State v. Ardizzone

Citations

• 215 Conn. App. 854

Syllabus

The acquittee, who had been found not guilty of the crime of murder by reason of mental disease or defect, appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court denying his application for discharge from the jurisdiction of the Psychiatric Security Review Board. Held that the trial court properly denied the acquittee's application for discharge from the jurisdiction of the board, the record having contained evidence to support the court's finding that if the acquittee were to be discharged, he would constitute a danger to himself or others: in its memorandum of decision, the court indicated that it had considered the relevant evidence in light of the entire record available to it, including testimony of various medical professionals and the acquittee and the board's writ- ten report, evidence that chronicled, inter alia, the acquittee's history of rule breaking behavior, which contributed to his decompensation in supervised settings, and, in light of that evidence, the court reasonably could have inferred that, if the acquittee became noncompliant with his treatment plan, his mental illness likely would return to a florid state and he would present a danger to himself and others; moreover, even though the court expressly acknowledged testimony from certain wit- nesses that the acquittee willingly accepted treatment and acknowledged the importance of continuing to take his medication as prescribed, the court, as the fact finder, was free to find other testimony more compel- ling; furthermore, contrary to the acquittee's claims that the trial court relied solely on a misunderstanding in a treatment provider's testimony and improperly relied on the board's report, this court was not persuaded that the court's conclusion with respect to certain expert testimony violated law, logic, or reason, or otherwise was inconsistent with the subordinate facts of the case, and its reliance on the board's report was proper, as the report included a summary of the acquittee's s