BRATTLEBORO — A mentally ill and homeless doctor yelled obscenities at a judge and prosecutor repeatedly Monday, but was released from custody because an evaluation found she was not a danger to herself or others.
Heather Wick, 50, who insisted on being called "Dr. Wick" by court officials, was in Brattleboro criminal court Monday because she had allegedly trespassed twice at a Brattleboro hotel.
An emergency mental health evaluation over the weekend at Springfield Hospital determined she was not a danger to herself or others and didn't need to be hospitalized. But it didn't tackle the thorny issue of whether she was competent to face criminal charges or trial.
Windham Superior Court Judge Michael Kainen said the emergency forensic evaluation, conducted remotely, determined Wick was "not a danger to herself or other while medicated."
Windham County State's Attorney Tracy Kelly Shriver said Tuesday that Wick had first been in court on Friday on the unlawful trespass charge. After the weekend emergency evaluation, she was back in court on Monday.
During a 30-minute hearing in which she constantly yelled obscenities at Kainen and Windham County Deputy State's Attorney David Gartenstein, the judge released her on various conditions. But whether she understood those conditions concerned the judge.
Wick is a graduate of Albany Medical College in New York but failed to complete her residency because of a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, according to various published profiles of the former Burlington woman, who is also a graduate of Dartmouth College and the daughter of former state senator and Vermont bank president Hilton Wick of Burlington.
Heather Wick taunted the judge and the prosecutor. "My dad's a lawyer. You're an embarrassment," she said. "You suck."
"It doesn't appear you're competent," Kainen told Wick, who at that point was not being represented by a lawyer.
"I know I'm competent," she retorted. "You're lying, you're lying."
Kainen and Gartenstein didn't react to her baiting and calmly discussed Wick's legal options, and what the court could do to help her and keep her from trespassing again.
"What's the big deal?" she said, explaining that she was homeless and needed a place to stay. "What are you talking about? You're making it up," she said.
Gartenstein said that getting the Department of Mental Health to conduct competency evaluations took a long time — the department is backlogged, he said, up to 10 months. Gartenstein cited the delay in another criminal case involving a defendant whose mental health is also under review — Misbah Abdul-Kareem. Getting forensic evaluations from the state is an ongoing problem, Kainen and Gartenstein have said in other recent court hearings.
"I don't think you know what you're doing, sir," she told Kainen.
Finally, a public defender came to the courtroom to represent Wick, but she rejected him.
"I'm homeless. Sorry, I'm a Republican," she said.
"Am I not a doctor? Am I not a doctor?" she shouted.
"I just want my wallet and cellphone. I want my papers and my three bags of clothing," she said. The items were being held at the Brattleboro Police Department.
Kainen rejected Gartenstein's request for $200 cash bail and set conditions that included that she not be charged with another crime, that she show up in court nd that she stay away from the Hampton Inn.
Wick said she was headed to the Holiday Inn Express, once she had retrieved her credit card.