IN THE MATTER OF CIVIL COMMITMENT OF ROTH
In the Matter of the Civil Commitment of: James Adam Roth, a/k/a Jim Adam Roth.
No. A11-318.
Court of Appeals of Minnesota.
Filed August 1, 2011.
Lori Swanson, Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota; and James Backstrom, Dakota County Attorney, Debra Schmidt, Karen L. Henke, Donald Bruce, Assistant County Attorneys, Hastings, Minnesota (for respondent State).
Considered and decided by Hudson, Presiding Judge; Halbrooks, Judge; and Bjorkman, Judge.
UNPUBLISHED OPINIONHUDSON, Judge.
Appellant James Adam Roth, a/k/a Jim Adam Roth, challenges the district court orders committing him initially and indeterminately to treatment in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) as a sexually dangerous person (SDP). Because clear and convincing evidence supports the district court's orders for both initial and indeterminate commitment, we affirm.
FACTSAppellant was born in 1956 and grew up in West St. Paul. At the age of three, he contracted polio and was hospitalized for 25 months. He is confined to a wheelchair. Since graduating from high school in 1975, appellant's income has come almost exclusively from Social Security disability benefits and drug dealing. By his own account, he has "used every drug under the sun," but he prefers marijuana, crystal methamphetamine, and cocaine.
In March 1997, a 25-year-old woman, D.H., fled from appellant's apartment in St. Paul to the security desk of the apartment complex, wearing only a white halter top. D.H. had a choke chain around her neck and bondage marks around her ankles and wrists. Appellant later reported that D.H. had gone to his apartment after he offered her $1,500 to allow him to tie her up and engage in sexual conduct. D.H. told the police that when she arrived at the apartment, an unknown party placed a bag over her head, tied her hands behind her back with duct tape, and placed duct tape over her mouth and eyes. Appellant instructed the unknown person to remove D.H.'s pants, bind her feet, and place her on his bed; she was tied down with leather belts attached to the bedposts. Appellant shaved D.H.'s pubic hair, repeatedly threatened to electrocute her with a stun gun, forcibly put his fingers in her vagina, had oral sex with her, and had intercourse with her. Appellant stated that D.H. fled the apartment after he told her he was not going to give her the money as arranged. D.H. chose not to pursue charges.
Later in 1997, D.H.'s brother, Robert H., went to appellant's apartment in South St. Paul because he knew that his sister was there, and he was concerned. Robert H. entered the apartment and found his sister lying face down and naked on the bed with her wrists behind her back in handcuffs and a belt around her neck; she was hysterical. Appellant was in the same room, holding a stun gun, which Robert H. took away before removing his sister from the apartment. D.H. again chose not to report the incident.