In re Williams

539 S.W.3d 429
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 30, 2017
DocketNO. 01-16-00745-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 539 S.W.3d 429 (In re Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Williams, 539 S.W.3d 429 (Tex. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

Evelyn V. Keyes, Justice *432In this civil commitment proceeding, the State petitioned to have appellant, Christopher Williams, declared a sexually violent predator under the Sexually Violent Predators Act ("SVP Act" or "the Act"). See TEX. HEALTH & SAFETY CODE ANN. §§ 841.001 -.151 (West 2017). After a jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that Williams was a sexually violent predator, the trial court signed a final judgment and entered an order of civil commitment.

In six issues, Williams contends that (1) the State and trial court did not follow Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 204, which sets out procedures relating to the physical and mental examination of parties; (2) the trial court erroneously sustained the State's objections to Williams' requests for admissions that it could not admit whether Williams had been granted parole because it was easier for Williams to obtain his parole records; (3) the State failed to present sufficient evidence that ordinary psychological or psychiatric treatment modalities are not available for Williams; (4) the jury charge failed to instruct the jury that, to be a sexually violent predator, Williams needed to have serious difficulty controlling his behavior; (5) the jury charge failed to inform the jury that civil commitment under the SVP Act "must be restricted to persons whose difficulty controlling their behavior is distinguishable from the dangerous, but typical, recidivist convicted in an ordinary criminal case"; and (6) the State failed to present sufficient evidence that Williams was likely to reoffend.

We affirm.

Background

In May 2005, Williams pleaded guilty to two federal offenses-receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography-and the District Court for the Southern District of Texas assessed his punishment at confinement in a federal penitentiary in North Carolina for 151 months and 120 months, respectively. The federal court ordered that, upon release from imprisonment, Williams be on supervised release for life. In January 2006, Williams pleaded guilty in the 178th District Court of Harris County to two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under age fourteen, two counts of sexual performance by a child, two counts of indecency with a child by contact, and one count of indecency with a child by exposure. The state court assessed Williams' punishment at ten years' confinement for the indecency with a child by exposure offense and one of the offenses of sexual performance by a child, and twelve-and-a-half years' confinement for the other five offenses, to run concurrently. Each of the state judgments of conviction included a special instruction that the sentences "are to be served in a Federal Institution to run concurrent [with] the previous 151 month sentence in [the] federal case."

In September 2015, after Williams had been granted parole in his federal cases and as he was nearing the end of the sentences in his state cases, the State petitioned to have Williams declared a sexually violent predator under the SVP Act. The *433State alleged that Williams was a repeat sexually violent offender and that he suffered from a behavioral abnormality that made him likely to engage in a predatory act of sexual violence. Shortly after filing its petition, the State moved to have Williams examined by an expert, as provided by Health and Safety Code section 841.061(c). The trial court granted the motion, ruling that the examination should occur "immediately if possible," but prior to the end of the discovery period. Williams was subsequently examined by Dr. Timothy Proctor, who later testified at the commitment proceeding on behalf of the State.

Throughout the discovery period, both the State and Williams served numerous requests for admission and other written discovery. Relevant here are several requests for admissions in which Williams requested that the State admit that Williams had been granted parole on each of his offenses. The State made the following identical objection to each of Williams' requests:

Petitioner [the State] objects to this request as it is vague. Petitioner objects that the information sought is obtainable from some other source that is more convenient or less burdensome, namely: Respondent [Williams]. Petitioner further objects that this request asks for the admission of a matter that is hearsay. Under Section 841.004 of the Texas Health and Safety Code, the Special Prosecution Unit-Civil Division is "responsible for initiating and pursuing a civil commitment proceeding." The subject of this request is not within the personal knowledge of the Special Prosecution Unit. Subject to the foregoing objections and without waiving same, Petitioner cannot admit or deny this request at this time as Respondent had not yet been released from TDCJ. It is unclear as to whether or not his parole plans have been fully approved in the state he plans on paroling to.

Williams challenged the sufficiency of the State's objections to these requests, but the trial court ruled in favor of the State and sustained the State's objections.

At trial and in the presence of the jury, the State read into the record all of Williams' admissions in response to the State's requests, which included admissions that Williams had previously been convicted of nine sex-related offenses in state and federal court. Williams, who had been a P.E. teacher and athletic director at Holy Spirit Episcopal School in Houston, admitted that he had "joked around with [his] students about the size of their penises," that he had watched pornographic movies with students, that he had performed oral sex on a child, that he had fondled a child, and that "[e]ven though [he] knew it was wrong to sexually offend against [his] victims, [he] did it anyway."

Dr. Proctor, a forensic psychologist, testified that the State hired him to determine whether Williams had a behavioral abnormality that made him likely to engage in a predatory act of sexual violence, and he conducted an interview with Williams.1 In his testimony, Dr. Proctor discussed Williams' history of sexual offenses, which began when Williams was about twenty and watched his younger cousin masturbate. Williams attended college at the University of Houston, and *434while he was there, he had a student job in the athletic department. Williams was ultimately fired from that position for using a university printer to print a pornographic picture, and Dr. Proctor reviewed information indicating that the particular picture was of a child.

After graduating from the University of Houston, Williams accepted a job in the athletic department of Holy Spirit Episcopal School. Dr. Proctor testified to the details of numerous instances in which Williams befriended his male students and their families, and, over the course of years, engaged in a pattern of conduct that began with inappropriate sexual jokes and escalated to having discussions about the students' penis size and pubic hair, to exchanging sexually explicit instant messages with his students, to receiving nude photographs of his students, to watching students masturbate and masturbating in their presence, to touching them sexually, and, ultimately, to performing oral sex on one of the students. At least one of the students was as young as eleven years old when Williams began inappropriately touching him.

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Bluebook (online)
539 S.W.3d 429, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-williams-texapp-2017.