In Re Detention of Scott

208 P.3d 1211
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedJune 1, 2009
Docket61121-6-I
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 208 P.3d 1211 (In Re Detention of Scott) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Detention of Scott, 208 P.3d 1211 (Wash. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

208 P.3d 1211 (2009)

In re the DETENTION OF Richard Roy SCOTT, Appellant.

No. 61121-6-I.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1.

June 1, 2009.

*1213 David L. Donnan, Washington Appellate Project, Seattle, WA, for Appellant.

David J.W. Hackett, King County Prosecutor's Office, Seattle, WA, for Respondent.

PUBLISHED IN PART

COX, J.

¶ 1 Richard Roy Scott appeals his civil commitment as a sexually violent predator under Washington's sexually violent predator act (SVPA), chapter 71.09 RCW. Dismissal of the State's petition for commitment of Scott as a sexually violent predator (SVP) is not required in response to his claim that he was unlawfully detained beyond the expiration of his revised sentence at the time the State filed the SVP petition against him. First, it is significant that Scott acquiesced to being returned to the custody of the Department of Corrections (DOC) following the hearing for resentencing. Second, unlawful custody, by itself, is not a jurisdictional impediment to a valid petition for commitment under the SVPA.

¶ 2 Because his stipulation to be committed as a sexually violent predator was not involuntary, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Scott's motions for reconsideration of the stipulation and order of commitment as an SVP. This record is insufficient to decide whether the trial court abused its discretion by denying Scott's motion for relief based on the State's alleged violation of his work product privilege. The State was not required to prove a "recent overt act" under the SVP statute. The act underlying Scott's third degree rape of a child conviction was sufficient for purposes of the SVPA. Scott waived two additional issues he now asserts on appeal when he signed the stipulation and order just prior to his scheduled trial. We affirm.

¶ 3 Scott was convicted of five counts of indecent liberties in 1984 in King County. The victims in those counts were between 7 and 13 years of age. He was released from his prison sentence on those charges in 1994.

¶ 4 In 2001, Scott entered an Alford[1] plea to one count of third degree rape of a child. He was initially sentenced to 34 months confinement on July 6, 2001. Due to an apparent scoring error and his successful personal restraint petition, the court resentenced Scott on this charge to a term of 20 months on Friday, May 16, 2003. Because he had already served 24 months, Scott's new sentence made him eligible for release. At the conclusion of the sentencing hearing, the trial court, without objection, ordered Scott returned to the custody of the Department of Corrections to process him for release. On his return to the custody of DOC on Monday morning, May 19, 2003, the department began processing him for release.

¶ 5 On Monday afternoon, May 19, 2003, The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, on behalf of the State, filed a petition to commit Scott as an SVP. Scott was never released from custody.

¶ 6 After extensive pre-trial litigation, Scott's SVP trial was scheduled to begin on November 6, 2007. On the morning of trial, Scott voiced his disapproval of his living conditions. He told the court that he was "not in a position to proceed" because he was staying in jail and did not have his clothes or medication. He also was unshaven and had not showered. The trial court ordered the jail to remedy these concerns and ordered the parties to reconvene for further proceedings that afternoon.

¶ 7 When the parties returned, Scott indicated his desire to stipulate to civil commitment if he could reserve three issues for appeal. The parties prepared a stipulation and order of commitment containing three issues reserved for appeal, which Scott signed. The trial court conducted an extensive inquiry on the record to ensure that Scott was entering into the stipulation voluntarily. *1214 The trial court then entered the order.

¶ 8 In the days following entry of the order, Scott filed two motions for relief from the stipulation. He alleged that his agreement had not been voluntary because of the circumstances under which it was signed. The trial court denied these motions.

¶ 9 Scott appeals.

LAWFUL CUSTODY

¶ 10 Scott argues that the trial court erred in denying his motions to dismiss the SVP petition because he was not in lawful custody at the time the petition for commitment was filed and, therefore, the "total confinement" requirement of the SVPA could not be satisfied. We disagree.

¶ 11 Under the SVPA, the State may petition a court to civilly commit an inmate if the individual has previously been convicted of a "sexually violent offense [and] is about to be released from total confinement."[2] To civilly commit the inmate, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he or she is a sexually violent predator.[3] A sexually violent predator is a person "who has been convicted of or charged with a crime of sexual violence and who suffers from a mental abnormality or personality disorder which makes the person likely to engage in predatory acts of sexual violence if not confined in a secure facility."[4] To comport with due process, the petition must be based on a current mental illness and present dangerousness.[5]

¶ 12 If the State files the petition when the person has been released from custody and is living in the community, the likelihood that a person will engage in predatory acts "must be evidenced by a recent overt act."[6] "[T]he recent overt act requirement directly and specifically speaks to a person's dangerousness and thus satisfies the dangerousness element required by due process."[7] But if the person is totally confined at the time the petition is filed, no proof of a recent overt act is required.[8]

¶ 13 Scott contends that the "total confinement" requirement of the SVPA must be read to require lawful custody. He contends that the State unlawfully detained him when it returned him to DOC custody after the May 16, 2003 resentencing hearing and thus the SVP court had no jurisdiction when the May 19, 2003 petition was filed. Thus, Scott argues, the trial court should have dismissed the civil commitment petition. We disagree.

¶ 14 First, it is significant that Scott acquiesced to the confinement that he now contests. Scott's arguments focus on the time between his Friday, May 16 resentencing hearing and Monday, May 19, when the State filed the SVP petition while DOC was still processing his release. Because Scott was successful in his personal restraint petition to the supreme court with respect to his confinement on the Pacific County conviction, the trial court held a hearing on Friday, May 16 to give Scott his choice of specific performance (resentencing) or withdrawal of his guilty plea to the charge. Scott chose resentencing. The prosecutor and defense counsel each recommended a sentence of 20 months incarceration, and then discussed the appropriate length of community custody given that Scott had already served 24 months in prison. The record reflects the following colloquy:

*1215 PROSECUTOR: The Department of Corrections will presumably figure all of that out when he gets back to their custody and they will release him as soon as they get all those conditions put on him.
JUDGE: Okay. All right. Mr. Scott you've got the right to make a statement before I do whatever it is I'm going to do.
SCOTT: Um, I agree with everything on the ...
JUDGE: Okay, and ...

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Bluebook (online)
208 P.3d 1211, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-detention-of-scott-washctapp-2009.