Jason Begin v. State of Maine , 2018 ME 69 ( 2018 )

MAINE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT Reporter of Decisions
Decision: 2018 ME 69 Docket: Ken-17-452
Submitted
On Briefs: April 10, 2018
Decided: May 15, 2018
Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and MEAD, GORMAN, and HUMPHREY, JJ.
JASON BEGIN
v.
STATE OF MAINE
PER CURIAM
[¶1] Jason Begin appeals from a judgment of the Superior Court
(Kennebec County, Stokes, J.) denying his petition for release and discharge
from the custody of the Commissioner of Health and Human Services pursuant
to 15 M.R.S. § 104-A (2017). Begin argues that the court erred as a matter of
law when it determined that Begin failed to prove that he “may be released or
discharged without likelihood that [he] will cause injury to [himself] or to
others due to mental disease or mental defect.” See 15 M.R.S. § 104-A(1). We
disagree and affirm.
[¶2] In support of his contention, Begin cites to a case where we stated
that “[t]he acquittee must establish either that (1) ‘the mental disease or
defect by reason of which he was relieved of criminal responsibility no longer
2
exists,’ or (2) he ‘no longer poses a danger to himself or others if he is
released’ despite any continuing mental illness.” Beauchene v. State, 2017 ME
153, ¶ 6, 167 A.3d 569 (quoting Green v. Comm’r of Mental Health & Mental
Retardation, 2000 ME 92, ¶ 27, 750 A.2d 1265); see also LaDew v. Comm’r of
Mental Health & Mental Retardation, 532 A.2d 1051, 1054-55 (Me. 1987).
According to Begin, the court should have granted his petition because the
experts who testified at his hearing agreed that he does not currently have
schizophrenia, the diagnosis that served as the basis for the finding of not
criminally responsible in 2004.
[¶3] Contrary to Begin’s argument, our focus in Beauchene and LaDew
was on the legal definition of “mental disease or defect”—not the medical
diagnoses that contributed to a finding of mental disease or defect. See
Beauchene, 2017 ME 153, ¶ 10, 167 A.3d 569; LaDew, 532 A.2d at 1054-55.
We have never held that an acquittee is entitled to release or discharge if he
proves that the specific mental diagnosis by which he was found to have a
mental disease or defect no longer exists. Accordingly, the court applied the
correct standard when it denied Begin’s petition for release and discharge.1
1 We are not persuaded by Begin’s additional contention—that the court erred when it reviewed
and relied on reports that were filed with the court. See 15 M.R.S. §§ 101-D, 104-A (2017).
3
The entry is:
Judgment affirmed.
Rory A. McNamara, Esq., Drake Law, LLC, Berwick, for appellant Jason Begin
Maeghan Maloney, District Attorney, and Carie E. James, Asst. Dist. Atty., Office
of the District Attorney, Augusta, for appellee State of Maine
Kennebec County Superior Court docket number CV-2005-150
FOR CLERK REFERENCE ONLY