CopyPublished | Florida 4th District Court of Appeal
...ahassee, and Kimberly T. Acuña,
Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
MAY, J.
We address a case of first impression concerning the defendant’s
conviction for engaging in sexual misconduct with a patient, as prohibited
by section 394.4593(2), Florida Statutes (2018). The defendant argues the
statute’s text requires us to reverse his conviction. We agree and reverse.
The State charged the defendant with violating section 394.4593(2),
Florida Statutes (2018), which provides:
An employee[ 1] who engages in sexual misconduct with a
patient who:
(a) Is in the custody of the department;[ 2] or
1 The parties agree the defendant was an “employee.” § 394.4593(1)(a), Fla....
...nt facility, as
those terms are defined in s.
394.455,
commits a felony of the second degree . . . .
“Sexual misconduct” refers to “any [delineated] sexual activity between an
employee and a patient,” irrespective of consent. §
394.4593(1)(c), Fla.
Stat....
...First, the victim did not meet
the definition of “patient.” Second, the facility did not meet the definition
of “receiving facility” or “treatment facility.” And third, the victim was not
in “custody.”
The threshold issue was whether the victim was a “patient” within the
meaning of section 394.4593, Florida Statutes (2018)....
...OA.
Pagan v. State,
830 So. 2d 792, 803 (Fla. 2002). We also review questions
of statutory interpretation de novo. Paul v. State,
129 So. 3d 1058, 1061
(Fla. 2013).
The threshold question is who qualifies as a “patient” within the
meaning of section
394.4593, Florida Statutes (2018)....
...gislative intent or resort to rules
of statutory construction to ascertain intent.” City of Vero Beach,
64 So.
3d at 174 (quoting Lee Cnty. Elec. Coop., Inc. v. Jacobs,
820 So. 2d 297,
303 (Fla. 2002)).
4
Section
394.4593 was enacted in 2004 and is contained within The
Florida Mental Health Act of 1971. See Ch. 2004–267, Laws of Fla.
(codified at §
394.4593, Fla. Stat. (2004)). The defendant was convicted of
violating subsection
394.4593(2), Florida Statutes (2018), which states:
An employee who engages in sexual misconduct with a patient
who:
(a) Is in the custody of the department; or
(b) Resides in a receiving facility or a treatment facility, as
those terms are defined in s.
394.455
commits a felony of the second degree . . . .
The statute defines only three terms: “employee,” “sexual activity,”
and “sexual misconduct.” §
394.4593(1)(a)–(c), Fla. Stat. (2018). The
parties agreed to those definitions. The defendant conceded he was an
“employee.” The State conceded the victim was not “in the custody of the
department.” See id.
Section
394.4593, Florida Statutes (2018), does not define the term
“patient,” although it references the word six times....
...914, 942 (2000).
Indeed, “[w]here the legislature has used particular words to define a term,
the courts do not have the authority to redefine it.” Baker v. State,
636
So. 2d 1342, 1343–44 (Fla. 1994). Thus, the trial court was required to
use the defined term.
The State argues contrary intent appears on the face of section
394.4593, Florida Statutes (2018). The State suggests if the legislature
had intended for the definition of “patient” in section
394.455 to be the
5
definition for “patient” in section
394.4593, the legislature would have
referred to section
394.455 like it did with the terms “treatment facility”
and “receiving facility.” But “‘[o]nly the most extraordinary showing of
contrary intentions’ in the legislative history will justify a departure from
that language.” Salinas v....
...health treatment.” §
394.455(31), Fla. Stat. (2016). One constant remains
through the definition’s evolution: the person must have been held, or
accepted, for mental health treatment.
The text of the session law enacting the crime charged is also
informative. Section
394.4593, Florida Statutes (2004), originated as a
bill titled, “An act relating to development services and mental health.” Ch.
2004-267, Laws of Fla. (codified at §
394.4593, Fla. Stat.) The legislature
explained the purpose and effect of the law being enacted:
[This law] creat[es] ss.
393.135,
394.4593, and
916.1075,
F.S.; defin[es] the terms “employee,” “sexual activity,” and
“sexual misconduct”; provid[es] that it is a second-degree
felony for an employee to engage in sexual misconduct with
certain dev...
...tain mental
health patients, or certain forensic clients; providing
certain exceptions . . . .
6
Id. (emphasis added). Thus, the legislative history supports the
defendant’s position that section 394.4593 applies only to “certain
developmentally disabled clients, certain mental health patients, or certain
forensic clients ....
...sentence.
Reversed and remanded.
GROSS, J., concurs.
FORST, J., concurs specially with opinion.
FORST, J., concurring specially.
I concur in the majority opinion’s conclusion that the purported victim
in this case was not a “patient” per section 394.4593, Florida Statutes
(2018)....
...“understood in their ordinary, everyday meanings.” Antonin Scalia &
Bryan A. Garner, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts 69 (2012)
[hereinafter Scalia & Garner]. As such, the purported victim in this case
would be considered a “patient” for purposes of section 394.4593, Florida
Statutes (2018)....
...Standard Oil Co. of N.J.,
294 U.S. 87, 96 (1935) (quoted in Scalia &
Garner, supra, at 225).
7
In the instant case, the legislature provided a definition of the term
“patient,” applicable to its usage in section
394.4593....
...Title XXIX of the
Florida Statutes is captioned as “Public Health” and encompasses
chapters 381–408. Chapter 394 is captioned “Mental Health.” That
chapter’s Part I “shall be known as ‘The Florida Mental Health Act’ or ‘The
Baker Act.’” §
394.451, Fla. Stat. (2018). Part I includes section
394.4593
(“Sexual misconduct prohibited; reporting required; penalties”) and
section
394.455 (“Definitions”)....
...to
the language itself, the specific context in which that language is used,
and the broader context of the statute as a whole.” Conage v. United
States,
346 So. 3d 594, 598 (Fla. 2022) (quoting Robinson v. Shell Oil Co.,
519 U.S. 337 (1997)).
Section
394.4593, Florida Statutes (2018), is a means of protecting
vulnerable individuals receiving treatment in State-regulated facilities
and, in recognition of the purported victim’s impairment, doing away with
the inquiry as to whether the sex...
...ot
manifest a co-occurring mental health impairment, the legislature can
achieve that goal by either amending the definition of “patient,” as
currently contained in section
394.455(32), Florida Statutes (2022), or by
adding a provision mirroring section
394.4593 to Chapter 397.
In the meantime, prosecutors remain able to proceed against treatment
facility employees who are alleged to have engaged in nonconsensual
sexual relations with a patient (applying the normal meaning of that term)...
