MN- St. Peter escape rulings allowed to stand

4-22-2009 Minnesota:

James Martinelli argued that rare necessity defense applied to case

A St. Peter Regional Treatment Center patient’s effort to avoid escape charges after breaking out of a Minnesota Sex Offender Program facility has been rejected by the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

In a ruling released last week, appeals court judges agreed with Nicollet County District Court judge Allison Krehbiel’s earlier rulings related to James Alexander Martinelli’s escape from one of the treatment center’s secure buildings in March 2005.

One of those rulings said Martinelli, 33, couldn’t use a rare necessity defense for his escape. Another Krehbiel ruling said he shouldn’t be treated the same as a mentally ill and dangerous person committed to the treatment center after being found not guilty of a violent crime by reason of mental illness.

Martinelli and another man, 57-year-old Rodger Dean Robb, slipped out a window and through a a fence surrounding a building on the treatment center grounds. They were arrested in Omaha, Neb., less than a day later and returned to St. Peter after fighting extradition.

Both were eventually convicted of an escape charge and sentenced to prison. Prior to going to trial, Martinelli filed a motion to dismiss the charge because he could have been returned to the St. Peter facility within 30 days. Mentally ill and dangerous people at the treatment center can avoid a felony escape charges if they return within a month.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruling upheld Krehbiel’s decision that people in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program are not the same as those people committed and mentally ill and dangerous. People committed as sex offenders have engaged in harmful sexual conduct or are unable to control sexual impulses, the appeals court ruling said.

“By contrast, the mentally ill and dangerous patients who are afforded the opportunity to avoid a criminal penalty for escape have been found not guilty of a criminal charge by reason of mental illness,” the ruling said. “We conclude that the government has a legitimate purpose for treating sexually psychopathic personality and sexually dangerous person patients who escape from a secure treatment facility differently than it treats mentally ill and dangerous people who escape.”

Krehbiel also was correct to rule that Martinelli shouldn’t be able to use the rare necessity defense when he pleaded guilty to the escape charge late last year, the appeals court ruling said. His defense would have claimed he would have faced an immediate threat to his life or safety by not escaping. The ruling said Martinelli failed to show he was in danger.

Officials at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, which runs the regional treatment center and the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, said the ruling was a good one. They would not say why, however.

In a written response, spokeswoman Patrice Vick said, “We are very pleased with the decision and appreciate the good work of Nicollet County Attorney Mike Riley.”

Just over a year after Martinelli and Robb escaped, four other men in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program escaped from the treatment center’s Minnesota Security Hospital.

Three of the men were arrested within hours. A fourth man, 43-year-old Michael Dale Benson, was arrested in Kansas City after a nationwide search. ..News Source.. by Dan Nienaber, The Free Press