Newswire

New York Judge Orders 12 Sex Predators Released

Judgette Orders Sex Predators Released

NEW YORK -- A judge on Tuesday ordered the release of 12 sex criminals she said were illegally detained when they were sent to a psychiatric hospital on Gov. George Pataki's orders after their prison sentences ended.

State Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline Silbermann directed the release of the 12 — whose crimes include the rape and sodomy of boys and girls — pending examinations of each prisoner by two court-appointed psychiatrists.

She said the men had to be examined within five days of her appointing the physicians. She said unless the psychiatrists find the ex-convicts to be mentally ill or to be dangers to themselves or to society they will have to be released immediately.

Pataki issued a statement saying he was "deeply troubled" by the judge's decision and would order an appeal. He said the ex-convicts "represent a real danger to our children and our communities."

The sex criminals had been ordered held by Pataki, who, after years of failing to secure a bill that would allow civil confinement of sex offenders when their sentences end, said he would "push the envelope" legally and hold them anyway.

Pataki used the state's involuntary commitment law, which normally deals with the noncriminal mentally ill, to win extended confinement of the sex criminals.

The judge noted in her nine-page decision that Pataki "ordered state correction and mental authorities to begin evaluating every sexually violent predator in state prisons before their release to determine if they should be civilly confined."

Lawyers for the sex criminals petitioned the court for their release, arguing that the state had violated the law that governs the transfer of apparently mentally ill prisoners to hospitals.

The judge agreed.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2005
1116/ap_on_re_us/sex_predators_1

Posted by Editor at November 16, 2005 05:45 AM