Court Opinion

ID: 9779708
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 00:38:06.808035+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:38.288622
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE STEWART, dissenting: I respectfully dissent because I believe the conflicting opinions of qualified experts in this case constituted probable cause for a trial on Cain’s petition for discharge or conditional release. The procedure the majority affirms allows the trial court to choose between conflicting expert reports as the primary basis of its decision that one who is imprisoned indefinitely, albeit for treatment, is not entitled to a trial to determine if he must remain imprisoned indefinitely. Instead of allowing a trial at which disputed questions of fact can be resolved, this procedure allows the court to bypass all of the truth-seeking functions and protections of our rules of evidence. The problem with the procedure the majority affirms is that it is devoid of any standard by which it can be determined what must be presented by a detainee to justify a finding of probable cause. If the statutory procedures by which a detainee is allowed to raise the possibility of his discharge or conditional release are to have any meaning, then a detainee should be able to discern what is required in order to obtain a trial at which a trier of fact can consider and resolve disputed issues of fact. The statutes upon which the trial court based its decision provide for the court to make a determination of whether there is “probable cause” for a trial. In order to obtain a trial on a petition for a discharge without conditions, the court must determine “that probable cause exists to believe that the committed person is no longer a sexually violent person.” 725 ILCS 207/65(b)(2) (West 2008). If probable cause is found to exist, a detainee may elect to have a jury determine whether he should be discharged. 725 ILCS 207/65(b)(2) (West 2008). In order for Cain to receive a trial to determine if he qualifies for conditional release, the court must determine that “cause exists to believe that it is not substantially probable that the person will engage in acts of sexual violence if on release or conditional release.” 725 ILCS 207/ 60(c) (West 2008). If this finding is made, a hearing on the petition for conditional release is conducted by the court, without a jury. 725 ILCS 207/60(d) (West 2008). In this case, the trial court based its order denying Cain a trial solely upon its assessment of the experts’ reports. Those reports reached opposite conclusions; therefore, faced with conflicting written opinions of experts, the trial court simply chose one expert’s opinion over the other. This procedure denied Cain the opportunity to have the factual issues raised by the conflicting opinions of experts on his petition for discharge decided by a jury. In its order, the trial court stated that it had discussed with the attorneys the issue of how to avoid an evidentiary hearing when “there are two psychological evaluations which reach opposite conclusions.” The court noted that it had reflected on the matter and had determined as follows: “[T]he mere existence of two conflicting reports does not mandate an evidentiary hearing. The trial court must have the discretion to weigh the credibility of both written reports in deciding the issue of probable cause, before ruling that the Respondent is entitled to an evidentiary hearing ***.” A review of the record shows that numerous questions of fact raised by the pleadings and reports remain unresolved by the trial court. For example, Cain filed a petition requesting that he be discharged from custody or conditionally released, in part alleging that the State’s expert evaluator had failed to follow the mandatory statutory standards. See 725 ILCS 207/55 (West 2008). Cain also alleged that, since his initial commitment, the State’s evaluators had failed to consider advances in the field of the psychology of sexual offenders, making their opinions less than reliable. These pleadings raise questions of fact about the reliability of the State’s past and present evaluations. In his report, Cain’s evaluator explained what he believed to be problems with the reliability of some of the psychological testing conducted by the State’s evaluator. The trial court dismissed those concerns because the Illinois Supreme Court, in 2004, found that those tests had been generally accepted within the scientific community and that their admission did not require a Frye hearing (Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923)). In re Commitment of Simons, 213 Ill. 2d 523, 535 (2004). That decision, however, only renders the tests admissible, and the trial court did not comment on Cain’s expert’s specific concerns about the reliability of those tests as applied to Cain. Even if the testing relied upon by the State’s evaluator is so widely accepted that no Frye hearing is required, without the experts’ testimony, the trial court had no basis for understanding how and to what extent the test results formed the basis of the expert’s opinion. In addition to the facts recited by the majority, Cain’s expert noted that Cain had dropped out of treatment twice due to the “harsh confrontational tactics” of the treatment providers. Cain’s evaluator found “no evidence of general significant psychopathy” or any evidence of “deviant sexual attitude or interests.” Cain’s evaluator acknowledged that Cain had made “aberrant” remarks that concerned him because those attitudes could permit Cain to rationalize sexual misconduct with children, but the evaluator found that Cain “did not reflect an ongoing desire to partake in sexual contact with minors.” Contrary to the findings of the State’s expert, Cain’s expert found that Cain’s earlier diagnosis of pedophilia either had been resolved or was in remission. He found that Cain was sexually impotent and had cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and back pain. He determined that Cain’s “estimated sexual reoffense risk categorization” was “low.” He noted that those in Cain’s age group, older than 70, had a “reoffense likelihood hovering around zero %” and that, as a result, whether or not Cain completed treatment “would appear to be moot.” These findings raise issues of fact concerning what level and type of treatment, if any, Cain requires and whether he continues to be a threat to society. The pleadings and written reports of the two evaluators raised numerous questions of fact. In order to resolve those questions of fact, the trial court had to make determinations about which expert’s opinion was entitled to greater weight. Even though this court has endorsed that very process in Cain’s past appeals, I disagree with those decisions. Since Cain’s initial commitment in 1999, the trial court has denied Cain’s requests to be discharged or conditionally released at least eight times, five times without a trial of any type. This is not the first time that the trial court has denied Cain a trial when an appointed expert reached the conclusion opposite to that of the State’s expert. On prior occasions, an expert other than the one appointed to examine Cain in this proceeding has determined that he should be discharged. The State’s expert has repeatedly opined that his imprisonment should continue. If the opinion of a qualified expert that Cain should be discharged from confinement is insufficient probable cause to allow a trial where a trier of fact determines the ultimate issue, then what must he do to establish probable cause? Must he have the opinions of two experts to overcome the opinion of the State’s expert at the probable cause hearing? The procedure affirmed by the majority is contrary to the rules of evidence and is not supported by the plain words of the Act. It is contrary to the rules of evidence because it requires a trial judge to do the impossible — make credibility and reliability determinations based upon the content of written reports of experts without any testimony from the authors. It is not supported by the plain words of the Act because the plain meaning of a probable cause hearing is to determine whether reasonable grounds exist to believe that a detainee should be discharged or conditionally released. If such grounds exist, the detainee is entitled to a trial where a trier of fact weighs the credibility of witnesses, not reports, and determines the ultimate issue. Surely, the written opinion of a qualified expert that a detainee should be discharged meets the probable cause standard. I am convinced that, in this case, the trial court abused its discretion, and its order denying Cain a trial to determine whether he should be discharged or conditionally released should be reversed.