Opinion ID: 2095176
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Who Has the Burden of Persuasion and What is the Standard of Proof?

Text: In pertinent part, D.C.Code § 22-4004(a)(1)(A)(ii) provides that a person may seek review in Superior Court of a determination by CSOSA that he is required to register, or to register for life, if the determination depends on a finding or findings which are not apparent from his conviction or insanity acquittal as to [w]hether certain sexual acts or contacts were forcible. The statute is silent, however, as to who bears the burden of persuasion in Superior Court on such a factual issue, and as to the standard of proof. W.B. contends that principles of procedural due process require the government to bear the burden of persuasion and to do so by clear and convincing evidence. The government disagrees on both counts. We hold that the burden of persuasion on the predicate factual issue of use of force belongs with the government. We conclude, though, that proof by a preponderance of the evidence is sufficient. In deciding what procedures due process requires for a governmental deprivation of an individual's life, liberty or property on the basis of disputed facts or issues, courts must consider three factors: First, the private interest that will be affected by the official action; second, the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest through the procedures used, and the probable value, if any, of additional or substitute procedural safeguards; and finally, the Government's interest, including the function involved and the fiscal and administrative burdens that the additional or substitute procedural requisites would entail. Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 335, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976). These three factors guide our resolution of the narrow burden of persuasion and proof questions before us in the present case. To begin with, the individual liberty interests at stake may not be fundamental ones for purposes of substantive due process, but they are significant. If nothing else, the registration duties that SORA imposes are a nontrivial restriction on the individual's liberty, and there is a material difference between having to register for ten years and having to register for life. When the government seeks to restrict a citizen's liberty on account of contested facts specific to that individual, it is normally and normatively the government that bears the burden of proving those predicate facts in a fair proceedingnot the individual's duty to disprove them. That norm is intrinsic to SORA's basic scheme, which permits no registration obligations at all to be imposed on an individual unless the government has already proved that the individual committed a registration offense in a judicial proceeding. See D.C.Code § 22-4001(3). We see no reason to depart from the norm in the present situation, where the duration and extent of the obligations depends on the establishment of other facts in addition to the fact of adjudication. As W.B.'s case illustrates, placing the burden of persuasion on the registrant means that he may be required to register for life rather than ten years on the basis of a contested factual determination that the judge may be unable to make, simply because the registrant has not disproved it. Given the importance of the liberty interest at stake, that outcome appears difficult to justify. It is more consonant with basic fairness, we think, to require the government to persuade the judge that the critical fact is true. So long as the standard of proof is not unduly strict, the government has no substantial countervailing interest. Allocating the burden of persuasion to the government is calculated to reduce the risks of error in a registration disputean interest all parties sharefor it is the government that typically has superior access to official records and witnesses and superior ability to marshal the evidence. Indeed, given that SORA requires CSOSA to make a finding or findings on the facts at issue in the first instance, D.C.Code § 22-4004(a)(1)(A), the government should in every case already have done the work and have the evidence at hand. On occasion some facts may be in the exclusive possession of the registrant, it is true; but even then, the government ordinarily has the power to compel their disclosure if necessary, no privilege being applicable. And while it might be suggested that the government has an interest, greater than the registrant's, in an expedited and efficient dispute resolution proceeding, that interest is not in jeopardy. Review proceedings under D.C.Code § 22-4004(a)(1)(A) have a very limited scope to begin with, [30] and merely allocating the burden of persuasion by a reasonable standard of proof to the government is not likely, as a practical matter, to prolong or complicate them (in fact, it may simplify them). The government argues, however, that a determination by CSOSA comes to the Superior Court with a presumption of regularity, such that the party attacking the determination should shoulder the burden of proving it in error. For example, in Parke v. Raley, 506 U.S. 20, 31, 113 S.Ct. 517, 121 L.Ed.2d 391 (1992), a case on which the government relies, the Supreme Court held that a presumption of regularity attaches to a final judgment of conviction offered to enhance a criminal sentence, and that it is compatible with due process to assign the burden of proof to the defendant who challenges the validity of such a final judgment. Of course Parke is not directly applicable to W.B.'s case or to review proceedings generally under D.C.Code § 22-4004(a)(1)(A), because the pertinent judgment of conviction (or acquittal by reason of insanity) does not disclose the critical fact on which the decision in those proceedings turns. And CSOSA's subsequent determination that an offense involved the use of force is not entitled to the same presumption of correctness as a final judgment of conviction in a court of law. [31] CSOSA is not an adjudicative body like a court, and its processes are not like those of a court. CSOSA is a law enforcement agency within the executive branch of the Federal Government. Its primary responsibility is the supervision of offenders on probation, parole and supervised release pursuant to the District of Columbia Code. See D.C.Code § 24-133(a), (c) (2001). In addition CSOSA is assigned broad responsibilities for overseeing the registration of sex offenders under SORA. See D.C.Code §§ 22-4007 through 22-4010. Where an initial factual determination is made by an administrative agency acting in a non-adjudicative enforcement capacity, due process requires that the person whose rights are affected be able to obtain de novo review by a neutral adjudicator (i.e., in the present case, a court). See Concrete Pipe & Prods. of Cal., Inc. v. Construction Laborers Pens. Trust, 508 U.S. 602, 618, 113 S.Ct. 2264, 124 L.Ed.2d 539 (1993). While there may be no uniform rule, we think it a corollary of such de novo review that the enforcement agency determination does not benefit automatically from a presumption in its favor. [32] The practical considerations identified in Mathews trump reliance on such a presumption. CSOSA's determination would not be entitled to a presumption of regularity in a proceeding to revoke probation, parole or supervised release; we see little reason to accord such a presumption to its finding of a disputed fact in the context of SORA. Thus, we hold that when a person disputes CSOSA's finding that certain sexual acts or contacts were forcible, D.C.Code § 22-4004(a)(1)(A)(ii), due process requires the government to bear the burden of persuasion. Accord, E.B. v. Verniero, 119 F.3d 1077, 1109 (3d Cir. 1997). We do not agree that due process requires the government to meet that burden by more than a preponderance of the evidence, however. The Due Process Clause may mandate heightened standards of proofclear and convincing evidence, or even proof beyond a reasonable doubt when fundamental rights or liberty interests are at stake and the risk of error should be allocated disproportionately to one side (the state), or perhaps when other special factors are present. See, e.g., Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745, 761, 102 S.Ct. 1388, 71 L.Ed.2d 599 (1982) (termination of parental rights); Addington v. Texas, 441 U.S. 418, 427, 99 S.Ct. 1804, 60 L.Ed.2d 323 (1979) (civil commitment). This is not such a case. Appellants' asserted liberty interests are not fundamental ones, and given the government's compelling interest in protecting the public from sex offenses committed by recidivists, it should not bear a disproportionate share of the risk of error. If preponderance of the evidence is the appropriate standard for establishing both substantive and technical violations of probation, as we have held, see Johnson v. United States, 763 A.2d 707, 712 (D.C.2000), it is the appropriate standard here. The judge in appellant W.B.'s case erred in assigning him the burden of persuasion and ruling against him because he did not meet it. We therefore must remand W.B.'s case for the Superior Court to reconsider its decision under a proper allocation of the burden. An evidentiary hearing likely will be necessary, since the outcome may depend on W.B.'s credibility if the trial judge finds the government's evidence sufficient to establish that W.B.'s offense did involve the use of force. See, e.g., Samuels v. United States, 435 A.2d 392, 395 (D.C.1981) (remanding for a hearing on a motion to vacate a sentence pursuant to D.C.Code § 23-110; [t]he court could not conclusively resolve the dispute without a hearing, for witness credibility typically reflected best through live testimony under oathis key here). SORA's dispute resolution procedures follow generally the procedures set forth in D.C.Code § 23-110 for collateral attacks on a conviction, Judiciary Committee Report at 25, and the statute expressly contemplates evidentiary hearings on motions for review of CSOSA determinations when necessary. See D.C.Code § 22-4004(c)(1).