United States v. Hall

• Decision Date: 09 January 2012
• Docket Number: No. 11–7102.,11–7102.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Petitioner–Appellant, v. Clyde M. HALL, Respondent–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

664 F.3d 456

UNITED STATES of America, Petitioner–Appellant,

v.Clyde M. HALL, Respondent–Appellee.

No. 11–7102.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: Oct. 28, 2011.Decided: Jan. 9, 2012.

ARGUED: Ian James Samuel, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Eric Joseph Brignac, Suzanne Little, Office of the Federal Public Defender, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Tony West, Assistant Attorney General, Mark B. Stern, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.; Thomas G. Walker, United States Attorney, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. Thomas P. McNamara, Federal Public Defender, Raymond C. Tarlton, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Office of the Federal Public Defender, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Before TRAXLER, Chief Judge, and MOTZ and AGEE, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Chief Judge TRAXLER wrote the opinion, in which Judge MOTZ and Judge AGEE joined.

OPINION

TRAXLER, Chief Judge:

This case arises out of the federal government's initiation of civil commitment proceedings against Clyde Hall via a certification that Hall is a “sexually dangerous person” under 18 U.S.C. § 4248. Following an evidentiary hearing, the district court found that the government had failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that Hall is sexually dangerous under the Act. We affirm.

I.

A.

Section 4248 of Title 18 was enacted as part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (the “Act”). It provides for the civil commitment of “sexually dangerous person[s]” following the expiration of their federal prison sentences. See 18 U.S.C. § 4248(a). A “sexually dangerous person” is one “who has engaged or attempted to engage in sexually violent conduct or child molestation and who is sexually dangerous to others.” 18 U.S.C. § 4247(a)(5). A person is considered “sexually dangerous to others” if “the person suffers from a serious mental illness, abnormality, or disorder as a result of which he would have serious difficulty in refraining from sexually violent conduct or child molestation if released.” Id.

The Attorney General, his designee, or the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) may initiate a § 4248 commitment proceeding in the district court for the district in which the person is confined by filing a certification that the person is sexually dangerous within the meaning of the Act. See 18 U.S.C. § 4248(a). The filing automatically stays the release of the person from custody pending a hearing before the district court. See id. “If, after the hearing, the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the person is a sexually dangerous person, the court shall commit the person to the custody of the Attorney General.” 18 U.S.C. § 4248(d). Id.¹

B.

Clyde Hall was born in 1965. As a child, he was subjected to physical and emotional abuse by his parents. Beginning at the age of nine, he was subjected to sexual abuse by a sixteen-year-old female acquaintance, which continued for approximately eleven months. Hall's father banished him from the family home when Hall was sixteen years old. Shortly thereafter, he was sexually assaulted by an adult male, and he began to support himself as a prostitute. Hall also abused drugs and alcohol from the age of nine until the age of twenty-three, when he voluntarily ceased using these substances.

Hall's first conviction for a sexual offense occurred in 1989, in Androscoggin County, Maine, when he was twenty-one years old. Hall pled guilty to one count of unlawful sexual contact and one count of gross sexual misconduct. According to the presentence report, “Hall exposed himself to a ten-year-old girl” and “touched her and had her ‘help’ him while he masturbated.” J.A. 479. The following month “Hall got into bed with the same ten-year-old, touched her vagina with his hands and mouth, and had her touch his penis with her hands and mouth.” J.A. 479. Hall was sentenced to four years in prison and six years of supervised release. He was released from prison in November 1991. Hall participated in a sex offender treatment program while in the custody of the state of Maine and continued treatment while on supervised release.

Hall's second conviction for a sexual offense occurred in 1999 in Essex County, New York, when he was thirty-three years old. Hall pled guilty to one count of acting in a manner injurious to a child, a class A misdemeanor offense. Hall was living with a woman and her young daughter at the time, and he showed the daughter and her friend, both of whom were ten years old, “drawings of unclothed females, intended to be pictures of ten-year-old girls.” J.A. 480. In addition, “[t]he victim's mother reported that Mr. Hall sexually abused her daughter by having her wear lingerie for him, dancing with him, sitting naked on his naked lap, having oral sex performed on her and performing oral sex on Mr. Hall, and being shown sexual pictures of young girls by Mr. Hall.” J.A. 480.

In September 1999, Hall was released from state custody. However, he was immediately arrested by federal authorities and convicted in federal district court in New York of possession of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B). This conviction arose out of a search of the residence where Hall was living with the woman and child involved in the New York state offense. Hall admitted accessing child pornography sites and admitted that he had downloaded and printed child pornography. He was sentenced to sixty-three months' imprisonment and three years of supervised release. While incarcerated, Hall participated in a sex offender treatment program at the Federal Institute at Butner, North Carolina (“FCI Butner”). In 2002, Hall completed the program and prepared a release prevention plan addressing his sexual offense history and risk factors, as well as the coping strategies, lifestyle changes, and support network he needed to manage his risk factors. When he was discharged from the program, he was assessed as being at a high risk of reoffending.

In April 2004, Hall was released to federal supervision, during which he continued to participate in sex offender treatment. Hall was also subjected to several polygraph tests while on supervised release. In June 2005, Hall gave a deceptive response when asked if he had touched the sexual organs of a minor while on supervised release. When confronted with the results, Hall stated that he masturbated to memories of his prior child victims approximately 45 percent of the time. However, Hall denied any hands-on child molestation offense since being released to supervision. In October 2005, Hall again gave a deceptive response when asked if he had engaged in sexual or physical contact with an adult since leaving the halfway house. In February 2006, Hall's supervised release was revoked “for violations of the program rules, inappropriate behavior with female clients, being defiant with staff, and failure to complete chores at the community correction's placement.” J.A. 480. He was sentenced to four months in jail, six months in community confinement at a halfway house, and thirty months' supervised release.

In June 2006, Hall was again released to a community corrections center and, in December 2006, from the corrections center into the community. In September 2006, Hall gave no deceptive answers to polygraph questions designed to ensure that he was not reoffending. There are no reports of any sexual offenses committed by Hall against minors during his two periods of supervised release (April 2004 to February 2006, and June 2006 to January 2007) and, therefore, no evidence that Hall has committed a sexual molestation offense against a child since the 1999 incident in New York.

In January 2007, the United States Probation Office was notified that Hall had viewed pornography and engaged in sex with an adult AA participant. Hall lost his job at approximately this same time, failed to report to the Probation Office or to his mental health treatment agency, and absconded from supervision. After he was apprehended, Hall's supervision was again revoked, and he was additionally charged and convicted for failure to register as a sex offender in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a)(1). In April 2008, Hall was sentenced to 25 months' imprisonment and 25 years' supervised release. The terms of the supervised release prohibit Hall from having contact with anyone under the age of 18, access to computers or other devices with online capabilities except at a place of employment, and from frequenting places where persons under the age of 18 are likely to congregate. The supervised release terms also require that he register as a sex offender, participate in sex offender treatment, mental health treatment and substance abuse treatment, and report to a probation officer as required.

Hall's projected release date from prison was June 24, 2009. However, several months before his release date, he was transferred to FCI Butner for an evaluation of his sexual dangerousness. On June 19, 2009, the BOP certified that Hall was a “sexually dangerous person” pursuant to § 4248(a), automatically staying his release pending an evidentiary hearing. Since that time, Hall has been found in possession of sexually inappropriate materials at FCI Butner, including pictures of prepubescent children and traced drawings of prepubescent girls with their clothing removed and their genitals drawn. Hall also obtained or attempted to obtain inappropriate mail at FCI Butner, including publications from Jam Marketing, Glamour Girl Photos, High Caliber, Heavy Metal Magazine, Maxim Magazine and Teen Vogue. Hall has additionally been sanctioned at FCI Butner for various rules violations, including refusing to obey an order, being present in an unauthorized area, interfering with the taking of inmate count, and being insolent to a staff member.

On January 20, 2011, Hall...