The First Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined that evidence of unspecified paraphilic disorder (USPD) can be admitted in a sex offender civil management trial. The evidence was excluded at the Mental Hygiene Law article 10 trial. The verdict that defendant does not suffer from a mental abnormality was vacated and the petition was reinstated:
In Matter of State of New York v Hilton C. (158 AD3d 707 [2d Dept 2018] …), the 2nd Department held that the evidence in the record before it, which is similar to the evidence in the record presently before us, failed to establish that “the diagnosis of unspecified paraphilic disorder [USPD] has achieved general acceptance in the psychiatric and psychological communities so as to make expert testimony on that diagnosis admissible” … . In the absence of any other New York State appellate authority, Supreme Court … that USPD was precluded as a diagnosis in article 10 proceedings.
However, we find, contrary to the 2nd Department, and consistent with the decision in Matter of Luis S. v State of New York (166 AD3d 1550 [4th Dept 2018]) that the type of evidence presented at the Frye hearing … in this case — such as the evidence concerning the inclusion of USPD as a diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), which signals its general acceptance by the psychiatric community — is sufficient to satisfy the State’s burden of showing that the USPD diagnosis meets the Frye standard.
Accordingly, the verdict that respondent does not suffer from a mental abnormality, rendered after the article 10 trial, from which USPD evidence was excluded, must be vacated, the petition reinstated, and the matter remanded for further proceedings, including a determination whether the evidence meets the threshold standard of reliability and admissibility … . Matter of State of New York v Jerome A., 2019 NY Slip Op 03531, First Dept 5-7-19