Blodgett, In re

• Decision Date: 14 January 1994
• Docket Number: No. C9-92-844,C9-92-844
• Citation: 510 N.W.2d 910
• Parties: In Re Phillip Jay BLODGETT, Alleged Psychopathic Personality.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 910

510 N.W.2d 910

62 USLW 2530

In Re Phillip Jay BLODGETT, Alleged Psychopathic Personality.

No. C9-92-844.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Jan. 14, 1994.

Syllabus by the Court

Minnesota's Psychopathic Personality Statute does not violate substantive due process nor does it violate the equal protection guaranties of the United States Constitution and the Minnesota Constitution.

Richard C. Ilkka, Stillwater, for appellant.

Richard M. Arney, Washington County Atty., Douglas G. Swenson, and Susan Steffen Tice, Asst. Washington County Attys., Stillwater, for Washington County.

Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Atty. Gen., Kathy Meade Hebert, and Cheryl W. Heilman, Sp. Asst. Attys. Gen., St. Paul, for the State.

Deborah Gilman, John E. Grzybek, and Richard K. Ellison, Minneapolis, amicus curiae for MCLU.

Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.

SIMONETT, Justice.

Petitioner Phillip Jay Blodgett challenges the constitutionality of the Minnesota Psychopathic Personality Commitment Act, Minn.Stat. Sec. 526.09-.10 (1992), under which he has been committed to the Minnesota Security Hospital as a psychopathic personality. We conclude, as did the lower courts, that the Act is constitutional, and affirm.

Blodgett, now 28, has a history of sexual misconduct and violence beginning when he was 16 years old. In January 1982, Blodgett was adjudicated a delinquent in Pierce County, Wisconsin, for having sexual contact with his brother. Seven months later, Blodgett was again found delinquent after being charged for misdemeanor battery of a social worker. In May of 1985, the Washington County District Court found Blodgett guilty of a misdemeanor charge of violating a domestic abuse restraining order.

On September 18, 1985, three hours after his release from the Washington County Jail where he served time for convictions for burglary and obstructing the legal process, Blodgett broke into the home of the parents of his ex-girlfriend, entered the room where his ex-girlfriend was sleeping, and sexually assaulted her. For this conduct Blodgett pled guilty, on January 16, 1986, and was sent to prison on a charge of first degree burglary for entering a dwelling with the intent to commit criminal sexual conduct.

On May 9, 1987, while enrolled in the pre-release program at Lino Lakes (under which an inmate leaves the prison during the day but must return at night), Blodgett sexually assaulted a woman in the parking lot of a supermarket while attempting to steal her car. Blodgett grabbed the woman, pushed her into the front seat, shoved his hand in her mouth, hit her on the side of the head, put his hand between her legs and squeezed and rubbed her genital area. When the woman resisted and screamed for help, Blodgett asked her, "Do you want to die?" Five weeks later, June 15, 1987, while on supervised release to a half-way house and enrolled in a treatment program in St. Paul, Blodgett raped a 16-year-old girl both vaginally and anally. As a result of these incidents, Blodgett pled guilty to two counts of criminal sexual conduct in the second degree and was returned to prison.

Shortly before Blodgett's scheduled release date in 1991, Dr. Richard Friberg evaluated him pursuant to the Department of Corrections' new risk assessment and release procedures. ¹ By letter dated September 19, 1991, Dr. Friberg informed the Washington County Attorney that, in his view, Blodgett met the criteria for commitment under the psychopathic personality statute.

A petition for commitment was promptly filed by the Washington County Attorney, and an initial hearing was held on October 10 and 11, 1991. Evidence was received that Blodgett had an abused childhood in a dysfunctional family; that he had elevated MMPI scores and an addiction to both drugs and alcohol; and that although offered a "litany" of treatment programs, he had refused them all. The five psychologists who testified at the hearing agreed that Blodgett had an antisocial personality disorder, that he was chemically dependent, and that he was dangerous. Four of the five experts stated they felt Blodgett met the statutory definition of a psychopathic personality. When two of these four were questioned further about their understanding of the term "psychopathic personality," one, Dr. Richard Friberg, explained that he relied solely on Minn.Stat. Sec. 526.09 for his definition. The other, Dr. James Jacobson, stated that he had read the statute and had a copy of the relevant case law. Dr. John Austin, who opposed Blodgett's commitment, stated he relied on "the definitions [he] was aware of in [the] Minnesota statute and at least the Minnesota Supreme Court's interpretation of that [statute] in [the] Pearson case." The court found by clear and convincing evidence that Blodgett is a psychopathic personality. Blodgett was committed to the Minnesota Security Hospital (MSH) in St. Peter and the hospital was ordered to file an evaluation report within 60 days. Sections 526.10, subd. 1, and 253B.18, subd. 2 (1992).

The MSH staff filed a report with the court, diagnosing Blodgett as suffering from polysubstance abuse and an antisocial personality disorder, but opposing his commitment as a psychopathic personality. A final court hearing was commenced on January 6, 1992, at which time Blodgett moved to dismiss the proceedings on the grounds "that Minnesota Statute Section 526.09 is unconstitutional." At the hearing, Dr. Jacobson, who had performed the second court-ordered examination, diagnosed Blodgett as having an antisocial disorder, a substance abuse disorder, and a psychopathic personality, and said that Blodgett met the criteria of Minn.Stat. Sec. 526.09. Dr. Michael Farnsworth, MSH senior staff psychiatrist, opposed commitment, contending that any treatment Blodgett could receive at the hospital would be "sham" or "placebo" treatment.

Finally, on April 2, 1992, the trial court issued its decision finding that Blodgett continued to meet the criteria for commitment as a psychopathic personality and that there was no reasonable, less restrictive alternative to commitment. After further determining that the statute was constitutional, the trial court ordered Blodgett committed to the security hospital for an indeterminate period of time.

On appeal, the court of appeals ruled that the trial court's finding that Blodgett was a psychopathic personality was not clearly erroneous and that Blodgett's commitment as a psychopathic personality was not unconstitutional. In re Blodgett, 490 N.W.2d 638 (Minn.App.1992). Blodgett then petitioned this court for further review, raising, however, only the constitutional challenge. In other words, Blodgett does not challenge here the findings that he has an uncontrollable sexual impulse dangerous to others. We granted review.

Blodgett's claim of unconstitutionality has two parts: (1) that Sec. 526.10 violates his right to substantive due process; and (2) that the statute violates equal protection under the Minnesota and United States Constitutions. ²

I.

Minnesota, like other states, has wrestled long with the legitimate public concern over the danger posed by predatory sex offenders and the question of how to deal with that concern. ³ In 1939, the Minnesota Legislature passed a law, now codified as Minn.Stat. Sec. 526.10, providing for the civil commitment of any person found to be a psychopathic personality. The term "psychopathic personality" is defined as

the existence in any person of such conditions of emotional instability, or impulsiveness of behavior, or lack of customary standards of good judgment, or failure to appreciate the consequences of personal acts, or a combination of any such conditions, as to render such person irresponsible for personal conduct with respect to sexual matters and thereby dangerous to other persons.

Minn.Stat. Sec. 526.09. Originally, the laws relating to insane persons, rather than the laws relating to the dangerous insane, were made applicable to persons with a psychopathic personality. Minn.Stat. Sec. 526.10 (1941). In 1969, Sec. 526.10 was amended to make "the provisions of chapter 253A, pertaining to persons mentally ill and dangerous to the public," applicable to psychopathic personalities. Minn.Stat. Sec. 526.10 (1969). ⁴

Soon after its enactment, the psychopathic personality statute was challenged on the grounds that it was unconstitutionally vague. State ex rel. Pearson v. Probate Court of Ramsey County, 205 Minn. 545, 287 N.W. 297 (1939), aff'd, 309 U.S. 270, 60 S.Ct. 523, 84 L.Ed. 744 (1940). In responding to the vagueness challenge, this court in Pearson recognized that "[i]t would not be reasonable to apply the provisions of the statute to every person guilty of sexual misconduct nor even to persons having strong sexual propensities. Such a definition would * * * make the act impracticable of enforcement, and perhaps, unconstitutional in its application." Consequently, the court employed principles of statutory interpretation to narrow the reach of the statute to only

those persons who, by a habitual course of misconduct in sexual matters, have evidenced an utter lack of power to control their sexual impulses and who, as a result, are likely to attack or otherwise inflict injury, loss, pain or other evil on the objects of their uncontrolled and uncontrollable desire.

205 Minn. at 555, 287 N.W. at 302. Our court determined that, with these additional criteria, the act was not so indefinite or uncertain as to make it void for vagueness under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The case was then appealed to the United States Supreme Court.

In a unanimous opinion authored by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, the United States Supreme Court affirmed, holding the statute, as construed, was not so vague and indefinite as to be invalid. Minnesota ex rel. Pearson v. Probate Court of Ramsey County, Minn., 309 U.S. 270, 274, 60 S.Ct. 523, 526, 84 L.Ed. 744 (1940), aff'g 205...