State v. V.T.
State v. V.T.
Opinion of the Court
In this civil commitment case, appellant challenges a trial court order that continued appellant’s involuntary civil commitment on the basis that appellant continues to suffer from a mental disorder that makes her a danger to herself. This is not an “exceptional” case and therefore does not warrant de novo review. See ORAP 5.40(8)(c) (providing that the court will exercise its discretion to review de novo “only in exceptional cases”). Accordingly, “‘we view the evidence, as supplemented and buttressed by permissible derivative inferences, in the light most favorable to the trial court’s disposition and assess whether, when so viewed, the record was legally sufficient to permit that outcome.’” State v. M. A., 276 Or App 624, 625, 371 P3d 495 (2016) (quoting Dept. of Human Services v. N. P., 257 Or App 633, 639, 307 P3d 444 (2013)). Reviewing under that standard, we affirm.
Appellant has been in the custody of the Oregon Health Authority since March 2015 based on the court’s determination that appellant is a “person with mental illness.” See ORS 426.130(l)(a)(C). As pertinent to this case, a “person with mental illness” is a “person who, because of a mental disorder” is “[d]angerous to self.” ORS 426.005(l)(f)(A). After appellant spent a year in the custody of the Oregon Health Authority, the court determined that appellant’s commitment should be continued for up to an additional 180 days, on the basis that appellant is “still a person with mental illness and is in need of further treatment.” See ORS 426.307(6).
The determination that an individual is “still a person with mental illness” must be based on “clear and convincing evidence,” as must the determination at the time of the initial commitment. ORS 426.307(6); ORS 426.130(l)(a). As we have emphasized in the context of an initial commitment, the evidence that the person presents a danger to self “must partake of a particularized, and highly probable, threat to [the] appellant’s safe survival, including a risk of substantial harm, in the near future.” State v. S. R. J., 281 Or App 741, 749, 386 P3d 99 (2016) (internal quotation marks omitted; brackets in original).
Although appellant argues that the evidence of risk is speculative, we disagree. There is evidence that impulsively running and screaming as a result of hallucinations continues to be a common behavior for appellant. Although recently that behavior has been confined to hospital hallways, that is because appellant has been confined to a hospital since March 2015. When appellant was last in the community, those same hallucinations caused her to run uncontrollably into traffic. She actually injured herself in that incident, and the court could infer that appellant’s pattern of impulsively running, without regard for her surroundings, creates a highly probable risk of more substantial harm in the future. That evidence of the risk that appellant presents to herself is sufficient to permit the court’s determination that appellant’s mental disorder makes her
Affirmed.
Neither party has suggested that the standard for proving that an individual is “a person with mental illness” should be different at a recommitment
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.