Matter of Linehan

557 N.W.2d 167, 1996 Minn. LEXIS 830, 1996 WL 711286
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedDecember 12, 1996
DocketC3-96-511
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 557 N.W.2d 167 (Matter of Linehan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Matter of Linehan, 557 N.W.2d 167, 1996 Minn. LEXIS 830, 1996 WL 711286 (Mich. 1996).

Opinions

OPINION

KEITH, Chief Justice.

This case raises questions regarding the scope of the review hearing for final commitments under the Sexually Dangerous Persons Act, Minn.Stat. §§ 253B.02, subd.' 18b, 253B.18, subds. 2-3, 253B.185, subd. 1 (1994) (SDP Act), and the sufficiency of the evidence supporting appellant Dennis Darol Li-nehan’s final and indeterminate commitment. Linehan challenges the district court’s final order of commitment following a statutorily required 60-day review hearing in which the court determined that Linehan continues to qualify for commitment under the SDP Act. He maintains that the 60-day review hearing should be broadly construed as a “double-check” against erroneous commitment; therefore, Linehan argues the district court erred in refusing to allow him to challenge the initial order of commitment at the review hearing. Linehan also contends that evidence introduced at his review hearing demonstrated that “clinical” predictions in favor of his commitment were “potentially too inaccurate to support a deprivation of liberty.”

We granted Linehan’s petition for accelerated review so that we could consider this matter in conjunction with Linehan’s challenge to his initial commitment in In re Linehan, 544 N.W.2d 308 (Minn.1996) (Linehan II). We now affirm.1

I.

In January 1996, the Ramsey County District Court held a hearing reviewing Line-han’s initial commitment in July 1995 to the Minnesota Security Hospital (MSH) as a sexually dangerous person (SDP). As required by the SDP Act, Dr. Thomas Gratzer, senior forensic psychiatrist at MSH, filed a treatment report with the district court in September 1995.2 In the report, Dr. Gratzer concluded that Linehan continues to qualify as an SDP and recommended continued inpatient treatment.

After hearing 5 days of testimony at the review hearing, the district court agreed that Linehan continues to meet SDP Act criteria and ordered final commitment under the statute. Testifying in favor of commitment were Dr. Douglas Fox, a licensed psychologist in private practice retained by Ramsey County, and Dr. Gratzer. Both doctors asserted that Linehan manifests antisocial personality disorder (APD), paraphiliac disorders and alcohol dependency. Dr. Gratzer also listed in his treatment report additional diagnoses of pedophilia and, possibly, sexual sadism. Both doctors concluded that Line-han presents a high risk of engaging in future acts of harmful sexual conduct and is highly likely to reoffend.

Linehan’s only witness was Dr. Paul Meehl, an expert on the accuracy of clinical versus actuarial predictions. The court allowed Dr. Meehl’s testimony over the county’s objections that the substance of Dr. Meehl’s testimony was previously considered in the initial commitment hearing and irrelevant to the issue of what had occurred since the court’s initial order. Although the district court allowed Dr. Meehl’s testimony, the court ruled that it would not allow the relit-igation of factual issues decided at the initial [170]*170hearing, unless such issues were “reopened” by the county or state.

Using a hypothetical base rate of recidivism of 18% from a study on reconviction rates for heterosexual child molesters, Dr. Meehl illustrated that if, in fact, the base rate of recidivism is relatively low, then even a clinician who is highly accurate in predicting future misconduct will often be wrong. Even assuming that Linehan may be in a special group of child molesters more likely than average to reoffend, Dr. Meehl illustrated that clinical prediction accuracy may nonetheless be low.

After hearing the testimony, the district court found clear and convincing evidence that Linehan continues to meet the SDP Act requirements. The court did not specify the disorder or dysfunction upon which it relied. Rather, the court apparently incorporated the findings made during the initial commitment proceeding. The court did, however, address Dr. Meehl’s testimony and the weight it afforded the testimony. The court made clear that it had not credited Dr. Meehl’s testimony on the merits because it was “directed to one point: [t]he difficulty of predicting future recidivist behavior * * As such, the court concluded that Dr. Meehl’s testimony was in essence an attack on the validity of the SDP Act, which should have been raised no later than the initial commitment hearing.

II.

We first address Linehan’s contention that the district court erroneously limited the scope of the review hearing and the state’s response that Linehan lacks standing to raise the issue.

We conclude, as an initial matter, that Linehan has standing to raise the issue. Standing to appeal is conferred when there is injury to a legally protected right. City of St. Paul v. LaClair, 479 N.W.2d 369, 371 (Minn.1992). Moreover, for a party to possess standing, “the right invaded must be immediate, not merely some possible, remote consequence, or mere possibility arising from some unknown and future contingency.” Twin Cities Metro. Pub. Transit Area v. Holter, 311 Minn. 423, 425-26, 249 N.W.2d 458, 460 (1977) (quoting 4 C.J.S. Appeal and Error § 183b(1) at 561). Although the district court admitted Dr. Meehl’s testimony at the review hearing, the court did not fully credit Dr. Meehl’s testimony, but instead considered it beyond the scope of the review hearing. Accordingly, because Linehan was adversely impacted by the district court’s ruling, we find he possesses standing to appeal. See id.

Linehan next argues that the review hearing is intended solely to benefit the patient by providing a forum for consideration of additional evidence that might preserve that person’s freedom from confinement. Accordingly, he contends that the patient may challenge the commitment by demonstrating “either that his commitment was improper ab initio, or that his condition has changed so that the commitment has become improper.” Linehan relies on the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Addington v. Texas, 441 U.S. 418, 428-29, 99 S.Ct. 1804, 1810-11, 60 L.Ed.2d 323 (1979) (citing the “layers of professional review” as a safeguard against continued erroneous commitment).

The state counters that the purpose of the review hearing under the statute is two-fold: first, the review hearing allows the district court to consider the views of the treatment facility before issuing a final commitment order; and, second, the review hearing allows the district court to consider whether changes in the patient’s condition render further commitment as an SDP inappropriate. See Minn.Stat. § 253B.18, subds. 2-3.

The state relies on the language of the statute and commitment act rules for the mentally ill and dangerous which directs first, that a treatment report be filed within 60 days, id.; Rule 12.05, Special Rules of Procedure Governing Proceedings Under the Minnesota Commitment Act of 1982; and, second, that the district court ascertain whether the patient “continues to be” mentally ill and dangerous. Minn.Stat. § 253B.18, subd. 3.

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Related

In re the Civil Commitment of Navratil
799 N.W.2d 643 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2011)
In Re the Civil Commitment of Rannow
749 N.W.2d 393 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2008)
Hince v. O'KEEFE
632 N.W.2d 577 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2001)
In Re Linehan
594 N.W.2d 867 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1999)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
557 N.W.2d 167, 1996 Minn. LEXIS 830, 1996 WL 711286, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matter-of-linehan-minn-1996.