Bailey v. Gardebring

• Decision Date: 26 July 1991
• Docket Number: Nos. 89-5219,89-5403,s. 89-5219
• Citation: 940 F.2d 1150
• Parties: Clark A. BAILEY, Appellant, v. Sandra GARDEBRING, Commissioner of Human Services, and State of Minnesota, Appellees. Clark Albert BAILEY, Appellant, v. Arthur E. NOOT, Orville Pung, Charles G. Sheppard, Leslie R. Green, William F. McRae, Bruce M. Beltt, Richard A. Alstad, James Bruton, Henry Greencrow, and Dorothy Skwiera, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1150

940 F.2d 1150

Clark A. BAILEY, Appellant, v. Sandra GARDEBRING, Commissioner of Human Services, and State

of Minnesota, Appellees.

Clark Albert BAILEY, Appellant, v. Arthur E. NOOT, Orville Pung, Charles G. Sheppard, Leslie R.

Green, William F. McRae, Bruce M. Beltt, Richard

A. Alstad, James Bruton, Henry

Greencrow, and Dorothy

Skwiera, Appellees.

Nos. 89-5219, 89-5403.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted May 14, 1990.

Decided July 26, 1991.

Douglas Peine, St. Paul, Minn., for Bailey in No. 89-5219.

Mary L. Stanislav, Minneapolis, Minn., for Gardebring and State of Minn.

Alan Anderson, Minneapolis, Minn., for Bailey in No. 89-5403; James D. O'Connor, on brief.

Jean Whitney and Richard Slowes, St. Paul, Minn., argued, for Noot, et al.; Catharine F. Haukedahl, St. Paul, Minn., on brief.

Before LAY, Chief Judge, BOWMAN, Circuit Judge, and STUART, ^* District Judge.

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

In the latter part of 1976 Clark Albert Bailey kidnapped and sexually abused a thirteen-year-old girl in Minnesota and murdered her in Iowa. He pled guilty in Minnesota to criminal sexual conduct in the first degree and kidnapping and in Iowa to second degree murder. For these offenses he received sentences of twenty years, forty years, and forty years, respectively. All sentences are to be served concurrently.

After sentencing Bailey for his Minnesota offenses, the Hennepin County District Court stayed the sentences to allow the probate court to obtain a psychiatric examination of Bailey for possible civil commitment. Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes Secs. 526.09-526.11 (1976), the probate court committed Bailey to the Minnesota Security Hospital as a "psychopathic personality" on July 13, 1977. While at the hospital, Bailey saw a number of psychiatrists and psychologists and was an intermittent participant in various treatment programs--most of which he dropped out of citing nonspecific "religious objections."

Approximately two years later, the Commissioner of Public Welfare, who has jurisdiction over the Security Hospital, ordered Bailey's transfer to the Department of Corrections ("DOC") to serve his prison sentence. The transfer was not effected until May 18, 1981 because of, first, Bailey's extradition to Iowa for his guilty plea and, second, Bailey's initiation of various legal challenges to the statutory authority for his transfer, concluding with Bailey's transfer in accordance with procedures prescribed by the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Bailey is currently incarcerated at the Minnesota Correctional Facility where he is serving concurrently his various sentences for sexual abuse, kidnapping, and murder. Various treatment programs are available there, though none specifically geared to sexual offenders. He remains under civil commitment as a psychopathic personality and thus will be subject to the jurisdiction of the Commissioner of Public Welfare upon finishing his prison sentence.

To this Court, Bailey brings two separate appeals. His first appeal (No. 89-5219) is from the District Court's ¹ denial of his federal habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254 (1988). His other appeal (No. 89-5403) is from the District Court's grant of summary judgment for defendants on his various civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1988). This opinion covers both of these appeals, and in both we affirm the decision of the District Court. ²

I.

We begin with Bailey's habeas case. After exhausting his state remedies, Bailey brought a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254, claiming that his civil commitment necessarily was discharged under Minnesota law when he was transferred from the jurisdiction of the Commissioner of Public Welfare to the DOC and, in addition, that Minnesota law does not permit the commitment of a convicted criminal as a "psychopathic personality"--which carries an indeterminate commitment period--but only as a "sex offender"--which carries a period of commitment limited to the length of the penal sentence. Bailey also contends that his dual commitment violates the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution, and that his commitment as a psychopathic personality violates both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Constitution. The District Court--as had the state courts before it--rejected Bailey's claims, holding that his dual commitment as well as his commitment as a psychopathic personality were proper under Minnesota law and did not violate the Constitution. For reversal, Bailey repeats the arguments he made in the District Court. Assuming for purposes of this appeal that Bailey is "in custody" on his civil commitment within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254(a), see Maleng v. Cook, 490 U.S. 488, 490-94, 109 S.Ct. 1923, 1925-27, 104 L.Ed.2d 540 (1989); Peyton v. Rowe, 391 U.S. 54, 88 S.Ct. 1549, 20 L.Ed.2d 426 (1968), we agree with the District Court that his claims are without merit.

Minnesota state courts have interpreted the state civil commitment statutes as not requiring that a civil commitment order be discharged before transferring a committee to the custody of the DOC. Bailey v. Gardebring, No. C8-87-1839, 1988 WL 19366 (Minn.Ct.App. Mar. 8, 1988) reprinted in Appellee's Appendix I at A-1. Unless the underlying statutes are constitutionally defective we must defer to such an interpretation. See Parkerson v. Carrouth, 782 F.2d 1449, 1455 (8th Cir.1986) ("[A]bsent an infirmity of constitutional dimensions in th[e] law, it is not for a federal court to say that a rule established by [a state] ... is unwise."); Stoianoff v. Montana, 695 F.2d 1214, 1218 (9th Cir.1983) ("It is, of course, solely within the province of the state courts to authoritatively construe state legislation."). Here there is no constitutional defect. The Supreme Court has determined that a state may confine people who pose a threat to themselves and others until the danger has dissipated. See Addington v. Texas, 441 U.S. 418, 426, 99 S.Ct. 1804, 1809, 60 L.Ed.2d 323 (1979). Minnesota's civil commitment statutes are constitutional, and Minnesota's interpretation of these statutes allowing Bailey to be transferred to the DOC without being discharged from his civil commitment thus is immune from attack in this Court.

The same analysis applies to Bailey's claim that he was improperly committed under Minnesota's civil commitment statute, section 526.09. As the underlying statute is constitutional, we defer to the state court's interpretation to allow Bailey's commitment pursuant to section 526.09. Finally, with respect to Bailey's equal protection claim, as the District Court aptly put it, "[n]o constitutional right is violated when persons who suffer from severe disorders, such as petitioner, are treated differently from persons with less serious conditions." Bailey v. Gardebring, No. 4-88-637 (D.Minn. Jan. 13, 1989), reprinted in Appellant's Addendum I at A.2, A.12.

We affirm the District Court's denial of Bailey's application for writ of habeas corpus.

II.

Bailey also appeals the District Court's grant of summary judgment against him on his various civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1988). Bailey argues that as either a civil or criminal committee he has a constitutional right to psychiatric treatment and that the failure of various officials at both the Security Hospital and the Correctional Facility to provide him with such treatment is a violation of his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. He also raises several arguments regarding his parole date. As there is no factual dispute and we find that the defendants are entitled to judgment as a matter of law on all of Bailey's claims, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c), we affirm.

A.

We turn first to Bailey's asserted right to treatment in the civil context. Bailey claims that his need for psychiatric treatment to overcome a "sexual offender condition" is analogous to a need for treatment of a bleeding ulcer or diabetes. The defendant hospital administrators argue that they did not violate Bailey's constitutional right to receive psychiatric treatment.

The Supreme Court addressed the issue of a right to behavioral-modification treatment in the context of civil commitment in Youngberg v. Romeo. 457 U.S. 307, 102 S.Ct. 2452, 73 L.Ed.2d 28 (1982). Romeo, the civilly committed resident in Youngberg, was a thirty-three-year-old man with the mental capacity of an eighteen-month-old child. He was not committed because he posed any particular danger to the community but because of his severe retardation. Romeo had sustained injuries numerous times during his commitment, some self-inflicted and some from residents reacting to his aggressive behavior. To prevent Romeo from harming himself or other residents, he occasionally had been restrained with soft arm shackles. Romeo argued that training programs aimed at his self-control and interaction problems would have lessened the need for these restraints. ³ The Court held that the Constitution required only such "minimally adequate training ... as may be reasonable in light of [the] liberty interest[ ] in safety and freedom from unreasonable restraints." 457 U.S. at 322, 102 S.Ct. at 2461. ⁴

Here, Bailey was committed as a psychopathic personality and was neither in danger during his civil commitment nor was he subject to any restraints beyond the ordinary incidents of any involuntary confinement. The decisions of the psychiatrists at the Security Hospital regarding his treatment were presumptively valid, see Youngberg, 457 U.S. at 323, 102 S.Ct. at 2462, and he has not made any showing to overcome this presumption of validity. In addition, the legitimacy of Bailey's commitment is not in doubt. He has manifested his dangerousness by, inter alia, sexually abusing, kidnapping, and murdering a thirteen-year-old girl. ⁵ His confinement at the Security Hospital was founded on the peril he would pose to the community, and particularly to...