Supreme Judicial Court hears challenge over overnight detention and inpatient competency evaluation

Attorney Martin Stroud told the Supreme Judicial Court that RD (also called “Ardie”) was arrested after her partner called 911 for medical help and — with no court clinician available that day — was detained overnight in jail before a subsequent inpatient competency order. “First, whether it was lawful for the court to detain RD overnight for the 15(a) evaluation,” he told the justices, framing the case as a pair of legal questions about detention and the standard for inpatient evaluation.

The case matters because courts use Sections 15(a) and 15(b) to decide when to order competency evaluations, and the defense argued those procedures should not be used as a means to detain or hospitalize people who could be evaluated on an outpatient basis. Stroud pressed that the Commonwealth bore a high clear-and-convincing…