Bedell v. Roy

• Decision Date: 15 September 2014
• Docket Number: No. A14–1077.,A14–1077.
• Citation: 853 N.W.2d 827
• Court: Minnesota Court of Appeals
• Parties: Ricky James BEDELL, petitioner, Appellant, v. Tom ROY, Commissioner of Corrections, Respondent.

853 N.W.2d 827

Ricky James BEDELL, petitioner, Appellant

v.Tom ROY, Commissioner of Corrections, Respondent.

No. A14–1077.

Court of Appeals of Minnesota.

Sept. 15, 2014.

Bradford Colbert, Mackenzie Moy (certified student attorney), Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners, St. Paul, MN, for appellant.

Lori Swanson, Attorney General, Angela Behrens, Assistant Attorney General, St. Paul, MN, for respondent.

Considered and decided by CLEARY, Chief Judge; KIRK, Judge; and SMITH, Judge.

OPINION

CLEARY, Chief Judge.

In this expedited appeal, appellant challenges the district court's order denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Because we conclude that appellant had a Fifth Amendment right to refuse chemical-dependency-treatment based on the information he was provided, we reverse and remand for recalculation of appellant's supervised release date.

FACTS

Petitioner-appellant Ricky James Bedell was convicted of aiding and abetting third-degree assault after a jury trial in Chisago County. He was sentenced to 29 months in prison, and filed a timely appeal challenging his conviction on November 14, 2013.

On October 21, 2013, before his notice of appeal was filed, appellant was interviewed by Captain Jason Starkson at MCF–Faribault for placement in the New Dimensions chemical-dependency-treatment program. Appellant refused to sign the pre-entry agreement, and he was charged with a discipline violation for refusing treatment.¹ According to the hearing officer's findings, Captain Starkson testified at the November 20, 2013 discipline hearing that “he interviewed [appellant] for possible placement in treatment and he refused, stating he did not want to sign any forms because of a pending appeal.” The hearing officer also found that appellant “asked Cpt. Starkson if he would be required to talk about his current offense in treatment, [and] Starkson said he would.” Appellant stated “he is not refusing treatment, but will not talk about his commitment offense” while his appeal is pending. The hearing officer deemed this a refusal to participate in treatment because appellant “would not sign the admission form” and imposed 45 days of extended incarceration. Appellant filed an appeal of this disposition with the warden, who affirmed the hearing officer's decision.

On March 12, 2014, appellant filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in Rice County District Court in which he claimed that he refused to participate in the New Dimensions chemical-dependency-treatment program at MCF–Faribault because he would have been required to “admit and discuss” his conviction offense, and that he has a Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself while his appeal from that conviction is pending. In support of the petition, appellant submitted an affidavit in which he states that on October 31, 2013, he told Captain Starkson he could not enter New Dimensions “until his appeal has been finalized.” Appellant also states that at the discipline hearing, Starkson testified that the New Dimensions program requires participants to discuss their conviction offense. The Commissioner of Corrections' return included an affidavit from New Dimensions' program director Nancy Charlebois, who avers that information revealed during treatment is confidential, “unless it is a sex offense involving minors or vulnerable adults.” Charlebois also states that appellant would have been questioned about his current offense and how chemical abuse contributed to the conviction, but that he would not have been terminated from the program if he refused to answer these questions and that any information he revealed would have remained confidential. However, the Confidential Notice from the Chemical Dependency Client Bill of Rights states, “Clients of the MN Department of Corrections Chemical Dependency Programming are encouraged to disclose past criminal behavior. Clients should realize, however, that there are limits to client confidentiality....” Based on Charlebois's affidavit, the commissioner argued that appellant does not have a Fifth Amendment claim to pursue, “because the information sought during chemical dependency treatment is not incriminating.”² The district court denied appellant's petition without an evidentiary hearing, concluding that appellant's Fifth Amendment rights were not violated because Johnson v. Fabian, 735 N.W.2d 295 (Minn.2007), does not apply to chemical-dependency-treatment programs; information disclosed in chemical-dependency treatment is protected by federal and state privacy laws; and appellant presented no evidence that he would have been required to discuss his conviction offense in order to participate in the program. This appeal followed.

ISSUE

Does the record reasonably support the district court's conclusion that appellant failed to present evidence showing that he would have been required to discuss his conviction offense in order to participate in a prison chemical-dependency-treatment program?

ANALYSIS

The state constitution guarantees the privilege of filing a writ of habeas corpus. Minn. Const. art. I, § 7. The legislature has codified this right, expressly permitting individuals who are “imprisoned or otherwise restrained of liberty” to seek “relief from imprisonment or restraint” by applying for a writ of habeas corpus. Minn.Stat. § 589.01 (2012). But habeas relief is limited to constitutional violations or jurisdictional defects. See Beaulieu v. Minn. Dep't of Human Servs., 798 N.W.2d 542, 546 (Minn.App.2011), aff'd on other grounds, 825 N.W.2d 716 (Minn.2013). “The burden is on the petitioner to show the illegality of his detention.” Case v. Pung, 413 N.W.2d 261, 262 (Minn.App.1987), review denied (Minn. Nov. 24, 1987). On review, “[t]he district court's findings in support of a denial of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus are entitled to great weight and will be upheld if reasonably supported by the evidence.” Aziz v. Fabian, 791 N.W.2d 567, 569 (Minn.App.2010). Questions of law, however, are subject to de novo review. Id.

Appellant argues the commissioner violated his Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination by extending his incarceration based on his refusal to sign the pre-entry agreement for New Dimensions. The Fifth Amendment provides that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” U.S. Const. amend. V ; see also Minn. Const. art. I, § 7. “The privilege allows an individual to refuse to ‘answer official questions put to him in any other proceeding, civil or criminal, formal or informal, where the answers might incriminate him in future criminal proceedings.’ ” Johnson, 735 N.W.2d at 299 (Minn.2007) (quoting Minnesota v. Murphy, 465 U.S. 420, 426, 104 S.Ct. 1136, 1141, 79 L.Ed.2d 409 (1984) (other citation omitted)). The Fifth Amendment does not prohibit all self-incriminating testimony, only that obtained by compulsion. Id. at 300 (citations omitted).

In Johnson, the supreme court considered whether the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination was violated by extending an inmate's period of incarceration as a sanction for refusing to admit or discuss the inmate's crimes in a sex-offender-treatment program. Id. at 297. First, the supreme court held that, because an inmate has a liberty interest in his supervised-release date, an extension of supervised release for a discipline violation for refusing to admit sexual offenses in sex-offender treatment rises to the level of compulsion. Id. at 309. Second, “[c]ompulsion does not violate the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination unless the information the claimant would be compelled to divulge is incriminating.” Id. But the risk of self-incrimination must be “substantial and real.” Id. Applying this test, the supreme court held that an inmate who has a pending direct appeal of a conviction may claim the privilege against self-incrimination. Id. at 309–10. Once the appeal is exhausted, the privilege applies only if the inmate testified at trial and denied that a crime occurred because the inmate would have a “real” fear of a perjury prosecution. Id. at 311.

Appellant asserts that the principle established in Johnson “applies to all prison-based treatment programs,” but does not cite any authority for this broad interpretation. The commissioner, on the other hand, interprets Johnson narrowly as applying only to prison-based sex-offender-treatment programs, and only when an inmate refuses to admit the conviction offense while a direct appeal is pending, or while the time for direct appeal has not expired. The issue before the supreme court in Johnson was whether the prison-based sex-offender-treatment program's requirement that inmates admit or discuss their conviction offenses or face disciplinary sanctions violated their Fifth Amendment rights. Id. at 298. The supreme court did not consider whether a prison-based chemical-dependency-treatment program that requires inmates to admit or discuss their crimes could violate the Fifth Amendment. But this court has considered this issue.

When Johnson was pending in the court of appeals, the issues included whether participation in the TRIAD chemical-dependency-treatment program violated Johnson's Fifth Amendment rights. Johnson v. Fabian, 711 N.W.2d 540, 542–43 (Minn.App.2006). The district court made findings based on the affidavit of the TRIAD program director that TRIAD does not require inmates to discuss offenses currently on appeal, and if inmates refuse to talk about their offenses, “staff accept that response and continue to treat the offender.” Id. No offender faced termination from the program for refusing to discuss the conviction...