In re Stenzel

Decision Date01 March 2013
Docket NumberNo. 11–0687.,11–0687.
Citation827 N.W.2d 690
PartiesIn re the DETENTION OF Jonathan Edwin STENZEL. Jonathan Edwin Stenzel, Appellant.
CourtIowa Supreme Court

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Dean A. Stowers (until withdrawal), and then Nicholas A. Sarcone of Stowers Law Firm, West Des Moines, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Linda J. Hines and John B. McCormally, Assistant Attorneys General, for appellee.

MANSFIELD, Justice.

This sexually violent predator (SVP) civil commitment proceeding presents three distinct issues. First, it requires us to determine whether the State may wait until the conclusion of a person's overall prison term to bring an SVP proceeding, when the person has received consecutive sentences for a sexually violent offense and for another offense, with the sentence for the other offense to be served after the sentence for the sexually violent offense. Second, we must decide whether sufficient evidence supports the jury's finding that the respondent here is an SVP. Finally, we must decide whether it was reversible error for the district court to permit the State's expert to testify at trial as to how the State uses its prosecutorial discretion to select the persons against whom it will commence SVP proceedings.

We conclude that a person serving consecutive sentences, one of which is for a sexually violent offense, is “presently confined” within the meaning of our civil commitment statute. SeeIowa Code § 229A.4(1) (2009). Thus, an SVP petition is timely if it is filed before the respondent's anticipated release from prison, so long as the current term of imprisonment includes a sentence for a sexually violent offense. Id. In addition, we find sufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict that the respondent here was an SVP. Yet, we hold that it was error to admit expert testimony on the State's procedure for selecting persons against whom SVP proceedings are filed. For this reason, we reverse the judgment of the district court and remand for a new trial.

I. Facts and Procedural Background.

Jonathan Stenzel has been incarcerated virtually his entire adult life. In 1981, when he was nineteen years old, he committed a burglary. He pled guilty and was sent to prison in 1982. The burglary, by Stenzel's admission, arose out of an incident where he beat up a thirteen-year-old girl and ripped her blouse. Stenzel acknowledges that while in prison, he began having fantasies of rape.

In 1986, Stenzel was released from prison. Within a few months, Stenzel had entered a bookstore, pulled a knife on an elderly employee, and threatened to kill her if she didn't do what he asked. He then attempted to have intercourse with the employee and eventually forced her to perform oral sex on him. He left the store with her bra and said he would be coming back.

Before Stenzel had been apprehended for that crime, he broke into a house ten days later and set it on fire.

Ultimately, Stenzel was caught and charged with both crimes. He pled guilty to second-degree sexual abuse in connection with the bookstore rape, and first-degree burglary and second-degree arson in connection with the home burglary/arson.

On March 24, 1987, the district court imposed sentences of twenty-five years for the sexual abuse, twenty-five years for the burglary, and ten years for the arson. The burglary and arson sentences were to be served concurrently to each other and consecutive with the sexual abuse sentence. The department of corrections designated the sexual abuse offense as the “lead” offense. Using the longer of the two concurrent sentences, it calculated a tentative release date for Stenzel of May 1, 2010.

Stenzel served approximately the first ten years of his prison term at the state prison in Anamosa and did not receive any sex offender treatment there. In 1997, he was transferred to Mount Pleasant, where he participated in a Sex Offender Treatment Program. The program lasted approximately two years and involved a number of assignments and activities. Stenzel generally received good marks for his behavior at Mount Pleasant. He worked at the prison library and participated in one-on-one sessions with female counselors without any significant disciplinary problems.1

While at Mount Pleasant, Stenzel claims he received in 1998 or 1999 a document from prison officials indicating that he had completed his sexual abuse sentence. The record does not contain such a document.

Following his time at Mount Pleasant, Stenzel was transferred to a voluntary program, the Interchange Freedom Initiative, housed at the Newton Correctional Facility. There, he participated in a Christian rehabilitation program and lived in an “honors dorm,” where he could come and go freely and his room had an ordinary door instead of bars.

As Stenzel's release date was approaching, the State began the process for Stenzel's civil commitment. On April 6, 2010, the State filed a petition alleging Stenzel was a sexually violent predator under Iowa Code chapter 229A, Iowa's civil commitment statute. The State accompanied its petition with a “Statement of Probable Cause” detailing Stenzel's criminal history. The probable cause statement asserted that the 1986 sexual assault and the 1981 burglary were sexually motivated offenses. It also included the assessment of a forensic psychologist, Dr. Barry Leavitt, that Stenzel met the criteria for being classified a sexually violent predator. That day, the district court made a preliminary determination that probable cause existed to believe Stenzel was a sexually violent predator.

Stenzel filed a motion to dismiss on September 16. He argued that the State had not met its burden of showing either (1) that Stenzel had committed some “recent overt act” of sexual violence or (2) that he was presently confined. SeeIowa Code § 229A.4(1)(2). Specifically, Stenzel argued that, according to the department of corrections calculations, he had long ago completed his sentence for second-degree sexual abuse. Therefore, based on our decision in In re Detention of Gonzales, 658 N.W.2d 102 (Iowa 2003), Stenzel maintained he was no longer “confined.” See Gonzales, 658 N.W.2d at 104 (stating that the “confinement” referenced in the statute“means confinement for a sexually violent offense”).

On November 17, 2010, the district court denied Stenzel's motion to dismiss, reasoning that because of the consecutive nature of the sentences, “the defendant was still serving a sentence for a sexually violent offense” when the State filed its SVP petition. Stenzel then filed a motion to enlarge pursuant to Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 1.904(2) which was also denied.

On January 18, 2011, Stenzel filed a motion for summary judgment. This was denied on the basis that Iowa Code section 901.8 controlled Stenzel's case and required that the court construe the consecutive sentences as “one continuous term of imprisonment.” SeeIowa Code § 901.8.

The matter proceeded to a jury trial where the State offered testimony from Stenzel and Dr. Leavitt. Stenzel had argued in his trial brief that Dr. Leavitt should not be permitted to testify as to (1) hearsay information relating to Stenzel's 1981 and 1986 offenses and (2) the process by which Stenzel was referred for SVP proceedings. On the stand, Dr. Leavitt offered his opinion that Stenzel suffered from paraphilia, not otherwise specified (non-consent), as well as an antisocial personality disorder, and that Stenzel met the statutory criteria for a sexually violent predator. SeeIowa Code § 229A.2(11) (“ ‘Sexually violent predator’ means a person who has been convicted of or charged with a sexually violent offense and who suffers from a mental abnormality which makes the person likely to engage in predatory acts constituting sexually violent offenses, if not confined in a secure facility.”). Dr. Leavitt testified he had interviewed Stenzel for approximately four-and-a-half hours and concluded that he had engaged in “minimization,” or the downplaying of important elements of his behavior and crimes.

Dr. Leavitt also testified that he had performed three actuarial risk assessments concerning Stenzel. These procedures are designed to determine the risk of reoffending based on the historical recidivism percentages of offenders with certain scores. Stenzel placed in the high risk category on one of the assessments, in the moderate risk category on the second, and in the highest risk category on a third. Dr. Leavitt testified that these assessments actually underestimate the risk of future sexually violent crime, given that they only reflect reported incidents.

Two other aspects of Dr. Leavitt's testimony form part of the basis of this appeal. Dr. Leavitt based his conclusion that Stenzel was an SVP, in part, upon the rigorous selection process by which the State determines who should be committed in the first place.

Q. Doctor Leavitt, the Directors' Review Committee begins at the prison with all sex offenders? A. That is correct.

Q. They decide a case meets criteria, they refer it to where? A. They refer it to the Multidisciplinary Review Committee.

Q. And who makes up that committee? A. That would be made up of various people within—both within and outside of the Department of Corrections.

Q. Do they refer every case they get? A. No. It was my understanding that they review a very small percentage, a very small percentage of cases get referred for—to the next step.

That such a small percentage of people emerge from the screening process was a consideration in Dr. Leavitt's overall determination. He noted that “one of the considerations I look at is the fact that an individual has already ... been deemed relatively high risk enough to have made it to this particular point in the process.” Dr. Leavitt also briefly alluded to the fact that a court already has made an initial probable cause determination that Stenzel is a sexually violent predator.

Q. And then from there, a smaller number are referred to the Attorney General's...

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  • State v. Floyd Y.
    • United States
    • New York Court of Appeals
    • 19 Noviembre 2013
    ...allows the admission of hearsay but requires courts to make an independent reliability assessment ( see e.g. In re Detention of Stenzel, 827 N.W.2d 690, 710 [Iowa 2013]; In re Interest of AM., Jr., 281 Neb. 482, 514–515, 797 N.W.2d 233, 261–262 [2011]; In re Civil Commitment of Williams, 73......
  • State v. Neiderbach, 11-1082
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    ...counts four and five. III. Scope of Review. Our review of motions to dismiss is for correction of errors at law. In re Det. of Stenzel, 827 N.W.2d 690, 697 (Iowa 2013). We review a trial court's denial of a defendant's motion to sever for abuse of discretion. State v. Elston, 735 N.W.2d 196......
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    ...thereby indirectly vouching that the witness is telling the truth? Do these cases remain good law? See, e.g., In re Det. of Stenzel, 827 N.W.2d 690, 702 (Iowa 2013) (concluding expert testimony based on an interview with defendant and defendant's criminal history was sufficient to show that......
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    ...on counts four and five.III. Scope of Review. Our review of motions to dismiss is for correction of errors at law. In re Det. of Stenzel, 827 N.W.2d 690, 697 (Iowa 2013). We review a trial court's denial of a defendant's motion to sever for abuse of discretion. State v. Elston, 735 N.W.2d 1......
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