¶ 2. This ease 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 ease or whether the appeal was timely.
1
Because we conclude
¶ 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 compe tence 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 guardiam 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
¶ 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.
¶ 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.,
¶ 12. Although this case is moot, we acknowledge that we have reviewed otherwise moot cases in the context of involuntary hospitalization and treatment under both Title 13 and Title 18 based on two exceptions to the mootness doctrine. The first exception is where the result of the underlying action carries “negative collateral consequences” for the party appealing the action.
E.S.,
¶ 13. Neither mootness exception applied to E.S.’s case because of the nature of that case’s procedural background. E.S. was initially taken into custody for an emergency examination, under 18 V.S.A. § 7504, on the application of a physician at
¶ 14. In
E.S.
we observed that we have used the negative-collateral-consequences
exception to the mootness doctrine to review only those cases where there have been court adjudications of commitment.
¶ 15. In addition to the lack of a commitment adjudication in E.S.’s case, we concluded that any negative consequences that may have attached to E.S. as a result of the Title 18 proceedings were “not sufficient to avoid mootness” because he “never went through a full hearing, was never formally adjudicated mentally ill and was never under an order of involuntary treatment.” Id. Similarly, in this case, defendant was not adjudicated mentally ill, and the court never ordered involuntary treatment. On the other hand, defendant did undergo a full competency hearing, and was determined incompetent to stand trial. But a competency determination under Title 13 is not the same as an adjudication of mental illness for purposes of involuntary commitment or treatment in either the Title 18 or Title 13 context.
¶ 16. The first important distinction between competency determinations and commitment decisions is that the former are made for the specific purpose of protecting criminal defendants’ due process rights to a fair trial.
State v. Beaudoin,
¶ 17. In addition to the temporary and case-specific nature of competency determinations, they are substantively different from determinations of mental illness made for the purpose of involuntary commitment. Unlike the requirements for commitment decisions, mental illness is not a necessary or sufficient condition for incompetency. The statutory language in Title 13 indicates that defendants may be
incompetent for reasons independent of mental illness. See 13 V.S.A. § 4820(2) (where a person is found to be incompetent “due to a mental disease or mental defect,” the court must hold a hearing to determine whether he or she should be committed);
id.
§ 4817(b) (“where the court has reason to believe that such person may be incompetent to stand trial due to a mental disease or mental defect,” competency hearings shall not be held until the defendant is examined by a psychiatrist). And our case law demonstrates that mentally ill or mentally disabled defendants can be competent to stand trial. See
State v. Brown,
¶ 18. The issue of trial competency focuses on different criteria than the “person in need of treatment” determination governing commitment adjudications. 18 V.S.A. §§ 7101(17), 7611; 13 V.S.A. § 4822. As indicated above, for someone to be a “person in need of treatment,” a court must find that the person “is suffering from mental illness and, as a result of that mental illness, his or her capacity to exercise self-control, judgment or discretion in the conduct of his or her affairs and social relations is so lessened that he or she poses a danger of harm to himself, to herself, or others.” 18 V.S.A. § 7101(17). By contrast, “[t]o be competent to stand trial, a defendant must have ‘sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding’ and ‘a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him.’ ”
State v. Tribble,
¶ 19. It is relevant to note that in this case the court’s competency order reflects that it found defendant incompetent and planned to hold a hospitalization hearing pursuant to 13 V.S.A. § 4820(4). Hospitalization hearings follow a trial court’s determination of incompetence only where the court has found the defendant to be “incompetent. . . due to a mental disease or mental defect.” Id. §4820(2). Thus, defendant might argue here that the court’s order finding him incompetent and expressing its plan to hold a commitment hearing is more stigmatizing than a competency determination alone. But this detail is not enough to create the negative collateral consequences in defendant’s life that could override this case’s mootness.
¶20. The second mootness exception, “capable of repetition yet evading review,” is somewhat of a closer call in this case than in E.S. E.S. was a Mississippi resident who returned to Mississippi upon release from the Vermont State Hospital. Based on those facts, we were able to conclude that E.S. was very unlikely to be subjected to another application by the State to commit or treat him in Vermont. In this case, defendant’s status as a Vermont resident makes it more reasonable to suppose that this situation would be repeated. However, defendant did not cite any evidence, nor did he offer any reasons, to show or explain why this mootness exception applies in his case.
¶21. The “capable of repetition yet evading review” exception “applies only where: (1) the challenged action was in its duration too short to be fully litigated prior to its cessation or expiration; and (2) there is a reasonable expectation that the same complaining party would be subjected to the same action again.”
State v. Rooney,
¶ 22. The record in this case shows that defendant reported two or three attempts to place him in psychiatric hospitals in New Hampshire and that he had been charged with a few minor crimes in New York and Vermont, but there is no evidence that the State of Vermont was ever involved with defendant’s mental health until his arrest in this case. Even then, it was defendant’s own attorney who raised the issue of competence. This lack of any prior history of the State of Vermont’s involvement with defendant’s mental
Dismissed.
Motion for reargument denied October 21, 2009.
Notes
The State’s brief mirrored, in large part, the motion it filed prior to oral argument in this case, which moved to dismiss the ease on several grounds, including lack of a final order, timeliness, and mootness. We decided to address the motion with the merits, and we note here that this decision disposes of the State’s motion.
Defendant is represented on appeal by a different attorney than his trial counsel.