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Criminal – Detention – Competency evaluation | Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.Supreme Judicial Court Mass.Lawyers Weekly Staff//May 25, 2026// Supreme Judicial Court Mass.Lawyers Weekly Staff//May 25, 2026// Where a criminal defendant was detained without bail pending the availability of a hospital bed to effectuate a competency evaluation pursuant to G.L.c.123, §15(b), the detention order was unlawful, as “a judge may not detain a criminal defendant without bail solely because a hospital bed is unavailable to conduct a competency evaluation.” Accordingly, a single justice’s decision to vacate the detention order is affirmed.“This case, together with a companion case also decided today, R.D.Commonwealth, 497 Mass.(2026), concerns the lawfulness of detaining a criminal defendant without bail pending the availability of a hospital bed to effectuate a competency evaluation pursuant to G.L.c.123, §15(b) (§15[b]).In addition, the case implicates the underlying order requiring the defendant’s hospitalization for that evaluation (commitment order).Because no bed was available at the facility designated to conduct the evaluation, a judge ordered the defendant detained without bail until a bed became available (detention order).The defendant challenged both orders by filing a petition in the county court pursuant to G.L.c.The single justice vacated the detention order, concluding that no statutory or common-law authority permits detention without bail to facilitate a competency evaluation pursuant to §15(b), but denied relief as to the commitment order.The defendant appealed.“We first decide, in the exercise of our discretion, to reach the merits of the detention order, as it presents an important question that implicates a fundamental liberty interest and that may generate confusion in the trial courts.Second, although the defendant’s challenge to the commitment order ordinarily would not be before us — given the available review in the Appellate Division of the District Court (Appellate Division) — we likewise exercise our discretion to reach its merits.Finally, we conclude that the single justice neither erred nor abused her discretion in vacating the detention order and in denying relief from the commitment order.Accordingly, we affirm.… “The single justice concluded, and we agree, that there is no statutory authority for the detention order.… “The judge was likewise without inherent authority to issue the detention order.… “In short, no matter how well intentioned, a judge may not detain a criminal defendant without bail solely because a hospital bed is unavailable to conduct a competency evaluation.The detention order was therefore unlawful, and the single justice correctly vacated it.… “For the reasons stated, we conclude that the judge did not err in ordering the defendant’s competency evaluation pursuant to G.L.c.123, §15(b), but that the detention order was unlawful.Accordingly, the single justice did not abuse her discretion or commit a clear error of law in vacating the detention order and declining to disturb the §15(b) commitment order.” S.W.Commonwealth (Lawyers Weekly No.10-057-26) (18 pages) (Georges, J.) The case was heard by Wendlandt, J., sitting as single justice.Michaela R.Martin Strout for the petitioner; Jocelyn A.McGrath for the commonwealth; Tatum A.Pritchard, Justin M.Woolf, Deborah A.Dorfman, Jennifer Honig, Steven Schwartz and Kathryn Rucker submitted a brief for Disability Law Center, Inc., and others, amici curiae (Docket No.SJC-13785) (May 21, 2026).Click here to read the full text of the opinion.