# In re Commitment of Encalade

Supreme Court of Texas, No. 24-0918

**In re Commitment of Encalade, No. 24-0918, is before the Supreme Court of Texas. Key issue: The Court granted the petition for review in a sexually-violent-predator civil commitment, vacated the judgments of the court of appeals and trial court, and dismissed the case as moot on Lonnie Encalade's own motion, without reaching the merits.**

Practice areas: criminal law, civil procedure

## Key issues

- The Court granted the petition for review in a sexually-violent-predator civil commitment, vacated the judgments of the court of appeals and trial court, and dismissed the case as moot on Lonnie Encalade's own motion, without reaching the merits.

## Factual History
Lonnie Clemont Encalade was civilly committed as a sexually violent predator under Chapter 841 of the Health and Safety Code after a Harris County jury found he met the definition (Petition for Review, PDF pp. 7-8).

## Procedural History
The First Court of Appeals affirmed the commitment judgment June 22, 2023 (No. 01-22-00278-CV, memorandum opinion) and denied rehearing and en banc reconsideration September 24, 2024. Encalade petitioned for review December 4, 2024 and moved to dismiss December 13, 2024. On January 10, 2025, without hearing argument or considering the merits, the Court granted the motion, granted the petition, vacated the court of appeals' and trial court's judgments and dismissed the case as moot; the docket gives no reason. No response to the petition appears on the docket.

## Issues Presented
The petition raised five issues: whether the court of appeals wrongly treated his constitutional challenge to the SVP statute as waived on technicalities, decided an issue not presented, misapplied Rule of Evidence 705 to limit cross-examination about a letter the State's expert relied on, put a civil procedure rule above the statutory sanction, and ignored defects that made the State's expert testimony conclusory (Petition for Review, PDF p. 9). The Court did not reach them.

## Legal Arguments
**Encalade (Petitioner):** the court of appeals was hyper-technical about briefing, elevated a civil rule over Chapter 841, limited cross-examination contrary to Rule 705, and accepted conclusory expert testimony (Petition for Review, PDF pp. 9-11).

## Stated Reasons the Court Should Take the Case
The order rests on the motion to dismiss; the Court did not consider the petition's reasons for review (January 10, 2025 orders).

## Practice Area Tags
criminal-law, civil-procedure

## Procedural Posture/Vehicle
Petition for review from the First Court of Appeals; granted, judgments vacated, and case dismissed as moot on the petitioner's motion under Rule of Appellate Procedure 56.2 (January 10, 2025 orders).

## Amicus Involvement
None noted

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Source: The SCOTX Report, https://scotxreport.com/cases/24-0918. AI-generated summary of the Court's opinion, orders and the parties' briefs, with pin cites to the page of each document; verify against the Court's own documents at search.txcourts.gov.