Lakey v. Taylor ex rel. Shearer

435 S.W.3d 309, 2014 WL 1774701, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 4773
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 2, 2014
DocketNo. 03-12-00207-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 435 S.W.3d 309 (Lakey v. Taylor ex rel. Shearer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lakey v. Taylor ex rel. Shearer, 435 S.W.3d 309, 2014 WL 1774701, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 4773 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

SCOTT K. FIELD, Justice.

Disability Rights Texas, along with nine individuals, criminal defendants who have been found incompetent to stand trial (collectively, the Plaintiffs), sought declaratory and injunctive relief against the Commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, claiming that the Department’s system of prioritizing the transfer of incompetent defendants to hospitals for competency-restoration treatment is unconstitutional. The Plaintiffs and the Commissioner filed competing motions for summary judgment on the Plaintiffs’ claims, and upon considering the motions, the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the Plaintiffs and denied the Commissioner’s motion. The Commissioner filed this appeal. We conclude that the Department’s system, which causes incompetent defendants to wait before being provided any competency-restoration treatment, is not unconstitutional on its face. Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the Plaintiffs, vacate the trial court’s permanent injunction, and render judgment in favor of the Commissioner.

BACKGROUND

Chapter 4-6B

The criminal trial of á defendant who is legally incompetent to assist in his or her own defense violates fundamental interests of due process. Dusky v. United States, 362 U.S. 402, 402, 80 S.Ct. 788, 4 L.Ed.2d 824 (1960); McDaniel v. State, 98 S.W.Sd 704, 709 (Tex.Crim.App.2003). To [313]*313ensure protection of this right, Texas has codified the constitutional test for competency and established statutory procedures for competency determinations in criminal courts. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 46B.003(a)(l), (2) (“A person is incompetent to stand trial if the person does not have ... sufficient present ability to consult with the person’s lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding; or ... a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against the person.”).

Chapter 46B of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure governs the procedures by which a defendant may be found incompetent to stand trial and the consequences that flow from such a finding.1 Id. arts. 46B.001-.171. Under article 46B.071, once a defendant is found incompetent to stand trial, the trial court has two options aimed at restoring the defendant’s competency. Id. art. 46B.071 (options on determination of incompetency). Absent a determination that the defendant is unlikely to be restored to competency in the foreseeable future, the court must either (1) commit the defendant to a mental health facility or residential care facility for treatment aimed at restoring the defendant’s competency, or (2) release (or continue the release of) the defendant on bail, subject to the defendant’s participation in an outpatient treatment facility for purposes of restoring competency.2 Id. However, release with outpatient treatment is an option only if the court first determines that the defendant “is not a danger to others and may be safely treated on an outpatient basis.” Id. art. 46B.072 (release on bail). Otherwise, the trial court must commit the defendant to a mental health facility or residential care facility for examination and treatment for the purpose of restoring the defendant’s competency to stand trial. Id. art. 46B.073. It is the process by which committed defendants are transferred to facilities for competency-restoration treatment that is the subject of this dispute.3

The Clearinghouse List

Téxas currently has ten in-patient psychiatric facilities (state hospitals), overseen by the Department, which serve four cate[314]*314gories of patients: (1) those committed voluntarily, (2) those committed involuntarily through court-ordered civil commitments, (3) those found not guilty by reason of insanity, and (4) those criminal defendants committed for competency-restoration treatment. See Tex. Health & Safety Code §§ 571.006 (department powers), 576.022 (adequacy of treatment). In the years leading up to this suit, the state hospital system in Texas was consistently operating at or above maximum capacity, with an insufficient number of beds available to treat all four categories of patients needing services at any given time. In response, in 2006, the Department created the Forensic Clearinghouse List (the List), a methodology of allocating the beds available for committed defendants in the context of the entire state hospital system. It is undisputed that under this scheme, the Department denies acceptance of committed defendants on the List (committed detainees) into state hospitals until a bed becomes available for that detainee, in accordance with the List. In addition, the committed detainees remain in county jail while they wait for an available hospital bed and their subsequent transport to a state hospital so that they may begin receiving competency-restoration treatment. It is undisputed that committed detainees receive no competency-restoration treatment while they are in county jail awaiting transfer.

The Lawsuit

In 2007, a group of nine committed detainees who were required to wait in county jail under the List, along with Disability Rights Texas, a group created to advocate on behalf of individuals with mental illness, brought suit claiming that the system violated their rights under the due course of law provision of the Texas Constitution. Specifically, the Plaintiffs claim that, as a consequence of the List, incompetent defendants who have been ordered transferred to state hospitals for competency-restoration treatment are instead waiting in county jails for weeks and sometimes months before they are transferred to state hospitals. The Plaintiffs sought a declaration that the Department’s policies, procedures, and practices in using the List prevent committed detainees from receiving competency restoration treatment within a reasonable period of time and therefore violate the Texas Constitution. The Plaintiffs also sought injunctive relief requiring the Department to “promptly accept! ] physical custody of [committed detainees] either at a state mental health facility or other treatment location within a reasonable period of time, not to exceed three (3) days.”4

The Plaintiffs subsequently moved for final summary judgment. Attached to their motion, the Plaintiffs submitted evidence regarding the List, including evidence that (1) the average number of committed detainees on the waiting list in 2011 was 306; (2) committed detainees have had to wait in county jail for as long as seven months before being transferred to a state hospital; (3) in this case, the individual plaintiffs had to wait between four and seventeen weeks in county jail; (4) the county jails do not provide competency-restoration treatment; (5) individualized assessments and competency-restoration treatment are available only at the state hospitals; and (6) the state hospitals are able to restore the competency of 85% of committed defendants treated. In their motion, the Plaintiffs framed the legal issue in the following manner:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
435 S.W.3d 309, 2014 WL 1774701, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 4773, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lakey-v-taylor-ex-rel-shearer-texapp-2014.