2011 Vermont Code
Title 18 Health
Chapter 171 GENERAL PROVISIONS
§ 7104 Wrongful hospitalization or denial of rights; fraud; elopement

§ 7104. Wrongful hospitalization or denial of rights; fraud; elopement

Any person who wilfully causes, or conspires with or assists another to cause:

(1) the hospitalization of an individual knowing that the individual is not mentally ill or in need of hospitalization or treatment as a mentally ill or mentally retarded individual; or

(2) the denial to any individual of any rights granted to him under this part of this title; or

(3) the voluntary admission to a hospital of an individual knowing that he is not mentally ill or eligible for treatment thereby attempting to defraud the state; or

(4) the elopement of any patient or student from a hospital or training school or who knowingly harbors any sick person, or who aids in abducting a patient or student who has been conditionally discharged from the person or persons in whose care and service that patient or student has been legally placed;

shall be fined not more than $500.00 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. (Added 1967, No. 305 (Adj. Sess.), { 1, eff. Oct. 1, 1968; amended 1977, No. 257 (Adj. Sess.), { 4.)