Tanguay v. State

• Decision Date: 24 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. SC01-613.,SC01-613.
• Citation: 880 So.2d 533
• Parties: Travis TANGUAY, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

880 So.2d 533

Travis TANGUAY, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.

No. SC01-613.

Supreme Court of Florida.

June 24, 2004.

James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Deborah K. Brueckheimer, Assistant Public Defender, Tenth Judicial Circuit, Bartow, FL, for Petitioner.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, and Richard L. Polin, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Miami, FL, for Respondent.

PER CURIAM.

We have for review a decision of a district court of appeal on the following question, which the court certified to be of great public importance:

WHEN THE STATE UNLAWFULLY DETAINS A PERSON BEYOND THE EXPIRATION OF HIS OR HER SENTENCE IN ORDER TO SEEK CIVIL COMMITMENT PURSUANT TO THE JIMMY RYCE ACT, SHOULD THAT COMMITMENT PETITION BE DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE?

Tanguay v. State, 782 So.2d 419, 421 (Fla. 2d DCA 2001). We have jurisdiction, see art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const., and rephrase the question as follows:

WHEN THE STATE UNLAWFULLY DETAINED A PERSON BEYOND THE EXPIRATION OF HIS OR HER SENTENCE IN ORDER TO SEEK CIVIL COMMITMENT PURSUANT TO THE JIMMY RYCE ACT, WHICH WAS IN EFFECT FROM JANUARY 1, 1999, TO JUNE 1, 1999, DID THE CIRCUIT COURT HAVE JURISDICTION TO ADJUDICATE THE PETITION SINCE THE PETITION WAS NOT FILED WHILE THE PETITIONER

WAS IN LAWFUL CUSTODY?

We answer the certified question in the affirmative and approve the district court's opinion below. We do specifically point out that we rephrased the question in part to underscore that this case is controlled by the Jimmy Ryce Involuntary Civil Commitment for Sexually Violent Predators' Treatment and Care Act (the Act), sections 916.31-.49, Florida Statutes (Supp.1998), prior to its amendment on June 1, 1999.

In 1996, the petitioner Travis Tanguay was committed to the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) for an indeterminate period not exceeding the maximum sentence for which an adult may serve for the petitioner's crime or until the petitioner's nineteenth birthday, whichever first occurred. The petitioner turned nineteen on February 24, 1999. The State detained the petitioner sixteen days beyond the expiration of his sentence so that the State could initiate proceedings under the Act. During the time the petitioner was detained, the multidisciplinary team of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCF) evaluated the petitioner and recommended to the state attorney that the petitioner be classified as a sexually violent predator. See § 916.33, Fla. Stat. (Supp.1998). The state attorney then filed the appropriate commitment petition with the circuit court, alleging that the petitioner was a sexually violent predator subject to commitment under the Act. Id. § 916.34. On May 12, 1999, the circuit court entered an order finding probable cause to declare petitioner a sexually violent predator and ordered the petitioner committed to the DCF pending his commitment trial. Id. § 916.35(1).

The petitioner subsequently filed a motion to dismiss the commitment proceedings, alleging that the circuit court lacked jurisdiction over the proceedings because the petitioner was unlawfully detained beyond the expiration of his sentence. The circuit court stated that the issue before it was whether section 916.45 conferred jurisdiction on the state attorney to file a petition against the petitioner. The petitioner contended in the circuit court that a person must be lawfully in custody at the time the commitment petition is filed. Section 916.45 provided that the Act was applicable to "all persons currently in custody who have been convicted of a sexually violent offense, as that term is defined in s. 916.32(8), as well as to all persons convicted of a sexually violent offense in the future."

The circuit court held:

Section 916.45 was clearly included in the act to prevent the retroactive application of the Jimmy Ryce Act to persons who had been released prior to the effective date of the act. Therefore, the state can file a petition against persons who were lawfully in custody as of January 1, 1999 and had been convicted of a sexually violent offense.

[Tanguay] was lawfully in custody as of January 1, 1999, and this Court has determined that probable cause exists that he may be a sexually violent predator. If [Tanguay] had been released, nothing would have prevented the state from filing a petition for commitment against him. Consequently, the state had jurisdiction to file this petition against [Tanguay] on March 12, 1999 whether or not he was in lawful custody. The determination of whether [Tanguay] was unlawfully detained is simply irrelevant.

Having determined that jurisdiction existed over [Tanguay], his motion to dismiss should be denied.

State v. Tanguay, No. 99-946, order at 2 (Fla. 10th Cir. Ct. order filed Sept. 8, 1999).

The petitioner appealed the circuit court's order, filing a petition for writ of prohibition in the Second District Court of Appeal to prevent the circuit court from hearing the pending commitment petition. The district court held that the State violated the petitioner's right to due process by detaining him beyond the expiration of his sentence. The court noted, however, that the petitioner had not asserted that he had been prejudiced by the unlawful confinement and therefore declined to find that the State's violation of the petitioner's constitutional rights required dismissal of the commitment petition. The court stated that "the only adequate remedy to address the State's failure to comply with the requirements of the Act or to afford [petitioner] even minimal constitutional protections is to order [petitioner's] release from custody pending his commitment hearing." Tanguay, 782 So.2d at 421. The district court therefore treated the petitioner's petition for writ of prohibition as a petition for mandamus and granted the petition to the extent that it sought the petitioner's release from custody.

The Act provides a civil commitment procedure for the long term treatment of sexually violent predators. The Act was created so that a person classified as a sexually violent predator may be involuntarily committed to the DCF for treatment until the person's mental abnormality or personality disorder has changed and the person is safe to be at large. See Fla. H.R. Comm. on Fam. Law & Child., CS for HB 3327 (1998) Staff Analysis 1 (final May 26, 1998). Because of the constitutional implications related to involuntary commitment, the Legislature provided detailed procedural requirements that the State must follow to proceed under the Act. The procedural requirements relating to the instant case are as follows.

First, the agency with jurisdiction over a person convicted of a sexually violent offense shall give written notice to the multidisciplinary team 180 days or, in the case of an adjudicated committed delinquent, ninety days before the person's anticipated release from total confinement. In the case of a person who has been returned to confinement for no more than ninety days, written notice must be given as soon as practicable following the person's return to confinement. The multidisciplinary team then has forty-five days after receipt of notice to assess whether the person meets the definition of a sexually violent predator who should be subject to commitment and to provide the state attorney with its written assessment and recommendation. § 916.33, Fla. Stat. (Supp.1998). The Legislature expressly provided that the requirements of section 916.33 are not jurisdictional and that failure to comply with these requirements would not prevent the State from proceeding under the Act. Id. § 916.33(1). Therefore, if the State fails to strictly adhere to the provisions of this section (i.e., if the State does not provide the multidisciplinary team with notice precisely within 180 or ninety days, or if the multidisciplinary team fails to provide its recommendation within forty-five days), the State may still proceed against the person.

Following receipt of the multidisciplinary team's assessment, the state attorney may file a petition in the circuit court requesting that the person be declared a sexually violent predator. Id. § 916.34. The circuit court then determines whether probable cause exists to classify the person as a sexually violent predator. If the court determines that probable cause exists, the judge shall direct that the person be taken into custody and held in an appropriate secure facility pending a civil commitment hearing. Id. § 916.35(1).

The State contends that the Act does not require the State to file a commitment petition prior to the expiration of a person's sentence. First, the State argues that because the Act expressly provides that the time limits in which the multidisciplinary team must make its assessment are not jurisdictional, the State does not forfeit its opportunity to proceed under the Act if the State fails to comply with the notice provisions of the Act. Therefore, the State argues, the circuit court does not lose jurisdiction in circumstances such as the instant case, in which the State failed to initiate proceedings against the petitioner before the expiration of his sentence. Second, the State argues that because section 916.34, Florida Statutes,¹ does not expressly provide a time limit within which the State must file the commitment petition, the State is only required to file the petition upon receipt of the multidisciplinary team's assessment whether that be before or after the expiration of the person's sentence.

We agree. There was no "in custody" requirement in the statute conferring jurisdiction in the circuit court which conditioned jurisdiction on the petitioner being "in custody" on the date the petition was filed. To the contrary, section 916.35(1) states, "If the judge determines that there is probable cause to believe that the person is a sexually violent predator, the judge shall direct that the person be taken into custody and held in an appropriate secure...