Flores v. Lodge

• Decision Date: 10 September 1980
• Docket Number: No. 13263,13263
• Parties: Peppi FLORES, Petitioner-Appellant, v. The Honorable Edward J. LODGE, District Judge, Milton G. Klein, Director of Department of Health and Welfare, State of Idaho, and D. George Miller, Acting Administrator of the Idaho State Board of Corrections, Idaho Secure Medical Facility, Respondents.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

Page 837

617 P.2d 837

101 Idaho 533

Peppi FLORES, Petitioner-Appellant, v. The Honorable Edward J. LODGE, District Judge, Milton G. Klein, Director of Department of Health and Welfare, State of Idaho, and D. George Miller, Acting Administrator of the Idaho State Board of Corrections, Idaho Secure Medical Facility, Respondents.

No. 13263.

Supreme Court of Idaho.

Sept. 10, 1980.

Klaus Wiebe, Ada County Public Defender and Laird B. Stone, Boise, for petitioner-appellant.

David H. Leroy, Atty. Gen., Lynn E. Thomas, P. Mark Thompson, Deputy Attys. Gen., Boise, for respondents.

SCHROEDER, Judge, Pro Tem.

This is an appeal from an order entered by the district court denying the appellant's petition for a writ of habeas corpus upon the grounds that the appellant has an adequate remedy pursuant to I.C. § 18-214. The issue on appeal is whether a writ of habeas corpus is an appropriate method of challenging the confinement of a person pursuant to I.C. § 18-214 who claims that he is not receiving care and treatment as required by the statute, or whether an application to the committing court is the exclusive remedy.

On September 18, 1974, Peppi Flores, appellant, was acquitted of burglary in the second degree on the grounds that he was suffering from a mental disease or defect. Judge Dunlap of the Third Judicial District ordered that he be committed to the custody of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and that he be housed at the Psychiatric Maximum Security Facility at the Idaho State Penitentiary. The order further stated that Mr. Flores was not to be released from that facility without a hearing as set forth in I.C. § 18-214.

On November 10, 1975, Mr. Flores petitioned the committing court for a conditional release which was denied by Judge Lodge who concluded that Mr. Flores "had not progressed to a point that he can be discharged or released without danger to himself or others." At that time Judge Lodge ordered that Flores be transferred to a facility where he could receive treatment for alcoholism. In December, 1975, Mr. Flores was transferred to Idaho State Hospital South in order that he might participate in an alcohol rehabilitation program. Within a month he was returned to the Psychiatric Maximum Security Unit at the Idaho State Penitentiary because he did not respond to the program at State Hospital South and he needed more security than could be provided by that facility.

Psychiatric reports indicate that subsequent to his return to the Idaho State Penitentiary Mr. Flores' condition improved. On March 22, 1977, appellant was conditionally released without a court order to the regional office of the Department of Health and Welfare in Nampa. The conditional release was unsuccessful, and Mr. Flores was returned to the psychiatric unit at the Idaho State Penitentiary on September 23, 1977. At that time, and at all times subsequent, reports from the psychiatric unit maintain that although Mr. Flores suffers from a severe anti-social personality disorder, he is not mentally ill.

On December 14, 1977, the Department of Health and Welfare again petitioned for appellant's conditional release. In March of 1978, Judge Lodge denied the request to release Mr. Flores and stated that he would consider no further applications until Mr. Flores successfully completed an alcohol rehabilitation program. In June of 1978, Mr. Flores was transferred to State Hospital North, at Orofino, to participate in the alcohol rehabilitation program. He was deemed untreatable by the psychiatric staff at Orofino and was returned to the psychiatric ward at the Idaho State Penitentiary.

Approximately two weeks after Mr. Flores' return to the penitentiary, Dr. Glover, on behalf of the Department of Health and Welfare, again petitioned for Mr. Flores' conditional release. On July 13, 1978, Judge Lodge corresponded with Dr. Glover, stating that his position on the release of Mr. Flores remained the same, but that if Dr. Glover wished to pursue the petition two psychiatrists would be appointed by the court to examine Mr. Flores.

On March 5, 1979, appellant filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Fourth Judicial District. Judge Walters refused to issue the writ upon the basis that habeas corpus was an inappropriate remedy. Mr. Flores is appealing from that decision.

Mr. Flores asserts that he is being held in custody without the care and treatment to which he is legally entitled and that I.C. § 18-214 under which he was committed does not provide a remedy for persons who have been denied a conditional release by the committing court. Therefore, he maintains that he can test the validity of his confinement in a habeas corpus proceeding. The state claims that Mr. Flores is merely attempting to avoid the consequences of the ruling of the committing court that denied conditional release and to substitute the judgment of another court of co-equal status. The state asserts that the appellant's remedy is an appeal of the committing court's ruling rather than habeas corpus.

At the heart of the question is whether habeas corpus proceedings would undercut or intrude upon the specific powers of the committing court or whether such proceedings would deal with issues not reachable by the committing court that fall within the concerns of habeas corpus. Certainly habeas corpus should not be a proceeding to attempt to substitute the judgment of a Fourth District Court for that of a Third District Court. Insofar as the issues raised in Mr. Flores' petition for habeas corpus overlap those issues presented to Judge Lodge, habeas corpus is inappropriate. The appellant is limited to whatever appeal rights he may have. The appropriateness of a habeas corpus proceeding depends on whether it reaches issues that could not be determined by the committing court.

The statute under which Mr. Flores is now being held provides that he shall be in the custody of the Director of the Department of Health and Welfare "to be placed in an appropriate institution for custody, care and treatment." I.C. § 18-214(1). Similar language found in former I.C. § 66-329(h)(3), 1969 Idaho Sess. Laws, Ch 143, § 1(h), was construed to provide a right to treatment. Glasco v. Brassard, 94 Idaho 162, 483 P.2d 924 (1971). I.C. § 66-1311 in the "Idaho Security Medical Facility Act," I.C. §§ 66-1301, et seq., entitled "Right to Humane Care and Treatment," provides that "every patient shall be entitled to humane care and treatment." For purposes of this decision it must be assumed that Mr. Flores is not receiving the care and treatment to which he is entitled. That is the allegation of the petition for writ of habeas corpus, and evidence was not presented to the contrary.

The petition for habeas corpus was dismissed on the basis that the Fourth District Court was not a proper forum and that it would be an intrusion upon the authority of a co-equal court to proceed. Therefore, it is necessary to determine if the committing court can deal with the problem alleged or whether the particular...