Opinion ID: 2561985
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Recent and Overt Act

Text: ¶ 14 Under the SVP law, to commit a nonincarcerated person, the State must prove a recent overt act, defined as any act or threat creating a reasonable apprehension of sexually violent harm in the mind of an objective person who knows the person's history and mental condition. Former RCW 71.09.030(5) (2008); former RCW 71.09.020(10). Anderson claims that his acts are neither recent nor overt. The State agrees it must establish this element beyond a reasonable doubt. Because Anderson does not challenge the trial court's findings of fact in this regard, we treat those findings as true. In re Estate of Jones, 152 Wash.2d 1, 8, 93 P.3d 147 (2004). Note, however, that Anderson will receive a new trial, at which he may challenge all findings. ¶ 15 Anderson's sexual activities at WSH could constitute overt acts. Dr. Phenix testified, and the trial court found, that Anderson engaged in sexual activity with vulnerable patients as substitutes for his preferred victims, children. [6] As the Court of Appeals noted, Anderson's acts of exploiting vulnerable adults were closely akin to his assaults on children. Anderson also had ongoing sexual fantasies of children involving sexual violence. Dr. Phenix and other specialists who were familiar with Anderson's history and mental condition concluded in light of these factors that he posed a clear risk to reoffend if released from custody. Those expert opinions support a reasonable apprehension of sexually violent harm, and therefore by definition, Anderson's sexual activities could constitute overt acts. See former RCW 71.09.020(10). ¶ 16 Anderson's overt acts were recent. This court has held in the SVP context that overt acts occurring up to five years before the petition's filing may be recent. In Marshall, the defendant committed the act in November 1995, and the State brought the petition in November 2000. Marshall, 156 Wash.2d at 153, 125 P.3d 111. We held it to be a recent overt act. Id. at 159, 125 P.3d 111. In In re Detention of Henrickson, 140 Wash.2d 686, 2 P.3d 473 (2000), one of the defendants committed his act in 1996, and the State filed the petition in 1999. Id. at 691, 2 P.3d 473. We held that this act was sufficiently recent. Id. at 696, 2 P.3d 473. Here, only two months before the State filed this petition, Anderson was reported having sex with a vulnerable copatient, the most recent reported act in a long string of such acts. The trial court correctly concluded that Anderson's acts two months before filing were recent, consistent with the law and prior decisions of this court.