In re the Detention of Durbin

160 Wash. App. 414, 2011 WL 799772
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedMarch 8, 2011
DocketNo. 39454-5-II
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 160 Wash. App. 414 (In re the Detention of Durbin) 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 the Detention of Durbin, 160 Wash. App. 414, 2011 WL 799772 (Wash. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

[418]*418f 1 David Durbin appeals from the trial court’s order civilly committing him as a sexually violent predator (SVP). He contends that (1) the State had no authority under former RCW 71.09.030 (2008) to file an SVP petition against him in Clark County because he had no Washington convictions for sexually violent crimes; (2) the current version of RCW 71.09.030, Laws of 2009, ch. 409, § 3, cannot be applied retroactively to justify filing the State’s petition in Clark County; (3) the trial court erred when it determined that the acts underlying his Clark County conviction, for which he was incarcerated when the State filed the SVP petition, would have qualified as a recent overt act because the acts were over five years old by the time the State filed its petition in Clark County; and (4) the State did not have jurisdiction to file an SVP petition in Clark County because he had been unlawfully confined under an incorrectly filed petition in Thurston County. We affirm the trial court’s commitment order.

Van Deren, J.

FACTS

f 2 On July 19,1987, Durbin was at a Mormon church in Montana where a five-year-old girl, SE, had gone into a bathroom. When SE came out of the bathroom stall, Durbin was waiting inside the bathroom. He picked her up, asked her for her name and other questions, and then carried her out of the bathroom through a different door. He lifted up her dress and began touching her. SE testified that she felt uncomfortable and “either screamed ... or did something frantic.” Report of Proceedings (RP) at 29. Durbin testified that she began to cry and Durbin fled. Durbin pleaded guilty to sexual assault for this offense, and a Montana court sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

¶3 In 1987, during an evaluation performed after his conviction, Durbin disclosed details of his earlier sexual abuse of LB, his brother’s 10-year-old stepdaughter. In November 1986, Durbin lived in Wyoming with his brother, his sister-in-law, and LB and, according to LB, Durbin began [419]*419sexually abusing her almost immediately after he moved in and he sexually abused her on numerous subsequent occasions. More than once, Durbin woke her up to tell her to “take [her] clothes off and to get into bed with him.” RP at 10. He would tell her that she could not tell anyone about his acts, that it was okay, that his conduct was normal, and that he would hurt LB’s mother if LB disclosed what he did. At times, to prevent LB from screaming, Durbin would cover her mouth with his hand, and she felt that he would use force if she did not comply. Durbin admitted to the evaluator that he had a strong sexual desire for LB and that he had penetrated her vagina with his finger. Durbin also testified that he had continued to fantasize about his niece after having “cuddled” with her and that he had masturbated to those thoughts. RP at 21. On June 26,1989, Durbin pleaded guilty in Wyoming to third degree sexual assault of LB and was sentenced to confinement in Wyoming.

|4 On the evening of June 15, 2003, Eduviges Villa Chavez and her four children, three boys and one girl, were in their Clark County apartment. The children ranged in age from 1 to 10. Villa Chavez’s apartment was on the ground floor next to a field and a church. She was in her bedroom ironing clothes while her three boys played in the living room. One of her sons called to her, saying that there was a man outside “playing on the grass” and that the man had watched the boys for 20 to 30 minutes. RP at 60. She saw Durbin kneeling by a tree outside the apartment’s sliding glass door and watching her and the boys “intently.” RP at 61. She immediately turned off the lights in the apartment and called her sister, who lived nearby. As she made the call, Durbin continued to sit against a pine tree outside the door. When her sister arrived, they approached Durbin and asked him to leave; he complied.

¶5 But shortly thereafter, as Villa Chavez spoke on the telephone, she saw Durbin standing five to six feet away, looking into her apartment. Frightened, she called her sister again and gathered her children in the hallway where she could “keep [them] safe.” RP at 66. As she gathered the [420]*420children, she saw Durbin going toward the back of the building and she remembered the rear apartment windows. She ran into the back rooms, closed the blinds, and made sure that the windows were closed. As she closed the blinds in the rooms, Durbin followed her from window to window, touching them to see if they were open. As she closed the blinds, Durbin made eye contact with her.

¶6 Villa Chavez’s sister, her niece, and a police officer arrived shortly thereafter. Vancouver Police Officer Robert O’Meara found Durbin sitting on a park bench in a children’s play area next to the church. Durbin was sitting on the bench with a “jacket or something” over his hands, which were “kind of moving around.” RP at 122, 123. O’Meara was joined by a second police officer and the two officers placed Durbin in the back of a patrol car. Durbin tried to resist apprehension by swearing at, hitting, and kicking them. Later the officers discovered toys, candy, and condoms in a suitcase or backpack found near the tree where Durbin had squatted. They also found a church identification card in Durbin’s backpack or wallet that read “ ‘volunteer’ ” along with his name. RP at 130. Later that night, when O’Meara went to jail to see Durbin, he observed Durbin in a holding cell with his pants removed, lying in a fetal position, and Durbin appeared to be masturbating.

¶7 On August 11, 2003, Durbin pleaded guilty to attempted residential burglary, and the trial court sentenced him to one year and one day in prison. On June 14, 2004, while Durbin was still in prison for the Clark County offenses, the State filed a petition in Thurston County under former ROW 71.09.030 (1995), alleging that Durbin met the criteria for commitment as an SVP.

f 8 On an ex parte finding of probable cause, the State transferred Durbin to the Thurston County jail and, on September 30, 2004, Durbin stipulated that the petition established probable cause to believe that he was an SVP. The State transferred Durbin to the Special Commitment Center (SCO) on McNeil Island to await his commitment trial.

[421]*421¶9 On May 1, 2008, before Durbin’s commitment trial, our Supreme Court issued its opinion in In re Detention of Martin, 163 Wn.2d 501, 182 P.3d 951 (2008). On July 22, 2008, at the request of the Clark County prosecutor, the State filed an SVP petition against Durbin in Clark County under former RCW 71.09.030 (2008). The State subsequently requested and received dismissal without prejudice of its Thurston County SVP petition.1

¶10 Before his commitment trial, the State asked the court to conclude as a matter of law that Durbin was confined for a crime that constituted a “recent overt act” under former RCW 71.09.030(5) (2008), in effect at the time, and former RCW 71.09.020

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