1. A. When a request for an order of prehearing detention is attached to a petition alleging a person to be a mentally ill person and a person requiring treatment, the district court shall determine whether there is probable cause to detain the person who is the subject of the petition prior to a hearing on the petition.

   1. 1. If the court issues an order for detention, it shall immediately set a date, time, and place for a hearing on the petition.
   2. 2. The period of prehearing detention shall not exceed seventy-two (72) hours, excluding weekdays and holidays. Prehearing detention may be extended to coincide with any order of continuance entered by the court.
2. B. If the court finds that probable cause to detain the person alleged to be a mentally ill person requiring treatment does not exist, the court shall dismiss the request and, if the person is being held in protective custody or emergency detention, order the person released and returned to the point where such person was taken into protective custody.

3. C. If the court finds that probable cause to detain the person alleged to be a mentally ill person requiring treatment does exist:

   1. 1. An order may be entered authorizing any peace officer to take that person into custody and to detain such person in a suitable facility prior to the hearing on the petition; or

   2. 2. If the person is being held in emergency detention, the court may issue an order authorizing the facility to detain the person prior to a hearing on the petition.

      A certified copy of an order of prehearing detention shall constitute authority for a facility to detain or to continue to detain the person who is the subject of the order.

Laws 1997, HB 2024, c. 387, § 7, eff. November 1, 1997.