In re Commitment of Bauer

2020 IL App (2d) 180905
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided June 24, 2020·No. 2-18-0905·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

No. 2-18-0905

Opinion filed June 4, 2020

IN THE

APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS SECOND DISTRICT

In re COMMITMENT OF NICHOLAS R. ) Appeal from the Circuit Court BAUER ) of Lee County.

)

) No. 09-MR-64

)

(The People of the State of Illinois, ) Honorable Petitioner-Appellee, v. Nicholas R. Bauer, ) Daniel A. Fish, Respondent-Appellant.) ) Judge, Presiding.

JUSTICE McLAREN delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

Justices Hutchinson and Jorgensen concurred in the judgment and opinion.

OPINION

¶ 1 Respondent, Nicholas R. Bauer, appeals the trial court’s orders (1) finding, after a hearing pursuant to Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923), that the diagnosis of hebephilia has been generally accepted in the relevant scientific community and (2) finding him to be a sexually violent person (SVP). Hebephilia is defined as “the strong, persistent sexual interest by adults in pubescent children who are in early adolescence, typically ages 11-14 and showing Tanner stages 2 to 3 of physical development.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Hebephilia (last visited June 3, 2020). We affirm.

¶2 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 3 Respondent was convicted in 2007 of one count of indecent solicitation of a child (720 ILCS 5/11-6(a) (West 2006)) and sentenced to six years in the Illinois Department of Corrections

(IDOC), to be followed by one year of mandatory supervised release. In 2009, the State filed a petition for an order of commitment pursuant to the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act (Act) (725 ILCS 207/1 et seq. (West 2008)), seeking an order of detention pursuant to section 30(a) of the Act and commitment to the Illinois Department of Human Services for control, care, and treatment pursuant to section 40 of the Act. The State alleged, inter alia, that respondent had been evaluated by Dr. Ray Quackenbush, a clinical psychologist, who diagnosed respondent as suffering from the mental disorders of (1) “Paraphilia, Not Otherwise Specified, with Mixed Features” and (2) “Personality Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified, with Antisocial Features.” In 2015, the State amended its petition, deleting any reference to Quackenbush and his diagnoses. Instead, the State cited the diagnoses of two other doctors: (1) Dr. Richard Travis diagnosed respondent as having “Other Specified Paraphilic Disorder, Sexually [sic] Arousal To Early Pubescent Females, Nonexclusive Type” and (2) Dr. Angeline Stanislaus diagnosed respondent as suffering from “Other Specified Paraphilic Disorder—Hebephilia.” Paraphilia is defined as “a pattern of recurring sexually arousing mental imagery or behavior that involves unusual and especially socially unacceptable sexual practices (such as sadism or pedophilia).” Merriam- Webster Online Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paraphilia (last visited June 3, 2020).

¶ 4 Respondent filed a motion in limine seeking to bar the testimony of the State’s evaluators or to subject portions of it to a hearing pursuant to Frye, 293 F. 1013. Respondent amended his motion in light of the State’s amended petition, deleting certain evaluators and adding Travis and Stanislaus. According to respondent, both Travis and Stanislaus submitted “a diagnosis of hebephilia.” Respondent argued that, pursuant to our supreme court’s decision in In re Detention of New, 2014 IL 116306, a Frye hearing was required to determine whether the diagnosis of

hebephilia (defined as a preferential sexual interest in pubescent (early stages of puberty) children) had gained general acceptance in the psychological and psychiatric communities.

¶ 5 Both the State and respondent agreed that a Frye hearing was necessary to evaluate Travis’s and Stanislaus’s diagnoses, and a hearing was held in October 2016. After hearing testimony from State’s witnesses Dr. David Thornton and Dr. James Cantor, and respondent’s witness Dr. John Fabian, the trial court found that “there is more than a reasonable subset, there is a substantial subset of the psychologists and psychiatrists who as a substantial part of their work evaluate, treat or research sex offenders who accept hebephilia as a diagnosis.” Thus, the trial court denied respondent’s motion to exclude at trial the evidence of the diagnosis.

¶ 6 The matter then proceeded to a bench trial on the commitment petition. The State presented the testimony of Stanislaus and Travis, both of whom found that respondent met the criteria to be committed as a sexually violent person. Respondent presented the testimony of Fabian. The trial court found respondent to be a sexually violent person and committed respondent to the Illinois Department of Human Services. This appeal followed.

¶7 II. ANALYSIS

¶ 8 Respondent first contends that the trial court erred in finding that the diagnosis of hebephilia has gained general acceptance in the relevant scientific community and that expert reliance on the diagnosis was reasonable.

¶ 9 The admission of scientific evidence is governed by the Frye standard (New, 2014 IL 116306, ¶ 25), which is now codified in the Illinois Rules of Evidence:

“Where an expert witness testifies to an opinion based on a new or novel scientific methodology or principle, the proponent of the opinion has the burden of showing the methodology or scientific principle on which the opinion is based is sufficiently established

to have gained general acceptance in the particular field in which it belongs.” Ill. R. Evid.

702 (eff. Jan. 1, 2011).

The Frye test is used to exclude new or novel scientific evidence that undeservedly creates “a perception of certainty when the basis for the evidence or opinion is actually invalid” (internal quotation marks omitted) and serves to prevent a factfinder from simply adopting the judgment of an expert because of the natural inclination to equate science with truth and, therefore, accord undue significance to any evidence labeled as scientific. New, 2014 IL 116306, ¶ 26. “General acceptance” does not mean universal acceptance; it does not require that the methodology in question be accepted by unanimity, consensus, or even by a majority of experts. In re Commitment of Simons, 213 Ill. 2d 523, 530 (2004). It is sufficient that the underlying method used to generate an expert’s opinion is reasonably relied upon by experts in the relevant field. Id. We review de novo a trial court’s determination of whether a Frye hearing is necessary and whether there is general acceptance in the relevant scientific community. New, 2014 IL 116306,

¶ 26. In conducting this de novo review, a reviewing court may consider the trial court record and, where appropriate, sources outside the record, including legal and scientific articles, as well as judicial opinions from other jurisdictions. Simons, 213 Ill. 2d at 531.

¶ 10 In New, our supreme court determined that “the diagnosis of hebephilia is subject to Frye” and remanded the cause “for a Frye hearing to determine if hebephilia is a generally accepted diagnosis in the psychiatric and psychological communities.” Id. ¶ 53. The parties here agreed that a Frye hearing was necessary, and we have not found any reported cases that have examined the diagnosis of hebephilia under Frye since the supreme court addressed the issue in New. Thus, we will review the trial court’s decision as it relates to the Frye hearing.

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