Osborn v. Psychiatric Security Review Board

898 P.2d 789, 135 Or. App. 94, 1995 Ore. App. LEXIS 938
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJune 21, 1995
Docket89-1033; CA A85362
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 898 P.2d 789 (Osborn v. Psychiatric Security Review Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Osborn v. Psychiatric Security Review Board, 898 P.2d 789, 135 Or. App. 94, 1995 Ore. App. LEXIS 938 (Or. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

*96 EDMONDS, J.

Petitioner seeks review of an order of the Psychiatric Security Review Board (PSRB) denying his request for discharge and ordering his continued commitment. ORS 161.346(1). We affirm.

Petitioner was found guilty except for insanity of sodomy in the first degree and sexual abuse in the first degree. At the time of that adjudication on July 9, 1989, petitioner had been diagnosed by a medical doctor as suffering from an organic personality syndrome and borderline intellectual functioning (borderline IQ). Regarding petitioner’s organic personality syndrome, the physician said:

“This disorder is a major mental disorder based upon organic impairment and should not be confused with the functional personality disorders. It is more akin to brain damage secondary to causes such as strokes or dementia, with which it is placed in the definitions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III-R.
“Because of this disorder [petitioner] is substantially impaired in his ability to understand the quality of his acts, and because of that to conform those acts to the requirements of law.”

As a result of that diagnosis, petitioner was placed under the jurisdiction of PSRB. On July 13,1989, petitioner’s treating doctor at Oregon State Hospital included pedophilia as part of his diagnosis of petitioner’s condition. According to the American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3d ed 1987) (DSM-III-R), pedophilia is a mental disorder with the following criteria:

“A. Over a period of at least six months, [the person has] recurrent intense sexual urges and sexually arousing fantasies involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children (generally age 13 or younger).
“B. The person has acted on these urges, or is markedly distressed by them.
“C. The person is at least 16 years old and at least 5 years older than the child or children in A.” DSM-III-R at 285.

Since 1989, petitioner has remained under the jurisdiction of PSRB, and pedophilia has been a consistent part of *97 his diagnosed condition. The record also indicates that he has been accused by other patients of acting inappropriately in a sexual manner, and that he has refused to participate in the hospital treatment programs, including the sex offender treatment program. Petitioner’s doctors have maintained that such treatment is a necessary step before he could be conditionally released or discharged.

In 1993, petitioner requested a hearing pursuant to ORS 161.341, seeking a discharge from PSRB’s jurisdiction. In a “progress note update” completed before the hearing, petitioner’s current treating doctor, Meyer, made the following assessment of his condition:

“In our opinion, [petitioner] still cannot be safely managed in the community. He has been institutionalized most of his life. He remains uncooperative and noncompliant to treatment. He still is frequently accused of inappropriate sexual advances towards other patients. These advances sometimes result in altercations. For instance, the other day he reportedly grabbed another patient in the crotch. This patient swung his fist and hit [petitioner] in the face, causing a laceration above his left eyebrow.
“[Petitioner] continues to deny any sexual misbehavior or sexual problems. He refuses to attend treatment team meetings, he refuses to participate in the majority of treatments offered him, he occasionally participates in activity therapy, and he will not talk with his psychiatrist one-on-one, with his case monitor, or with other staff. He continually says, T don’t like you,’ T don’t belong here,’ T don’t have any problems,’ and ‘You should get me out.’
“On the other hand, [petitioner] shows very little desire to leave the hospital. He shows very little discomfort about being here and seems to enjoy picking at others, making fun of them, and making sarcastic comments. It is difficult to make progress on [petitioner] considering his present attitude. We will continue to try to involve him in treatment and eventual transfer to the Sex Offender Treatment Program.”

Meyer diagnosed petitioner’s condition at that time as pedophilia, borderline IQ and mixed personality disorder. Meyer did not include an organic personality disorder in the diagnosis. At the hearing, Meyer testified to petitioner’s current condition, stating that petitioner

*98 “[has] always gotten into difficulties with sexual acting out, act[s] sexually inappropriate with other patients, get[s] into conflicts as a result of his sexual behavior * * * lack[s] * * * cooperativeness to treatment * * *.”

Meyer also testified that if petitioner was unsupervised in the community, he would likely act out sexually against children again, but that he would do so of his own free will and would be able to understand the wrongfulness of such conduct.

After the hearing, PSRB found, in part:

“2. [Petitioner] is affected by a mental disease or defect as demonstrated by the underlying facts shown by the evidence including the expert testimony of John Meyer, M.D., at the hearing to the effect that [petitioner] suffers from a diagnosis of pedophilia as well as borderline or low average IQ.”

Petitioner makes four assignments of error. He argues first that PSRB lacked substantial evidence to find that he suffers from a “mental disease or defect”; second, that under ORS 161.295(2) and OAR 859-10-005(4), his condition is excluded from the definition of a “mental disease or defect”; third, that PSRB erred as a matter of law in continuing his commitment, because he no longer suffers from the condition responsible for his placement under PSRB’s jurisdiction; and fourth, that PSRB unlawfully delegated its authority when it adopted OAR 859-10-005. We first address petitioner’s third assignment of error.

Petitioner argues that PSRB has no authority to retain jurisdiction over him under ORS 161.341(4)(a), because he no longer suffers from the mental disease or defect that resulted in his adjudication of guilty except for insanity. Petitioner relies on our holding in Baldwin v. PSRB, 97 Or App 367, 776 P2d 577 (1989), in which we said that

“the legislature clearly intended that, before being discharged under ORS 161.341(4)(a), a person must no longer be affected by the condition that made her dangerous, that is, the mental disease or defect that originally caused her to he placed under PSRB’s jurisdiction.” Id. at 371.

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Related

Osborn v. Psychiatric Security Review Board
934 P.2d 391 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1997)
Rios v. Psychiatric Security Review Board
898 P.2d 799 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1995)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
898 P.2d 789, 135 Or. App. 94, 1995 Ore. App. LEXIS 938, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/osborn-v-psychiatric-security-review-board-orctapp-1995.