Miyasato v. State
| Decision Date | 31 March 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. A-5069,A-5069 |
| Citation | 892 P.2d 200 |
| Parties | George W. MIYASATO, III, Appellant, v. STATE of Alaska, Appellee. |
| Court | Alaska Court of Appeals |
Galen S. Paine, Asst. Public Defender, Sitka, and John B. Salemi, Public Defender, Anchorage, for appellant.
Kenneth M. Rosenstein, Asst. Atty. Gen., Office of Sp. Prosecutions and Appeals, Anchorage, and Bruce M. Botelho, Atty. Gen., Juneau, for appellee.
Before BRYNER, C.J., and COATS and MANNHEIMER, JJ.
George W. Miyasato, III, was convicted of second-degree burglary, AS 11.46.310(a). He was sentenced to 4 years' imprisonment with 1 year suspended (3 years to serve). As a condition of his incarceration and as a condition of his probation, Miyasato was ordered to undergo sex offender therapy. On appeal, Miyasato asserts that this portion of the superior court's judgement is illegal under Roman v. State, 570 P.2d 1235, 1240 (Alaska 1977), and Allain v. State, 810 P.2d 1019, 1022 (Alaska App.1991), because sex offender therapy is not reasonably related to Miyasato's rehabilitation. We affirm the superior court's order.
Miyasato was convicted in 1983 of attempted first-degree sexual assault when he broke into a woman's house at night and tried to rape her. He was sentenced to 4 years' imprisonment with 1 year suspended (3 years to serve). Miyasato was released on probation in July 1987, but his probation was revoked in February 1990 when, among other things, Miyasato admitted that he had assaulted his girlfriend.
In 1991, Miyasato was convicted of third-degree sexual assault and first-degree criminal trespass for breaking into a woman's house, then disrobing her and fondling her while she slept.
Miyasato's present conviction, his third felony, arises from an incident that occurred in Sitka on April 5, 1993. Miyasato stole a woman's purse from the back room of a flower shop. The owner of the purse saw Miyasato committing this theft, and she ran after him. She caught him and wrestled with him for control of the purse; Miyasato finally dropped the purse and ran away.
In the pre-sentence report, the Department of Corrections recommended that Miyasato be ordered to undergo sex offender treatment. Miyasato had been ordered to participate in sex offender therapy in connection with his previous offenses, but these attempts proved unsuccessful. Miyasato stopped attending the therapy sessions; when the counselors at the program tried to induce Miyasato to return, he refused--apparently because he knew he was already in violation of his probation for using alcohol and drugs.
When the pre-sentence investigator again recommended sex offender treatment in connection with the present case, Miyasato's attorney objected. She argued that this condition bore no relationship to Miyasato's current offense. The prosecutor responded that, while Miyasato's present offense might be a property crime, the condition of sex offender treatment was justified by "the needs of the particular offender". Miyasato's attorney replied that this was a legally insufficient basis for imposing the therapy--that therapy could be imposed only if it bore some relation to the particular offense for which Miyasato was currently being sentenced.
Superior Court Judge Larry C. Zervos concluded that he should follow the recommendation of the pre-sentence investigator and order Miyasato to participate in sex offender therapy. Judge Zervos stated:
[The] ... hardest question for me, quite frankly, is the condition of probation [requiring sex offender therapy]. I think that it's very clear, based on the reading of the pleadings that I have before me, that whatever those problems were that occurred in 1983 and 1990[, they] have not been addressed, [they] have not been treated.... You have attended some [therapy programs in the past], but the ultimate result was the same, you wash out of them, you quit going. And ... both reports that I have in the file that concern this problem with the sexual issue [--] the one that was [written] in 1988 says the factors indicate that George's potential to reoffend remains high. Well, that was certainly very clear in 1990; he reoffended. The [report] that was done in 1986 indicates that Miyasato ... is to be considered an extremely dangerous man at this time because of a lack of motivation, regression, extreme anger at women, and denial [of] his substance abuse. Somewhere else in these reports it indicates there's a pent-up anger against women.
....
The record is there. All your crimes are associated with women. The first two very clearly, then [the assault on] the person you lived with. [The present] case is a...
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State v. Valin
...need not be for enumerated sex offense in order to warrant sex-offender treatment as a probation condition); Miyasato v. State, 892 P.2d 200, 201-02 (Alaska Ct.App.1995) ("[A] condition of probation need not directly relate to the offense for which the defendant stands convicted."). Thus, a......
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People v. Meidinger, 98CA0923.
...as a "sex offender" and, thus, could be ordered by the court to undergo evaluation and treatment as such. See also Miyasato v. State, 892 P.2d 200 (Alaska Ct.App.1995)(burglary defendant with past record of sex offenses properly required to undergo sex offender treatment as condition of pro......