In re Patrick L.

52 Misc. 3d 753, 31 N.Y.S.3d 845
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMay 18, 2016
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 52 Misc. 3d 753 (In re Patrick L.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Patrick L., 52 Misc. 3d 753, 31 N.Y.S.3d 845 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Thomas D. Buchanan, J.

By verified petition filed May 28, 2015, petitioner seeks an evidentiary hearing upon his requested annual review pursuant to Mental Hygiene Law § 10.09 to determine whether he remains a dangerous sex offender requiring confinement. Petitioner was civilly committed pursuant to article 10 of the Mental Hygiene Law on June 3, 2014.1

Petitioner was notified of his annual right to petition the court for discharge on April 13, 2015, and petitioner did not waive such right. An interview was conducted on May 4, 2015 by Danielle Tope, Psy.D., a licensed psychologist for the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH). Petitioner was informed of his right to not participate in the interview for the evaluation and petitioner declined to participate. Dr. Tope conducted the remainder of her annual evaluation by reviewing petitioner’s records, including previous psychological evaluations conducted by OMH personnel, as well as petitioner’s selected psychiatric experts. In her evaluation report dated June 5, 2015, Dr. Tope opined that petitioner met the criteria for diagnoses of other specified paraphilic disorder, non-consent; antisocial personality disorder; and cannabis use disorder, in a controlled environment. In light of these diagnosed conditions, Dr. Tope further opined that petitioner “is a detained sex offender suffering from a mental abnormality involving such a strong predisposition to commit sex offenses, and such an inability to control behavior, that he is likely to be a danger to others and to commit sex offenses if not confined to a secure treatment facility” (Tope report at 17). On July 20, 2015, petitioner was provided with the Commissioner’s determination that petitioner was a dangerous sex offender requiring confinement.

Petitioner challenges the finding of Dr. Tope and has provided his own expert, Jeffrey Singer, Ph.D., who opines that petitioner does not have a mental abnormality. An evidentiary hearing [755]*755was held on October 19, 2015 at which both Dr. Tope and Dr. Singer testified. The court has considered the testimony of the experts as well as the exhibits presented. Posttrial written summations were also considered. Upon consent, this matter had been delayed pending further submissions of decisions rendered in other courts relating to matters discussed in this hearing, specifically whether the diagnosis of other specified paraphilic disorder, non-consent, which had been subjected to Frye hearings2 in two other New York cases, had gained general acceptance in the relevant psychiatric community.

Findings of Fact

1. Petitioner is currently a 55-year-old male who has spent the majority of his life incarcerated or confined.

2. Petitioner’s criminal history dates back to 1977 when he was 16 years old and he was first criminally convicted of attempted rape in the first degree in full satisfaction of an indictment involving two separate sexual offenses involving the attempted rape of a 48-year-old female and the rape of a 15-year-old female which occurred approximately three weeks apart. Both offenses involved the use of a weapon and were committed in a wooded area near a commuter train station. Petitioner demanded the 15-year-old victim’s identification card and her address following the rape.

3. Following his conviction, petitioner was sentenced to a term of 10 years’ incarceration, of which he served approximately five years before being released to parole.

4. Within weeks of being released to parole, petitioner engaged in another series of sexual offenses including the rape of a 38-year-old female, the rape of a 17-year-old female and the attempted kidnapping of a third female. All three of these incidents involved the use of a weapon and all occurred near or at the same location as the offenses in 1977. Petitioner demanded the identification card and address of the 17-year-old victim following the rape.

5. Petitioner was convicted of rape in the first degree by forcible compulsion and sexual abuse in the first degree relative to the 17-year-old female, for which he was sentenced to 12V2 to 25 years of incarceration. Petitioner also pleaded guilty to [756]*756criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree in satisfaction of the charges relating to the attempted kidnapping.

6. A jury found that petitioner had a mental abnormality pursuant to Mental Hygiene Law § 10.07. Thereafter, by decision and order dated June 3, 2014, the Supreme Court, Richmond County, determined that petitioner was a dangerous sex offender requiring confinement pursuant to Mental Hygiene Law § 10.03 (e).

7. Dr. Tope testified that she found it clinically significant that petitioner’s criminal history showed a pattern of repetitive offenses, and further, “the fact that he began at such a very early age, persisted despite sanctions, and, in fact, while under supervision, the fact that he offended despite reporting access to consenting partners, all are very significant factors” (tr at 9, lines 4-8).

8. Dr. Tope opined that petitioner exhibits a number of markers consistent with the research on paraphilia, non-consent, inasmuch as “[h]e reoffended within a very short period of time, committed multiple offenses within a two-week period on both occasions” (tr at 10, line 25 through 11, lines 1-2). Dr. Tope further opined that petitioner exhibited “clear indicators of arousal to that non-consenting element” (tr at 11, lines 7-8).

9. Dr. Tope testified that while confined, petitioner continued to exhibit markers of his underlying interest in the non-consent element, including an incident in 2012 where petitioner “threatened to knock down a female staff member and rape her” and one in 2014, where he “made a comment at St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center about being triggered and that he might touch a female staff member inappropriately” (tr at 13, lines 12-16). Dr. Tope indicated that there were numerous instances wherein petitioner “continued to express that underlying interest” (tr at 13, lines 17-18).

10. Dr. Tope also testified that “as recently as November and December of 2014, at St. Lawrence, [petitioner] threatened to kill a peer that he was angry with, and actually turned over a sock with a — diabetic sugar packets that he was going to use to assault that peer” (tr at 15, lines 9-12).

11. Dr. Tope testified that petitioner’s reporting of his use of cannabis has been inconsistent and she noted that he had been ticketed while in prison for possession. Dr. Tope described petitioner’s use of cannabis to further compound petitioner’s difficulty in controlling his behavior which is already disinhib-[757]*757ited by his antisocial personality disorder (tr at 15, lines 19-25; at 16, lines 4-8).

12. Dr. Tope explained the three diagnoses together as follows:

“I used the analogy before that the paraphilic disorder is sort of like the green light. It is what drives the bus forward. It is what allows him to approach non-consenting individuals. And the antisocial personality disorder is the absence of a red light. There is no internal stops. There is not the sense of conscious social mores that would stop or prohibit people from stopping or acting on those interests and the cannabis, as I said, would compound that further, disinhibiting the approach behavior towards the paraphilic interests” (tr at 16, lines 17-25 through 17, line 1).

13. Dr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
52 Misc. 3d 753, 31 N.Y.S.3d 845, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-patrick-l-nysupct-2016.