Utah Rep Wants "Serious Bodily Injury" to Include Child Assault

June 04, 2011

Utah state representative Bradley Daw of Orem has proposed changes to the definition of "serious bodily injury" under the state's civil commitment statute. The lawmaker's actions come on the heels of a Utah man's release from the state hospital after psychiatric evaluators declared he was not a "substantial danger to himself or society," according to the Deseret News.

The man had been accused of serious sexual assault charges against two children, but a judge declared him incompetent to stand trial because of his cognitive disorder. He was evaluated by psychiatric experts at the Utah State Hospital in Provo to determine if he met the criteria to be civilly committed to the state hospital.

Civil commitment does not necessarily involve crimes -- rather a psychiatric patient is evaluated to determine if he or she would pose a danger to society and should be held at a state hospital until the patient is no longer a danger to self or others. Civil commitment has no time limit. A psychiatric patient may be released at any time or may live out his or her life in the state hospital.

When the psychiatrists determined that the man was not a danger to himself, nor did he place others at risk for "serious bodily injury," a judge ordered him released from the state hospital. After his release, he moved from the state.

Lawmaker Says "Serious Bodily Injury" Definition Does Not Include Child Assault

After the release of the accused from the state hospital, Representative Daw began working with psychiatric experts and legal experts to draft language to close a perceived loophole in the civil commitment statute: child sexual assault does not currently meet the definition of "serious bodily injury." He hopes to bring a bill to the table that closes the loophole for the January 2012 legislative session at the Capitol in Salt Lake City.

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