State v. Curry

• Decision Date: 19 August 2009
• Docket Number: No. 08-218.,08-218.
• Citation: 2009 VT 89,987 A.2d 265
• Parties: STATE of Vermont v. John J.E. CURRY.
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court

987 A.2d 265

2009 VT 89

STATE of Vermont v. John J.E. CURRY.

No. 08-218.

Supreme Court of Vermont.

August 19, 2009.

Motion for Reargument Denied October 21, 2009.

Present: REIBER, C.J., DOOLEY, JOHNSON, SKOGLUND and BURGESS, JJ.

ENTRY ORDER

¶ 1. Defendant appeals the district court's determination that he was incompetent to stand trial, as well as two court orders that required him to be hospitalized for psychiatric examination prior to the court's final hearing on his competency. We dismiss the appeal as moot.

¶ 2. This case has a complicated procedural history, which we recount here not because it is a helpful model of the use of the statutory process governing competency determinations and hospitalization orders, but because the background is important to our disposition of this matter. We emphasize that in dismissing this appeal we take no position as to the propriety of the court's hospitalization orders or its competency determination. Further, we do not decide any of the issues raised by the State regarding whether a final order exists in this case or whether the appeal was timely.¹ Because we conclude the case is moot, we need not decide those issues.

¶ 3. Defendant was charged with unlawful trespass and disorderly conduct in January 2008. At his arraignment, both parties requested, and the district court ordered, an outpatient psychiatric evaluation to determine defendant's competence to stand trial. Approximately one month after the court-appointed psychiatrist found defendant competent, the court held a competency hearing where defendant was represented by an attorney,² but did not have a guardian ad litem present. At the hearing, defendant's attorney stated that she had concerns about defendant's competency to assist her in preparing for trial, notwithstanding the one-month-old psychiatric evaluation finding defendant competent. The attorney then requested an inpatient psychiatric evaluation of defendant. The State agreed to the defense attorney's request, and, despite defendant's strenuous objections, the court ordered defendant to be committed to the Department of Mental Health at the Vermont State Hospital so that a new psychiatric examination of defendant could be performed. The February 21, 2008 order for this inpatient evaluation stated that the hospitalization was for a period not to exceed thirty days.

¶ 4. On March 18, 2008, the court held a second hearing to consider defendant's competency. There was a guardian ad litem for defendant present at the hearing. This hearing would have addressed a second psychiatric evaluation of defendant, conducted in late February by the same psychiatrist who found defendant competent during the January outpatient examination. However, due to a miscommunication, the psychiatrist was unavailable to testify at this hearing. The psychiatrist's report, which the court received prior to the March 18 hearing, explained that defendant was largely uncooperative when the psychiatrist attempted to perform an examination of him at the state hospital. In the report, the psychiatrist concluded that defendant was not competent to stand trial. At the hearing, the State's position was that defendant was not competent, but defendant insisted he was. Due to this disagreement, both attorneys expressed that a hearing with the psychiatrist present was necessary to decide the issue. Based on the attorneys' statements, and without objection from the attorneys, defendant, or defendant's guardian ad litem, the court decided to reset the date for the competency hearing to allow for testimony from the psychiatrist. On the State's motion, to which the defense did not object, the court extended the time allowed for defendant's hospitalization by fifteen days from the expiration of the date of the February 21 hospitalization order.

¶ 5. The court set defendant's next hearing, which it labeled a "hospitalization hearing," for March 26, 2008. Defendant objected to the court's order for a hospitalization hearing on the basis that his competency had not yet been decided, and he moved to continue the hearing. The court granted the motion on March 25. The next day, defendant moved to vacate the February 21 and March 18 hospitalization orders and requested that the court release him on conditions until the court held final competency and hospitalization hearings. This motion was addressed that same day, March 26, at a hearing during the time originally scheduled for defendant's "hospitalization hearing." The transcript of the hearing shows that, due to the timing of defendant's motion, the attorney for the State still thought that the hearing was to address defendant's competency. Although the defense attorney and the guardian ad litem seemed to be prepared to address both the competency issue and the release issue, the court refused to consider the substance of the competency issue because defendant was not present at the hearing.

¶ 6. Instead of addressing competency, the court heard arguments from the State and defendant regarding both the issue of release and the issue of when it would hold a final competency hearing. Defendant argued that the court did not have authority to keep him hospitalized because the hospitalization orders had been issued for the sole purpose of conducting the psychiatric examinations necessary for the competency determination, and these had already been completed. Further, defendant argued that the competency hearing should not take place until after he had the results of an independent psychiatric examination scheduled for April 7. The State pointed out that the court-ordered psychiatric examinations had been conducted prior to the March 18 hearing, and at that hearing defendant agreed— through counsel—that the hospitalization could continue for fifteen days after expiration of the February 21 order. Based on this agreement, the State contended that the court had authority to keep defendant hospitalized until the March 18 order expired. Because the March 18 order would expire by April 5, the State argued that the competency hearing should occur by that date. Ultimately, the court agreed with the State and decided that the competency hearing would occur on April 1, 2008 and that defendant would not be released from the hospital before then.

¶ 7. At the April 1 competency hearing, the court-appointed psychiatrist, defendant, and two community members who knew defendant testified. After the court heard this testimony, defendant requested that the court leave the evidence open until defendant completed his April 7 independent psychiatric examination. The court expressed a willingness to keep the evidence open so long as defendant would remain hospitalized during this period, but when defendant would not agree to that condition, the court decided to close the evidence. The court then found defendant incompetent and ordered him to return to the hospital pending a hospitalization hearing.

¶ 8. The hospitalization hearing was held on April 15, 2008. Midway through the hearing, the parties reached an agreement that if defendant returned to the state hospital for two weeks, and took medication as directed, the charges against him would be dismissed. The court agreed to delay making a decision on involuntary hospitalization until defendant had the opportunity to follow the treatment plan. On April 22, 2008, the State dismissed the charges, and defendant filed this appeal on May 21, 2008.

¶ 9. Defendant makes three arguments on appeal. First, he claims the district court abused its discretion by ordering him to be hospitalized on February 21 and March 18 without making statutorily required findings and determinations. Second, defendant contends that the court's competency decision was clearly erroneous because it was not supported by any credible evidence. Finally, defendant argues that the court abused its discretion by closing the evidence at the April 1 competency hearing without allowing defendant to submit the results of a scheduled independent psychiatric evaluation. Consistent with our decision in an analogous case regarding civil commitment, we dismiss this appeal because all of these issues are moot.

¶ 10. Vermont has two statutory procedures governing judicial determinations of mental health and orders for involuntary commitment and psychological treatment. At issue in this case is the process detailed in Title 13 for determining a criminal defendant's competence to stand trial. 13 V.S.A. §§ 4814, 4815, 4817, 4820-4822. The other process is for civil commitment of a "person in need of treatment" outside of the criminal justice system. 18 V.S.A. §§ 7504-7505, 7508-7510, 7611-7619. Although the Title 13 procedure is not identical to the Title 18 process, there are substantial similarities between the two in terms of required court hearings to determine competence or need for treatment, temporary commitment pending hearings, and final orders regarding hospitalization or treatment. See State v. Condrick, 144 Vt. 362, 364, 477 A.2d 632, 633-34 (1984). Additionally, Title 13 adopts some of the standards used in Title 18. Id.; see, e.g., 13 V.S.A. §§ 4821, 4822(a), (b). In a civil case with an analogous procedural history to the present case, we dismissed as moot an appeal brought by a person who had been involuntarily committed for over a month while the State applied to treat him, but was free at the time he appealed and had never been adjudicated as a "person in need of treatment" nor subject to involuntary treatment. E.S. v. State, 2005 VT 33, 178 Vt. 519, 872 A.2d 356 (mem.). The same considerations that governed our disposition of E.S. guide our decision here.

¶ 11. Cases become moot when "the issues presented are no longer `live' or the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome." State v. J.S., 174 Vt. 619, 620, 817 A.2d 53, 55 (2002) (mem.). Here, defendant has been released from custody, and the State has dismissed the charges...