Delegate Gardner’s bill would require magistrates to seek TDO/involuntary‑admission info before bail decisions

Delegate Gardner told the subcommittee HB240 is an incremental statutory fix intended to ensure magistrates and judicial officers try to obtain and consider emergency custody orders, temporary detention orders (TDOs), or involuntary admission orders when making pre‑trial decisions about bail.

Gardner framed the bill with a July case in Richmond: a man subject to a TDO was not identified as such at a magistrate appearance after an alleged assault and was released; later, the man—Charlie Baez (referred to by the patron)—was shot and killed during a mental‑health crisis. Gardner told the committee that hospitals and court systems do not reliably exchange TDO information and that the substitute aims to require judicial officers to attempt to obtain and review any relevant emergency custody orders.

Members questioned whether the proposed code change addresses upstream failures — for example, why a person left a hospital before stabilization — and whether law‑enforcement records are accessible to officers without personal knowledge. Counsel and the patron said the substitute was negotiated with advocates and the Supreme Court of Virginia; the patron characterized it as a first step rather than a comprehensive systems reform. Committee members asked that the Behavioral Health Commission study broader system issues.

Action and next steps: the committee carried the substitute over to 2027 and requested that the chair send a letter to the Behavioral Health Commission to study systemic failures around involuntary admissions and information sharing. No final enactment occurred in the subcommittee; the bill will return for further consideration with accompanying study material.

Attribution: Direct quotes and attributions in this article come from the transcript of the subcommittee hearing; the sponsor is Delegate Gardner (patron) and family testimony was provided by the mother of the deceased individual.