In Re Commitment of Branch

890 So. 2d 322, 2004 WL 3024205
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedDecember 10, 2004
Docket2D01-2087
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 890 So. 2d 322 (In Re Commitment of Branch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Commitment of Branch, 890 So. 2d 322, 2004 WL 3024205 (Fla. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

890 So.2d 322 (2004)

In re COMMITMENT OF Raymond BRANCH.
Raymond Branch, Appellant,
v.
State of Florida, Appellee.

No. 2D01-2087.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

December 10, 2004.

*323 James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Deborah K. Brueckheimer, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Marilyn Muir Beccue and Janet A. McDonald, Assistant Attorneys General, Tampa, for Appellee.

VILLANTI, Judge.

Raymond Branch challenges his involuntary civil commitment as a sexually violent predator under sections 394.910-.931, Florida Statutes (2001), the Jimmy Ryce Act (the Ryce Act), on a variety of grounds. We affirm on all issues except one. Because under the specific facts of this case Branch had a due process right to be competent during the commitment hearing, we reverse and remand for a new hearing once Branch is restored to competence.

On March 20, 1995, Branch pleaded guilty to one count of sexual battery and one count of false imprisonment. He was sentenced to eight years in prison followed by four years of sex offender probation on the sexual battery charge. He was sentenced to a concurrent term of five years in prison on the false imprisonment charge. Branch was scheduled to be released from prison on March 24, 2001. On March 15, 2001, the State filed a petition to have Branch committed under the Ryce Act. The trial court entered an order finding probable cause and remanding Branch to the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services upon his release from prison. Pursuant to section 394.916(3), the trial court also appointed counsel for Branch to represent him in the Ryce Act proceedings.

Shortly thereafter, counsel moved to have Branch's competency evaluated based on his behavior in the courtroom. The trial court ordered that Branch undergo a competency and sanity evaluation to determine his competence to stand trial in the upcoming Ryce Act proceeding. This order specifically required the psychologists to use the criteria for competence contained in both Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.211 and section 916.13(1)(a), Florida Statutes (2001), presumably because the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure contain no such criteria. Both psychologists who examined Branch determined that he was not competent to stand trial because his schizophrenia was not under control. Both psychologists found, among other things, that Branch's acute psychosis prevented him from assisting his counsel in any way with a defense to the allegations against him.

After reviewing these reports, the State stipulated that Branch was incompetent to proceed to trial based on the criminal standards for competence. However, the State contended that this was irrelevant because Ryce Act proceedings are civil in nature and therefore are governed by the rules of civil procedure rather than the criminal rules. Under Florida Rules of Civil Procedure 1.210(b) and 1.260, a civil trial against *324 an incompetent person may proceed as long as the trial court appoints a guardian to represent the incompetent person's interests. In response to the State's arguments, the trial court appointed a guardian ad litem to represent Branch's interests and scheduled the Ryce Act proceeding.

At the Ryce Act proceeding, the State presented the testimony of the victim of the underlying offense. The State also presented the testimony of Peter Bursten, a licensed psychologist.[1] Dr. Bursten testified that in his opinion Branch qualified as a sexually violent predator. There was no dispute that Branch had a prior conviction for a sexually violent offense. However, for Dr. Bursten to find that Branch qualified as a sexually violent predator, he also had to find that Branch had a mental abnormality sufficient to qualify him for commitment under the Ryce Act. To do this, Dr. Bursten found that Branch had engaged in a pattern of inappropriate sexual behavior by relying on various records provided to him by the State. Included among these were records from Branch's participation in a Department of Corrections' (DOC) sex offender program, during which Branch allegedly admitted to having sexual fantasies involving coercion and force. The records also included an information filed by the State in 1987 charging Branch with two counts of sexual assault and two counts of kidnaping. Finally, the records included a letter Branch's mother had written to the court in the 1980s stating that Branch had sexually assaulted his sister in 1974. Dr. Bursten admitted that he had never spoken with anyone at the DOC about the sex offender program records and had never spoken to the alleged victims of either the 1987 or 1974 assaults. He also admitted that there was no record that Branch was convicted of either of the alleged assaults.

Based solely on his review of these records, Dr. Bursten formed the opinion that Branch had a mental abnormality that qualified him as a sexually violent predator under the Ryce Act. Dr. Bursten testified that the most important factor in reaching this opinion was Branch's pattern of deviant sexual behavior, which included repeated assaults against a variety of types of victims. He found that Branch exhibited such a pattern based exclusively on the reports provided to him by the State. However, Dr. Bursten admitted that he had no knowledge as to whether the 1974 and 1987 events actually occurred, admitted that Branch had never been charged with assaulting his sister or prosecuted for the alleged 1987 offenses beyond the filing of the information, and testified that he was simply taking the reports of that behavior at face value. He subsequently testified that the 1987 incident involved Branch's allegedly sexually assaulting a known prostitute and that the charges were dismissed because the prostitute, who was on probation at the time, disappeared after making the police report. Dr. Bursten acknowledged that Branch had never had the opportunity to defend himself against the charges and that it was possible that the incidents had not occurred as reported. However, despite these deficiencies, Dr. Bursten testified that in his opinion the reports in and of themselves were sufficient to establish that Branch engaged in a pattern of deviant sexual activity and so had a mental abnormality sufficient to qualify him as a sexually violent predator.

The State then called Branch to the stand, seeking to elicit testimony from him concerning the sexual offenses he was alleged *325 to have committed and testimony concerning his comments during his DOC sex offender treatment. Over a defense objection and out of the jury's presence, Branch took the stand. He refused to take the oath and, while certain answers Branch gave appeared to be responsive to the questions asked, others were either not responsive or completely irrelevant. Branch became agitated during the course of the questioning, and his responses became increasingly bizarre[2] as questioning continued. Finally, the court stopped the questioning.

In support of his argument that he was not competent to testify, Branch then called Dr. Sesta, one of the licensed psychologists who had evaluated him for competence pursuant to the earlier order. Dr. Sesta testified that Branch was not currently competent to testify and was not currently competent to stand trial under the criminal standards. Dr. Sesta testified that Branch had been competent in the past and that, with proper medication and treatment, Branch could likely be restored to competence within approximately six months.[3]

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Bluebook (online)
890 So. 2d 322, 2004 WL 3024205, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-commitment-of-branch-fladistctapp-2004.