The judge refers the case to the mental health court after Richard Hutton 'declared a 1368 PC [Penal Code] hearing to declare a doubt to mental competency.'
- Sep 25, 2013
AceShowbiz - Amanda Bynes missed her court date on Tuesday, September 24. She was supposed to appear in a Los Angeles courtroom for a DUI case stemming from her April 2012 arrest, but her lawyer Richard Hutton said she was mentally unfit to stand trial.
Hutton claimed the former Nickelodeon star did not have the mental capacity to fully comprehend the nature of the legal proceedings. Her case was subsequently transferred to the mental health court for evaluation to determine her mental capacity.
A spokesperson from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office tells Us Weekly, "Her attorney declared a 1368 PC [Penal Code] hearing to declare a doubt to mental competency. The parties will be due back in court on January 14, 2014 for a progress report."
Bynes, 27, was put on an involuntary 5150 psychiatric hold in July after setting a fire on a stranger's driveway near her family's home in Thousand Oaks, California. Her confinement was later extended for an additional 30 days at doctors' request.
The "Easy A" actress is now placed in a long-term psychiatric treatment under a temporary conservatorship of her parents. They filed a request to oversee her financial and legal affairs as well as her well beings shortly after the fire incident.
The temporary conservatorship will stay in effect until the end of this month. A formal hearing is scheduled for September 30 to determine whether or not it should be made permanent.
Bynes is staying at the UCLA Medical Center after transferring from Hillmont Psychiatric Center in Ventura, California at the end of August. Her lawyer had previously asked her to be released from the facility, insisting she would be capable of taking care for herself.
Bynes was involved in a series of traffic violations last year, including two hit-and-run incidents which she later settled. The DUI case she's facing stemmed from an early morning accident where she allegedly scraped a patrol car. She pled not guilty in June.
She was additionally charged with driving on suspended license. She initially pled not guilty but changed it into no-contest plea as the case proceeded. She was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered by a judge to pay $300 in fines.
