from the Army War College in 2000. Judge Roman was a member of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps from 1981-2007. He is admitted to the bars of California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, and Texas.

Katherine Warburton, D.O.

Dr. Katherine Warburton is Medical Director and Deputy Director of Clinical Operations for the California Department of State Hospitals. She also serves as Volunteer Clinical Faculty within the UC Davis Division of Psychiatry and the Law. She completed her forensic fellowship at UC Davis under Dr. Charles Scott in 2006. Dr. Warburton’s areas of interest include public policy, public forensic mental health care delivery systems and inpatient aggression. She has presented both locally and nationally on a number of forensic topics and recently co-edited a textbook on violence in psychiatry.