In Re Melton

For the reasons expressed in the vacated division opinion, In re Melton, 565 A.2d 635 (D.C.1989), vacated, 581 A.2d 788 (1990), I would reverse and remand the ease to the trial court with instructions to vacate Melton’s civil commitment order.

I

The first issue is how a trial court is to determine whether the “facts or data ... upon which an expert bases an opinion or inference ... [is] of a type reasonably relied upon by experts in the particular field_” Fed.R.Evid. 703. Everyone agrees that the court may not defer entirely to the proffered experts’ own assessments of reliable hearsay.1 So how…