Opinion ID: 2226490
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Sexually Dangerous Persons Act

Text: The Sexually Dangerous Persons Act created a new class of individuals eligible for civil commitment for treatment. [7] The Act defines a sexually dangerous person as one who: (1) has engaged in a course of harmful sexual conduct   ; (2) has manifested a sexual, personality, or other mental disorder or dysfunction; and (3) as a result, is likely to engage in acts of harmful sexual conduct   . Id. ง 253B.02, subd. 18b(a). The SDP Act is a departure from the Psychopathic Personality Act upheld in Blodgett, 510 N.W.2d at 918. First, commitment under the SDP Act does not require proof that the proposed patient has an inability to control his or her sexual impulses. Minn. Stat. ง 253B.02, subd. 18b(b). Second, the SDP Act describes the conduct in which the patient must have engaged before the commitment, and in which the patient is likely to engage in the future. Harmful sexual conduct is sexual conduct that creates a substantial likelihood of serious physical or emotional harm to another. Id. ง 253B.02, subd. 7a(a). Such harm is rebuttably presumed for conduct described by certain criminal offenses. Id. ง 253B.02, subd. 7a(b) (applying the presumption to criminal sexual conduct in the first through fourth degrees, and to crimes such as murder, manslaughter, and kidnapping, if such crimes were motivated by sexual impulses or were part of a pattern of behavior that included criminal sexual conduct as a goal). Otherwise, the operation of the SDP Act is substantially the same as the PP Act. Both contain three substantive elements. See Linehan I, 518 N.W.2d at 613. Moreover, the civil commitment procedures are similar under the SDP Act and the PP Act. The hearing procedure is the same for both Acts, and generally follows the procedure for committing the mentally ill and dangerous. See Minn.Stat. ง 253B.185, subd. 1. But see id. (requiring county attorneys to screen and file petitions for the commitment of sexually dangerous persons or persons with a sexual psychopathic personality [8] ). Grounds for commitment must be demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence for all three categories of patients. See id. งง 253B.18, subd. 1, 253B.185, subd. 1. If the patient is committed pursuant to any of the three categories, the treatment facility must submit a treatment report within 60 days of the commitment, and the committing court must then hold a review hearing. See id. งง 253B.18, subd. 2, 253B.185, subd. 1. Finally, the same procedures for conditional and full discharge apply to all three categories of patients. See id. งง 253B.18, subds. 7, 15, 253B.185, subd. 1.