Rinne v. Psychiatric Sec. Review Bd.

443 P.3d 731, 297 Or. App. 549
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMay 15, 2019
DocketA164557
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 443 P.3d 731 (Rinne v. Psychiatric Sec. Review Bd.) 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
Rinne v. Psychiatric Sec. Review Bd., 443 P.3d 731, 297 Or. App. 549 (Or. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

DEHOOG, J.

*733*550Petitioner appeals, requesting that we reverse and remand an order of the Psychiatric Security Review Board (PSRB) denying his request for discharge from PSRB jurisdiction and continuing his commitment to the Oregon State Hospital (OSH). Petitioner argues that neither PSRB's factual finding, that he presents a substantial danger to others as a result of a qualifying mental disease or defect, nor its resulting legal conclusion, that he remains subject to PSRB jurisdiction, is supported by substantial evidence. See ORS 161.351 (requiring discharge if person under PSRB jurisdiction is "no longer affected by a qualifying mental disorder or, if so affected, no longer presents a substantial danger to others that requires regular medical care, medication, supervision or treatment"). Having reviewed PSRB's order and the underlying record, we agree with petitioner. Specifically, we conclude that substantial evidence does not support PSRB's finding, in support of its order, that petitioner's anxiety disorder renders him a substantial danger to others. As a result, we reverse and remand PSRB's order asserting continuing jurisdiction over petitioner.

With the exception of PSRB's ultimate finding (that petitioner suffers from a qualifying mental disease or defect that renders him a substantial danger to others), the relevant facts are largely procedural and undisputed. Petitioner has been a patient at OSH since 1999, when a trial court entered a judgment finding petitioner guilty except for insanity and placing him under PSRB jurisdiction for a period of not more than 60 years.1 See ORS 161.327(1) (authorizing commitment to state hospital of a person found guilty except for insanity of a felony, if the person "is affected by a qualifying mental *551disorder and presents a substantial danger to others"). Since then, petitioner has had multiple hearings before PSRB. Those include one held in 2015 after OSH requested that PSRB discharge petitioner because he no longer carried a "jurisdictional diagnosis," i.e. , a qualifying mental health diagnosis warranting continued PSRB jurisdiction. See ORS 161.341(1) (2011), amended by Or. Laws 2017, ch. 634, § 11, and Or. Laws 2017, ch. 442, § 4;2 OAR 859-060-0040. OSH recognized that petitioner remained at risk of sexually reoffending due to a nonqualifying diagnosis *734of Pedophilic Disorder.3 OSH also acknowledged that petitioner exhibited symptoms of anxiety. In OSH's view, however, petitioner's anxiety symptoms were associated with his pedophilia and another nonqualifying personality disorder. In any event, OSH maintained, those symptoms were not themselves causally related to petitioner's dangerousness. Further, by that time, petitioner's only other potentially jurisdictional diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder could no longer be supported. Thus, OSH asserted, PSRB no longer had any basis on which to continue exercising jurisdiction over *552petitioner. At the conclusion of that proceeding, however, PSRB concluded that, because petitioner was "affected by a mental disease or defect which, when active, render[ed] him a substantial danger to others," he was properly under PSRB jurisdiction; accordingly, PSRB denied the requested discharge and continued petitioner's commitment to OSH. Petitioner appealed that decision.

In 2016, while that appeal of PSRB's 2015 decision was pending before us, petitioner initiated another PSRB hearing on his own behalf. OSH again supported petitioner's discharge from PSRB jurisdiction. By then, however, OSH no longer held the view that petitioner did not have a potentially jurisdictional diagnosis; rather, acknowledging that petitioner had current diagnoses for Illness Anxiety Disorder and Other Specified Anxiety Disorder, OSH took the position that neither of those otherwise qualifying diagnoses was the cause of petitioner's dangerousness. As before, OSH expressed its view that the substantial risk that petitioner would engage in pedophilic behaviors in the future was solely due to his pedophilia. Accordingly, OSH again maintained that PSRB lacked jurisdiction over petitioner. The present appeal arises from PSRB's February 2017 hearing, at which it again rejected that argument.

To provide context for our discussion of the evidence presented at that hearing, we pause to give an overview of the procedural and substantive laws governing PSRB's consideration of petitioner's request. At the time of the hearing, petitioner's request was governed by ORS 161.351 (2011), amended by Or. Laws 2017, ch. 634, § 13, and Or. Laws 2017, ch. 442, § 5. Under that provision, the standards for discharge were as follows:

"(1) Any person placed under the jurisdiction of the Psychiatric Security Review Board or the Oregon Health Authority under ORS 161.315 to 161.351 shall be discharged at such time as the agency having jurisdiction over the person, upon a hearing, finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the person is no longer affected by mental disease or defect or, if so affected, no longer presents a substantial danger to others that requires regular medical care, medication, supervision or treatment.
*553"(2) For purposes of ORS 161.315 to 161.351, a person affected by a mental disease or defect in a state of remission is considered to have a mental disease or defect. A person whose mental disease or defect may, with reasonable medical probability, occasionally become active and when it becomes active will render the person a danger to others may not be discharged. The person shall continue under supervision and treatment necessary to protect the person and others.
"(3) In determining whether a person should be committed to a state hospital or secure intensive community inpatient facility, conditionally released or discharged, the board and the authority shall have as their primary concern the protection of society."

As we observed in Beiswenger v. PSRB , 192 Or. App. 38, 41, 84 P.3d 180, rev. dismissed as improvidently allowed ,

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Bluebook (online)
443 P.3d 731, 297 Or. App. 549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rinne-v-psychiatric-sec-review-bd-orctapp-2019.