IN THE MATTER OF CIVIL COMMITMENT OF ROTH
Court of Appeals of Minnesota.
Filed August 1, 2011.
In January 1998, appellant was charged with a fifth-degree felony controlled-substance crime and felony possession of stolen property; he pleaded guilty to the drug offense. In February 1998, appellant was charged with a fourth-degree controlled-substance crime, possession of stolen property, possession of a pistol by an ineligible person, and aggravated forgery. He pleaded guilty to the drug offense. In investigating the offense, police interviewed a 19-year-old woman who reported that appellant had a high number of teenagers living with him on and off and that the teenagers received drugs from appellant in exchange for sex or for assisting him in the commission of crimes. In March 1998, appellant pleaded guilty to a fifth-degree controlled-substance crime. In April 2000, appellant pleaded guilty to prohibited possession of an electronic incapacitation device and aggravated forgery. The events giving rise to the last plea were as follows: appellant supplied a minor with a forged check and false identification and instructed him to cash the check. When the minor did not do so, appellant threatened to kill the boy's family, then electrocuted him with the stun gun while appellant's adult niece punched the boy in the head with her fist while holding car keys.
On March 8, 2000, appellant and his niece abducted a 14-year-old girl, H.C., at gunpoint and brought her to appellant's apartment in Eagan, where appellant held her until March 31. While H.C. was in the apartment, appellant drugged her, used bondage equipment to restrain her, threatened her with a stun gun, penetrated her with his fingers and tongue, and attempted to have intercourse with her. Appellant was subsequently charged with deprivation of parental rights and third- and fourth-degree criminal-sexual conduct.
On March 30, 2000 (while H.C. was being held at appellant's apartment), J.F. a 12-year-old girl who lived in appellant's apartment complex, went to appellant's apartment. She was given a drugged drink and became semi-conscious. Appellant and a teenage girl brought J.F. to appellant's bedroom, removed her clothes, shaved her pubic hair, and chained her to the bed. Appellant licked J.F.'s vagina, penetrated her digitally, and shocked her with the stun gun when she attempted to escape. She was able to escape appellant's apartment the next day; her mother, who had reported her missing, found her wandering in the apartment complex with a chain hanging from her neck and accompanied by H.C. Appellant was charged with first- and second-degree criminal-sexual conduct, kidnapping, assault, false imprisonment, deprivation of parental rights, and prohibited use and possession of an electronic incapacitation device.
Appellant subsequently pleaded guilty to deprivation of parental rights (as to H.C.) and kidnapping (as to J.F.). One psychologist who helped prepare appellant's pre-sentence investigation reported that appellant "is not amenable to any form of sex offender treatment at the present time because he denies any wrongdoing" and that appellant is a "predatory sex offender who is willing to use and uses violence, threats, and drugs to corner and subdue his victims and who utilizes physical restraint and bondage as part of his methodology along with shaving pubic hair, committing oral sex, taping mouths shut and blindfolding."
Appellant entered prison in September 2001, with a scheduled release date of February 24, 2009. In 2006, while in prison, appellant refused to be assessed for treatment in the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) sex-offenders' treatment program, claiming treatment was unnecessary because he had never committed or been convicted of a sexual offense.
In October 2007, appellant was referred to the Dakota County Attorney's Office by the DOC for possible confinement as an SDP or a sexual psychopathic personality (SPP). Respondent filed a petition for civil commitment of appellant as an SDP and an SPP in November, 2008; the SPP petition was subsequently dismissed.
Appellant's commitment trial took place over seven days between February and October, 2009. The district court heard testimony and received expert reports from James Gilbertson, Ph.D., Thomas Ahlberg, Ph.D., and Mary Kenning, Ph.D., and viewed the video depositions of H.C. and Robert H.