The real-life consequences of shifting immigration policy and wide-ranging mental-health reform in California’s legal system are playing out this week in the obscure criminal case of a man charged with filming his coworkers in a Long Beach bathroom.

In September last year, 28-year-old Roberto Rojas hid a GoPro camera in a cardboard box and pointed it at the toilet in a restroom at his warehouse job, according to prosecutors.

Authorities allege he filmed 17 of his male and female colleagues in the span of one morning. The spying stopped later that day when employees discovered the camera and told their bosses, according to court papers.

The Long Beach City Prosecutor’s office, which handles non-felony cases in the city, charged Rojas with 17 misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy.

But the focus of the case has shifted from Rojas’ alleged crimes to Rojas himself, his immigration status and the mental disorders his attorneys say he suffers from.

In a series of motions and hearings over the past few months, Rojas’ defense has asked for leniency, saying Rojas was abused as a child, triggering issues that drove him to spy on his coworkers.

Furthermore, Rojas was brought illegally to the U.S. as a young boy, his attorneys wrote in court filings. If Rojas is given too harsh a sentence, it could spark deportation proceedings.

It would be unfair, they contended, “to cause [Rojas] to serve a life sentence of banishment from the United States, the only country [Rojas] has known as home since he was 6 years old, for one incident that was caused by mental health disorders which can be treated.”

DACA and mental-health diversion

The defense’s arguments center on two relatively new legal concepts: President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals—or DACA—and Assembly Bill 1810, a California law passed this year that allows a vast swath of defendants to qualify for therapy instead of imprisonment if they can show they suffer from mental disorders that significantly contributed to their committing crimes.

In Rojas’ case, his attorneys concede in court filings that he hid the camera, but they contend he did it because he suffers from an impulse-control disorder, anxiety, depression and “possibly Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.”

A doctor who assessed Rojas for the defense team said these disorders stem from childhood trauma including being sexually assaulted by a relative and being exposed to pornography by a relative’s boyfriend at a young age, his attorneys wrote.

They say Rojas became addicted to pornography and developed poor impulse control as a consequence.

“This led defendant to desire placing a camera in the restroom at his work to then later view for personal enjoyment; he also could not understand why he could not control his urge to do so,” defense attorney Ashlie Brillault wrote in an October brief.

California’s new law allows defendants with mental-health disorders to apply for their cases to be dismissed if they complete treatment. To qualify, a judge must be satisfied that the defendant isn’t a public-safety risk and decide the proposed treatment would be more helpful than time behind bars. Some defendants—including those charged with rape, murder and certain other sexual or violent crimes—are barred from applying.

It’s unclear how many people have applied for or been granted an AB 1810 diversion since it became law in June. Representatives for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office and the Long Beach City Prosecutor’s office said they don’t have those statistics.

In Rojas’ case, his attorneys proposed having him meet with a therapist, take medication and attend weekly sex-addiction support-group meetings instead of spending time behind bars, according to court papers.

If a judge rejects that option and Rojas were convicted on all 17 charges, he could face a maximum sentence of eight and a half years in county jail.

But his attorneys note this would surely disqualify him for DACA, which shields immigrants who arrived illegally as children from deportation if they meet certain requirements.

Last year, the Trump Administration moved to end DACA, but that decision was stalled in court, so its future is still undetermined.

As Rojas’ defense team outlined, DACA in its current form doesn’t cover anyone convicted of a felony, a “significant misdemeanor” or three separate misdemeanors not stemming from the same incident. A “significant misdemeanor” is any misdemeanor where the defendant is ordered to serve at least 90 days behind bars for the crime.

To keep him eligible to renew his DACA status, Rojas’ attorneys asked a judge to sentence him—at the most—to 89 days in jail.

Prosecutors say that is not enough for a crime that violated 17 people.

Rojas “took advantage of his colleagues in a vulnerable state,” Deputy City Prosecutor Emily Cohen wrote.

He planned out his crime and showed no remorse for what he did, according to Cohen, who said Rojas twice returned to the restroom at the Western Integrated Materials warehouse to make sure the camera was recording.

By contrast, Rojas’  attorneys wrote he “deeply regrets” his actions. Treatment, not jail, would be a better option for someone like Rojas who has no prior criminal history and no home outside the U.S., they argued.

Rojas and his defense both declined to comment for this story.

Rojas’ fate

At a hearing Thursday, Judge Lori R. Behar tried to navigate California’s new mental-health law as she worked to determine Rojas’ future.

Inside the Long Beach courtroom, prosecutors sought permission to have their own doctor examine Rojas and form an opinion on whether impulse-control disorder, anxiety, depression and ADHD really did drive him to spy on his co-workers.

It’s unfair, they argued, to have only a doctor working for the defense interview Rojas, giving them the opportunity to omit questions that don’t serve their purposes.

Behar denied the request, saying the new law is silent on this issue so it’s not yet clear what lawmakers intended. Instead, she ordered the defense to turn over Rojas’ medical records to the prosecution’s expert so he can form an opinion.

“Your argument is excellent,” the judge said to Cohen, the prosecutor. “I don’t think the issue is settled.”

Behar plans to hear the second medical opinion and decide Rojas’ fate in January, but she gave a glimpse of her opinion on Thursday by saying she doesn’t think the defense’s plan to treat Rojas is adequate.

“I had lots of issues with the motion,” she said.