NEW YORK STATE Civil confinement law being tested Some sex offenders being held in psychiatric centers BY KATHY PARKER Gazette Reporter
A former Porter Corners man convicted three times of sexually abusing young girls is being held in a state psychiatric center, waiting to hear if a judge will order him held there for the foreseeable future. Andrew M. Pratt, 46, finished his state prison sentence in February, but a state Office of Mental Health evaluation determined a jury and judge should decide whether he’s fit to return to society. The case is Saratoga County’s first civil confinement proceeding under a year-old law. Last week marked the first anniversary of New York’s civil confinement law, which allows judges to lock up some convicted sex offenders beyond their prison terms. In the past year, 111 sex offenders finishing prison terms and evaluated by the state Office of Mental Health were recommended to be considered for civil confinement. So far, 17 of those prisoners were sent to state psychiatric centers, 11 were ordered to undergo strict supervision and treatment, and four were released after a trial. The rest are waiting for court dates or for judges to decide how they will be confined. One of the four found by a jury to be fit to return to society was Douglas Junco of Albany, according to a spokesman for the state Department of Criminal Justice Services. “The first case we had go to trial last year was in Washington County. A jury found that Douglas Junco did not warrant civil confinement and he was released,” John Caher said. “He had maxed out his prison time and he was let off the leash. He moved to Georgia and on Feb. 4 he was arrested on charges of kidnapping, rape and incest in Savannah.” Caher said jury members heard from the mental health and legal professionals and made the determination that Junco was ready for release. “It’s a jury of his peers just as if it were a criminal case,” Caher said. In the Saratoga County case, Pratt, formerly of Greenfield Manor Road, pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree sexual abuse in September 2000 and he was sentenced in 2001 to seven years in prison and five years of post-release supervision. OPPOSITION VOICED State Assistant Attorney General Joseph Muia Jr. said it was Pratt’s third conviction for a sexual assault against a child under the age of 10. In March, a jury in his civil confinement case determined that Pratt has a mental abnormality and is likely to commit another sex crime. In June, Acting Saratoga County Supreme Court Judge Harry Siebert will decide whether Pratt should remain in a residential state psychiatric center or if he should be seen as an outpatient in an intensive therapy program. The New York Civil Liberties Union opposed the civil confi nement legislation and continues to dispute its legality, according to CLU spokeswoman Melanie Trimble. “We lobbied against it and continue to oppose it,” she said. NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman has warned sex offenders might not be the last criminals held beyond their criminal court sentences. “Sex offenses are a serious public safety issue, but the political compromise that led to this legislation is not a serious response to the problem,” Lieberman said right after the legislation was approved in Albany. “Its sponsors assert that the bill will confine ‘the most dangerous’ offenders, but in fact it could subject to a civil commitment proceeding a person whose offenses include crimes not generally understood to be sex offenses, such as arson, robbery and minor assault.” The NYCLU also charged that the legislation is based on erroneous notions of mental disability. Not all persons who commit sex crimes have psychiatric disabilities, Lieberman said. “This confusion not only leads to a flawed approach to preventing sex crimes, but could embrace as a matter of public policy the mistaken idea that individuals with psychiatric disabilities are sexually dangerous,” she said. SUPREME COURT RULINGS New York is one of 20 states that provides for civil court action to hold sexually violent predators at secure treatment facilities after they have completed their prison sentences if they are considered likely to commit repeated acts of sexual violence. Past challenges to the laws have made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has repeatedly upheld the involuntary civil commitment of “dangerous persons who are unable to control their behaviors and whose mental illnesses render them a grave risk to the public health and safety.” According to a New York state Department of Correctional Services report, for the period from 1986 through 1995, approximately 49 percent of sex offenders who were released from New York prisons in 1986 were returned to prison for a violation of parole or for committing a new crime. Under the New York law, a jury determines whether the prisoner has a mental abnormality and is likely to commit future sex crimes. If they unanimously determine both of those things, a judge decides whether the prisoner will be held in a state psychiatric center or will undergo intensive supervision and treatment as an outpatient. The state’s Department of Criminal Justice Services now has an office of Sexual Offender Management, which works with the New York Office of Mental Health in determining which prisoners should be considered for civil confinement. DCJS spokesman John Caher said of 1,249 cases reviewed by the Office of Mental Health in the last year, 111 were referred to the Attorney General’s Office, which is responsible for bringing the cases against the prisoners to a civil jury and a judge. DEFENSE PROVIDED The state’s Office of Mental Hygiene Legal Services provides the prisoner with a defense team arguing he or she should be released. Sheila Shea is the regional director of Mental Hygiene Legal Services, which covers from Sullivan County to the Canadian border and from Elmira to Vermont. She said her office often gets new prisonerclient cases a day or two before an initial court appearance. “[Four months] before the anticipated release of a sex offender, the Department of Corrections notifi es the Office of Mental Health,” Shea said. “OMH goes through the review process to determine whether the prisoner is a candidate for civil confinement and we may be [given the information] a day or two before the release.” Within 72 hours of the release, a judge determines whether the state has a case to proceed to a jury. If so, both sides have 60 days to prepare for trial unless extensions are granted. In the meantime, the prisoner remains locked up. Caher said the trials that determine whether a prisoner will be civilly confined can be held in either a county or Supreme Court where the inmate was originally convicted or had been imprisoned. He said 20 people who were about to go through the civil confinement trial voluntarily agreed to civil confinement before the court action began. He had no details or background for the prisoners who placed themselves in continued supervision.
Man held in rape of girl under 10 SCHENECTADY — A local man was arrested Friday for allegedly raping a girl under the age of 10. Spokesman Officer Kevin Green said police received a report that Robert D. Keen, 29, of Clarendon St., allegedly had sex with a juvenile. Officers interviewed Keen at the station and then charged him with felony predatory sexual assault against a child, rape of a female under age 11, aggravated sexual abuse and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child. Green said he believed Keen was an acquaintance of the family. Keen is being held without bail in Schenectady County Jail.
Man charged with failure to register SCHENECTADY — A local man was arrested Friday for allegedly failing to register as a sex offender. Kenneth J. Thompson, 34, of 412 Duane Ave. was charged with one count of failure to register. Information on the nature of his crime was not available.
see, they do live among us----caught, convicted, registered or NOT........what do we do with them after they are caught and convicted???? How do you rehabilitate a penis???? Or---how do you rehabilitate a "playboy/penthouse" society????-----the pendulum will always swing the other way and moderation will be left behind---eventually.......unless the judgements and discernments are put back on their foundation......liberty only works well when combined with justice......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Glenville man, 25, faces sex charges GLENVILLE — Charges of sex with an underage girl face a Glenville man who was arrested Tuesday, according to town police. William C. Seaward, 25, of Pine Ridge Trailer Park, is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl at his residence on Jan. 18, and with providing her and another underage woman with marijuana and alcohol. He faces charges of rape second degree, criminal sexual act, unlawful dealing and endangering the welfare of a child, according to Detective William S. Marchewka. Seaward was arraigned before Judge Richard Moran, and posted bail of $20,000; he is due in court May 6.
They still walk among us and always will.......who were the girls teachers??????? I wonder what the judge will do with him???? we dont even know what to call him....... >
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Paroled offender charged with subway groping Questions raised about state dealings with repeat sex offenders BY COLLEEN LONG The Associated Press
NEW YORK — About two weeks after he was released from prison, Freddie Johnson boarded a crowded subway train in Manhattan and illegally rubbed up against a woman, authorities said. It is a fairly common crime on subways in New York. But this was no common criminal. Johnson has been arrested a staggering 53 times — the majority for groping women on the subway, police and prosecutors said. In his latest arrest, Johnson was being followed by plainclothes officers who recognized him from police photos, authorities said. He was charged with persistent sexual abuse, and if convicted this time, he could be sent away for life. The district attorney’s office branded him a “recidivist transit grinder” at a court hearing last week. But the fact that Johnson was roaming the subways in the first place has raised questions about how the state deals with the problem of repeat sex offenders. His case even drew the scorn of a newspaper editorial this week that labeled Johnson the “Subway Rat.” His attorney, Afsi Khot, had no comment on the case, as is practice with Legal Aid attorneys. Johnson, a registered sex offender, has been convicted at least twice of persistent sexual abuse within the past decade, prosecutors said. And he has a lengthy rap sheet, with 30 arrests for sex abuse, 13 for jostling and two for grand larceny, police said. He was released from prison on March 25 after serving four years for persistent sexual abuse, according to correctional records. The state attorney general’s offi ce had argued that the 49-year-old should be confined under the state’s civil commitment law for sex offenders, which went into effect last year, because he was at risk for repeat offenses. But a Manhattan Supreme Court Judge disagreed and instead placed Johnson on strict court-ordered supervision and electronic monitoring. Whether he should have been confi ned speaks to a larger issue about what authorities should do with criminals who are habitual offenders,but aren’t violent. Around half of all so-called exhibitionists like Johnson are repeat offenders, experts say. Exhibitionists have the highest rate of re-offense of all sex crimes, but there isn’t much crossover into more egregious acts like rape or assault, said Elizabeth Jeglic, a professor of treatment and rehabilitation of offenders at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “Exhibitionism is disturbing, but in the larger scheme, you want to commit the people who are grabbing kids off the street or the rapist in Central Park,” Jeglic said. The goal of the Sex Offender Management and Treatment Act that went into effect last April is to protect society by keeping the most dangerous sex offenders off the streets and provide long-term treatment to ensure they don’t repeat their crimes. To qualify, a criminal must have a “mental abnormality” and be “predisposed” to repeat the offense, prosecutors said. Out of 1,299 sex offenders initially referred to the program in New York, 163 have been recommended for civil commitment, according to a report earlier this year by the state Office of Mental Health. Under the program, sex offenders are committed, treated, monitored and eventually discharged. While it’s painful for the victim no matter the crime, the system doesn’t have room to deal with all offenders. Currently, 10 percent of sex abuse cases are referred as possibilities for the program, on par with other states that have similar laws, the health department report said. It costs more than $100,000 per person per year to confine them. And there is currently bed space for 181 offenders at three facilities around the state. The development of 150 beds is under way, but it’s obvious there will be shortfalls unless long-term projects are developed. Only 5 percent of those committed to the 19 other state programs in the country have been released. Jeglic said New Jersey, where a similar law has been in place for about a decade, has run out of beds for offenders. Either way, Johnson may end up behind bars for good if he’s convicted in the latest incident because the Manhattan district attorney’s office said it will push for more serious punishment given his rap sheet. That means he could get up to life in prison. If he’s convicted solely on the most recent charges, he could face four years.
By LEIGH HORNBECK, Staff writer Tuesday, April 15, 2008
BALLSTON SPA -- A Saratoga County jury convicted a man of rape today after 17 hours of deliberations.
Steven Scott, 24, of Saratoga Springs, was found guilty of second-degree rape in connection with a March 17, 2007 incident in which he provided alcohol to three girls in their young teens and then had sex with one of them, a 13-year-old. He also was found guilty of three counts of endangering the welfare of a child stemming from the alcohol. The Saratoga County Court jury acquitted him on first-degree rape and first-degree dealing unlawfully with a child counts. One of Scott's lawyers, Heidi Gifford, said he maintains his innocence and will appeal the verdict. "He has always denied any sexual contact with the girl," Gifford said. Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Jensen said Scott couldn't keep his story straight and contradicted himself about whether or not he was even in the room when the crimes occurred. "The major point is, he was 23 years old. What in the world was he doing with 13-, 14-year-old girls?" Jensen said after the trial. The jury deliberated from noon to 9 p.m. Monday and from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today. They asked the court stenographer to read back testimony several times and asked for clarification on some of the charges. Scott had been free on bail before the trial, but Judge Jerry Scarano sent him to jail after the verdict was read. Scott faces a maximum of seven years in prison at his sentencing June 11.
Steven Scott, 24, of Saratoga Springs, was found guilty of second-degree rape in connection with a March 17, 2007 incident in which he provided alcohol to three girls in their young teens and then had sex with one of them, a 13-year-old. He also was found guilty of three counts of endangering the welfare of a child stemming from the alcohol.
Okay and where were these girls parents? And after this guy has sex with this 13 year girl and supplies alcohol to them as well...he gets a MAXIMUM OF 7 YEARS????? Which mean he'll be out in 3 1/2! Go figure!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Fugitive nabbed at Schenectady mission Thursday, April 17, 2008 By Steven Cook (Contact) Gazette Reporter
SCHENECTADY — A man wanted in two states was arrested today at the Schenectady City Mission, authorities said. Kenneth L. Curry, 42, of Milledgeville, Ga., was arrested an hour before he was to catch a bus back to Georgia, officials with the regional fugitive task force said. He was wanted in Albany, accused of stabbing his girlfriend in the chest with a kitchen knife April 11 in their Madison Avenue apartment, officials said. Curry has been in the area for about four months and is also wanted in Georgia, accused of failing to register as a sex offender there. Curry was arraigned and ordered held without bail.
they walk and live among us.......always have and always will.....what do we do with them after they are caught and convicted is our problem......are they polygamists, pole watchers, heffner supporters----what??????
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
DJ allegedly shared sex abuse video NEW YORK — A wedding disc jockey has been accused of sharing an instructional video showing how to sexually abuse children. The case was referred to the Queens district attorney’s office by police in Wheaton, Ill., who said they found two child porn videos in an Internet file-sharing program the DJ was using in February. One video shows a 4-year-old girl performing a sex act on a man; the other gives advice and examples on how to sexually abuse minors, authorities said. Dominick Guerra, 29, of Ozone Park, Queens, is charged in a criminal complaint with possessing and promoting child pornography. He was arraigned Thursday and held on $100,000 bail, according to the district attorney’s office. The DJ would face up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Man held in sex attacks on kids NEW YORK — Police have charged a 61-year-old Connecticut man with the sexual abuse of three children at two different public bathrooms in Brooklyn. Police say that the Stamford resident followed an 8-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl into a public restroom on Thursday at Gravesend Park and sexually assaulted both of them. When the children began crying, the suspect fled. Police say the other attack took place about two hours later inside a bathroom at Diglio Playground. Again, when the 8-year-old female victim began crying, the attacker fl ed. The three children are in stable condition at a local hospital.
What do we do with them????? We dont know what they are???? They walk among us....always have and always will........what society deems as deviant will be their 'just-desserts'.....polygamy illegal-kids taken away for questionable child abuse,,,yet Texas calls the 'pole-tax' unconstitutional.......
WHEN WILL WE GET OUR HEADS(THE ONES ON OUR SHOULDERS) OUT OF OUR ASSESS??????
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Sexual predator charged in attack on woman Man, who had served 27 years in prison, accused of holding woman at knifepoint
By JIMMY VIELKIND, Staff writer Tuesday, April 22, 2008
ARRENSBURG A serial sexual predator was arrested Monday night in connection with sexually assaulting a woman at knifepoint in his Hudson Street apartment.
Lawrence A. Woodard, 53, allegedly held his victim at knife point and sexually assaulted her, Warren County Sheriff's Lt. Shawn Lamouree said. She was not seriously injured in the attack, and called deputies at 3:21 p.m. An arrest warrant was soon issued for Woodard on charges of first-degree criminal sex act and unlawful imprisonment. Lamouree said he was arrested at his residence without incident around 10:30 p.m. Woodard was known to deputies. A North Country native, Woodard moved back to Warrensburg in 2006 after he served 27 years in New Hampshire state prison for repeatedly stabbing a woman in 1980. He had been previously charged with rape twice, once found not guilty by reason of mental illness. He escaped from a mental institution three times before his 1980 arrest. Woodard was taken Monday night to the Warren County Jail pending his arraignment Tuesday morning.
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