State ex rel. D.L.S.

446 S.W.3d 506, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 11754, 2014 WL 5358309
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 26, 2014
DocketNo. 08-14-00076-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 446 S.W.3d 506 (State ex rel. D.L.S.) 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
State ex rel. D.L.S., 446 S.W.3d 506, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 11754, 2014 WL 5358309 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

YVONNE T. RODRIGUEZ, Justice.

Appellant D.L.S. seeks reversal of the trial court’s judgment subjecting him to 90 days of temporary mental health institutionalization, contending in his sole appellate issue that the evidence underpinning the jury’s findings that he (1) was incapable of caring for himself, (2) was incapable of making informed medical decisions, and (3) posed a threat of harm to himself were legally and factually insufficient. We reverse and render in part, and reverse and remand in part.

BACKGROUND

Factual History

At the time of his mental health commitment, Appellant was a forty-three-year-old, college-educated male receiving disability payments for bipolar disorder, a condition for which he had previously been hospitalized in 1999. In the summer of 2018, Appellant abandoned his Boulder, Colorado, apartment and, with the help of his mother in Illinois, purchased a Toyota Prius and a motorcycle. He then constructed a makeshift trailer, placed all his belongings inside, and began to travel from Illinois to New York before eventually deciding to drive through the national parks and forests in Colorado. Appellant testified that he lived out of his Prius by “car camping” in national park campground areas and in Walmart parking lots for up to fourteen days at a time, showering and exercising at 24-Hour Fitness locations and at campgrounds, and purchasing food and supplies with the Social Security disability money he 'received for his bipolar disorder. Appellant explained during his long, rambling narrative testimony at trial1 that he “was having the time of my life” and that he believed touring in his car was “preferable to sitting in an apartment and staring at the TV and, you know, cooking — microwaving a pizza or something like that .... ” When the weather in Colorado became colder, Appellant headed south and began traveling throughout New Mexico, repeating his Colorado routine on land owned by the Bureau of Land Management.

In early 2014, Appellant was riding his motorcycle off-road through sand dunes in the Red Sands Recreational Area near Alamogordo, New Mexico, when he was involved in a serious collision with another motorcyclist. At the time of the accident, Appellant was wearing a heavy leather jacket, a riding helmet, kneepads with “leg safety gear,” gloves, several layers of clothing, and Caterpillar work boots. Appellant testified that a group of motor cross bike riders were driving on the wrong side of the trail, and that one collided directly into him. Appellant testified that because the other riders were not following standard safety protocol, and because the driver who hit him seemed to jump directly at him, he suspected foul play and that the crash was intentional on their part.

Appellant broke his jaw and kneecap and shattered his right femoral head, [511]*511which is the part of the femur bone that connects the upper leg to the hip. An ambulance transported him to a hospital in Alamogordo, where he was subsequently flown by helicopter to University Medical Center (UMC) in El Paso. Appellant initially offered to follow the ambulance in his car based on his concern about leaving his equipment and motorcycle at Red Sands, but paramedics refused to let him drive based on the severity of his injuries.

Following Appellant’s motorcycle crash, Appellant’s father flew in from Maryland and filed an emergency order to have Appellant committed to a mental institution based on the fact that Appellant “has expressed his belief that I and his immediate family were involved in orchestrating his accident[,]” claimed “that he is the Messiah[,]” and believed that his family “has caused all his problems over the past few years .... ” Appellant’s father also stated that Appellant’s “paranoia” prevented him “from eating[,]” taking “normal nourishment[,]” or “accepting the fact that he is seriously injured.” Appellant’s father further stated that Appellant expected to be able to leave the hospital within a few days and drive his car in spite of the severity of his injuries. The probate court issued a warrant for detention, and Appellant was transferred from UMC to the El Paso Psychiatric Center (EPPC) pending hearing.

Procedural History and Trial Testimony

The State’s Case

Appellant elected to be tried by jury and to represent himself pro se, with occasional help from his court-appointed attorney ad litem. The State presented five witnesses. Dr. Amr Abdelgawad, an orthopedic surgeon with UMC, testified that he performed surgery on Appellant following the accident. Dr. Abdelgawad repaired the damage to Appellant’s femoral head with screws and metal plates, but noted that due to the severity of the injuries, there was at least a 50 percent chance the repairs would fail, the upper part of the femur bone would die, and Appellant would need a total hip replacement. Dr. Abdelgawad gave Appellant a “fair” prognosis, assuming that he followed a three-month physical therapy regimen. He also testified Appellant would need more physical therapy before he could drive, and that usually, patients were not released to drive for at least nine weeks after surgery. However, Appellant would not be precluded from taking an airplane or a train to Denver for follow-up treatment elsewhere if he wished. Dr. Abdelgawad did not believe Appellant posed a threat of harm to himself or others.

Dr. Henry Weisman, director of both Texas Tech University’s psychiatric resident program and UMC’s psychiatric consultation liaison program, testified that he received two requests for a psychiatric consult for Appellant — first, from Appellant’s family, and second, from UMC staff after Appellant claimed he was the Messiah. Dr. Weisman interviewed Appellant’s mother, father, and brother, who all consistently told him that Appellant had been diagnosed with either bipolar disorder or schizophrenia for at least fourteen years, that he had “multiple difficulties with inpatient psychiatry and the legal system,” was not medication-compliant, and he had an overall decline in functioning. Dr. Weis-man diagnosed Appellant with bipolar disorder, manic phase with psychotic features, ruling out paranoid schizophrenia. He explained that he came to his diagnosis through interviews in which Appellant exhibited flight of ideas, pressured speech, circumstantiality, and tangentiality. For example, Appellant rapidly quoted Bible verses and talked at length about how he [512]*512was the true Messiah because Jesus had died and abandoned his people while Appellant was still alive. Appellant also expounded on his belief that his mother had sodomized his pet cat because its anus was speckled and expressed frustration that local police and the Federal Bureau of Investigations would not press charges against her. Dr. Weisman confirmed that Appellant’s method of speech and questioning at trial further exhibited all these symptoms to the jury in real time. Dr. Weisman testified that Appellant refused certain medications. Dr. Weisman also stated that he believed Appellant’s abandonment of his apartment in favor of a nomadic road-trip lifestyle could best be understood as part of a manic episode that, if left untreated, would cause further deterioration in Appellant’s quality of life. Dr. Weisman opined that Appellant’s plan to either return to Colorado and self-medicate with medical marijuana or else continue on his road trip was unrealistic and showed poor insight and judgment into the extent of his injuries, noting that marijuana was contra-indicated for patients with bipolar disorder. Dr.

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446 S.W.3d 506, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 11754, 2014 WL 5358309, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-dls-texapp-2014.