Winnebago County v. T. R. A.

CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedJune 24, 2026
Docket2025AP002428
StatusUnpublished

This text of Winnebago County v. T. R. A. (Winnebago County v. T. R. A.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Winnebago County v. T. R. A., (Wis. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS DECISION NOTICE DATED AND FILED This opinion is subject to further editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. June 24, 2026 A party may file with the Supreme Court a Samuel A. Christensen petition to review an adverse decision by the Clerk of Court of Appeals Court of Appeals. See WIS. STAT. § 808.10 and RULE 809.62.

Appeal No. 2025AP2428 Cir. Ct. No. 2024ME309

STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT II

IN THE MATTER OF THE MENTAL COMMITMENT OF T.R.A.:

WINNEBAGO COUNTY,

PETITIONER-RESPONDENT,

V.

T.R.A.,

RESPONDENT-APPELLANT.

APPEAL from orders of the circuit court for Winnebago County: DANIEL J. BISSETT, Judge. Affirmed. No. 2025AP2428

¶1 GUNDRUM, J.1 T.R.A., referred to herein by the pseudonym Taylor, appeals from a circuit court order extending his involuntary commitment, pursuant to WIS. STAT. § 51.20, for twelve months.2 He contends Winnebago County (the County) failed to present sufficient evidence to prove he is currently dangerous under § 51.20(1)(a)2. and the court failed to make specific factual findings on dangerousness with reference to a subdivision paragraph of § 51.20(1)(a)2. as required by Langlade County v. D.J.W., 2020 WI 41, ¶40, 391 Wis. 2d 231, 942 N.W.2d 277. For the following reasons, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶2 At the hearing on the County’s extension of commitment petition, Dr. Michael Vicente, the medical director and staff psychiatrist from Winnebago County Department of Human Services, testified that he conducted an in-person examination of Taylor on April 8, 2025, and reviewed Taylor’s treatment records. Vicente stated that Taylor suffers from schizophrenia, and he agreed Taylor’s condition includes substantial disorder of thought, mood and perception that grossly impair his judgment, behavior, and capacity to recognize reality, and “[u]nder severe circumstances,” his ability to meet the ordinary demands of life.

1 This appeal is decided by one judge pursuant to WIS. STAT. § 752.31(2) (2023-24). All references to the Wisconsin Statutes are to the 2023-24 version. 2 Taylor also appeals a related circuit court order allowing for the involuntary administration of medication and treatment during the time of his extended commitment. Because he does not raise any argument specific to his involuntary medication and treatment order, however, we need not and do not address it. See Doe 1 v. Madison Metro. Sch. Dist., 2022 WI 65, ¶35, 403 Wis. 2d 369, 976 N.W.2d 584 (stating that appellate courts “do not step out of [their] neutral role to develop or construct arguments for parties” (citation omitted)).

2 No. 2025AP2428

¶3 Vicente indicated that Taylor “had displayed some paranoid ideation and delusional thoughts, particularly about prior treatment providers, also the police department.” He explained that Taylor experienced “legal problems” in connection with a salesperson at Spectrum, because Taylor “believed that they had set him up and were trying to sell him on more things.” Taylor informed Vicente that in connection with this incident, “the police had tazed him three times … for no reason.”

¶4 Taylor also had relayed to Vicente

that when he [Taylor] was incarcerated he feared that jail staff and other inmates were going into his cell, so he would do things. He told me he had made a rope out of a shirt … to protect himself and was ready to fight. So put himself in a dangerous situation and put others in danger due to his paranoid thoughts.

Vicente believed Taylor created a “[d]angerous situation to both [Taylor] in provoking the other people and putting the other people in danger because he created his own weapon against them.” Vicente believed this incident occurred in December 2024.

¶5 Vicente stated that while Taylor had not made “any suicidal comments to” him, “he has made some subtle comments in the past that have led to previous detentions.” When Vicente discussed those comments with Taylor, Taylor “minimized them.”

¶6 Vicente testified that there are no alternatives to psychotropic medications for Taylor’s condition. Taylor is currently prescribed Invega Sustenna, which “[h]e has done well [on] in the past,” adding that “there was a period of about seven years where he hadn’t had any legal problems or hospitalizations when he was taking medications regularly.” However, Taylor

3 No. 2025AP2428

currently “does not believe he has an illness so he does not believe he needs the medication,” and he did not produce himself for his most recent scheduled injection. Vicente explained that Taylor has “had a repeated pattern of after stabilization, believing he doesn’t need medication, going off medication, then having a decompensation, which either led to hospitalization or other legal issues.”

¶7 Vicente agreed that Taylor had “demonstrated a substantial probability that he needs care or treatment to prevent further disability or deterioration.” Relatedly, Vicente reiterated that Taylor “was previously being treated and taking his medication regularly. There were no incidents of going to the hospital or any interactions with the law. He had stopped treatment … in 2023. And since that time there’s been this decompensation with the recent legal problems and paranoid ideation.”

¶8 Vicente agreed there was a substantial probability “that if left untreated [Taylor] would lack the services necessary for his health or safety,” elaborating that “the delusional beliefs and his inability to care for himself and then not trusting people. He, for instance, wound up in a homeless shelter in South Dakota after he absconded from Wisconsin.” Vicente agreed “there [is] a substantial probability that if left untreated, [Taylor] would suffer severe mental, emotional, or physical harm resulting in his loss of ability to function independently within the community” and that such “would be likely to impact his cognitive control over his thoughts and actions.” Vicente indicated that Taylor had “clearly stated he would not” avail himself of reasonable provisions for treatment if they were made available in the community.

¶9 On cross-examination, Vicente testified that with regard to the Spectrum incident, Taylor “believed he was provoked.” Vicente testified that it

4 No. 2025AP2428

was his understanding that in addition to rolling up a t-shirt “to make a rope” as a makeshift weapon, according to Taylor, he “had also at one time used a dinner tray and had broken some glass.” Vicente acknowledged that he did not have any evidence of Taylor actually using these latter items “against … anybody in particular.” Vicente agreed that it was his opinion that the e., or fifth, standard of WIS. STAT. § 51.20 applied in this case.

¶10 In his report, which was admitted into evidence at the hearing, Vicente provides additional insight into Taylor’s condition.

[Taylor] has a history of mental health needs since 1993. He has had hospitalizations at Mercy Medical, Winnebago Mental Health, Fond du Lac Health Care Center, etc. [Taylor] has a history of not taking medications and becoming dangerous when not on a commitment with medication order due to poor insight into his mental health care needs and status. Previously [Taylor] was on a commitment from 6/8/13 with extensions through 5/23/23. His current commitment stemmed from being at Winnebago County Jail for various charges and decompensating while in custody. [Taylor] had threatened deputies, broken a window in his cell, was refusing to come out of his cell, threatened staff with a lunch tray and knotted shirt and believed that others were attempting to harm him or poison him with gas while incarcerated.

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Bluebook (online)
Winnebago County v. T. R. A., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/winnebago-county-v-t-r-a-wisctapp-2026.