State v. Amsden, 194 Vt. 128

In Sept. 2010, police responded to a welfare check under a Brattleboro bridge on a four-year-old child.
Under the bridge, defendant engaged in an apparent sexual act with a man while her son was nearby.
Area near the incident was described by officers as littered with trash, glass, urine, and feces.
The child stood about ten feet from a brook; no barrier existed between child and the brook.
Defendant’s son was later removed to a cruiser after officers intervened; defendant appeared heavily intoxicated and unsteady.
Defendant was charged with disorderly conduct and cruelty to a child; convicted on both counts and appealed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether presence in hospital after arrest supports disorderly-conduct conviction	Amsden’s hospital stay was involuntary; conduct at hospital cannot be disorderly	Conduct at hospital was voluntary and not tumultuous or violent	Affirmed disorderly-conduct conviction
Whether conduct inside hospital was violent/tumultuous and reckless	Disorderly conduct requires violent, tumultuous, or reckless risk creation	Hospital environment negates public risk; arrest context limits conduct	Sufficient evidence of violent/tumultuous behavior and recklessness to sustain conviction
Whether evidence supported cruelty-to-a-child conviction for endangering health	Environment under the bridge endangered child’s health	Risk was speculative and not enough to endanger health	Evidence supported endangerment; willful exposure/endangerment satisfied mens rea
Whether mens rea for 'endanger' was correctly construed	Willful exposure requires knowledge of dangerous conditions	Knowledge not required; mere exposure could suffice	Court held knowledge of danger may be inferred; willfulness satisfied when defendant consciously disregards risk

State v. Begins, 147 Vt. 45 (Vt. 1986) (disorderly conduct acts during arrest may support conviction)
State v. Lund, 144 Vt. 171 (Vt. 1984) (violent, tumultuous behavior supports disorderly conduct)
State v. Read, 165 Vt. 141 (Vt. 1996) (hospital context for disorderly conduct and abusive language limits)
State v. O’Connell, 147 Vt. 60 (Vt. 1986) (broad view of violent conduct under disorderly conduct statute)
State v. Brooks, 163 Vt. 245 (Vt. 1995) (recklessness standard; conscious disregard of risk)
In re Greenough, 116 Vt. 277 (Vt. 1950) (interpretation of mens rea and statute interpretation)