Violent sex offender detained indefinitely

1-14-2016 Florida:

A man due to be released from prison after serving time for raping multiple elderly women will instead be detained indefinitely after being deemed a sexually violent predator.

In a three-day civil trial in Pensacola, Assistant State Attorney Jay Williams successfully made the case to a jury that Michael Degerald Mosley, 52, should be involuntarily detained in a treatment center for sex offenders because he would pose a danger to the community if released into society.

While on probation in 1984, Mosley broke into homes in a Palm Beach retirement community and sexually assaulted two elderly female residents, according to the State Attorney's Office. After serving approximately a decade on a 22-year sentence, he was released and moved to Escambia County to live with relatives. Six months after his release, he broke into the home of an elderly woman across the street and sexually assaulted her.

Mosley was due for release again in December, but two of three psychologists who interviewed and assessed Mosley determined he was a high risk to re-offend.

Appeals court orders Jacksonville sex offender released from commitment

8-7-2014 Florida:

An appeals court has ordered the release of a Jacksonville sex offender who was committed under the state’s Jimmy Ryce Act after he had completed his prison sentence.

Prosecutors said the case was not over and stressed that Victor V. Reed was unlikely to get out anytime soon.

The case will go to the Florida Supreme Court for a final ruling, but prosecutors said the “loophole” that might let Reed get out has already been closed as part of a modification of the Jimmy Ryce Act that occurred earlier this year.

The act allows for the psychiatric review or civil commitment of sexually violent offenders even after they finish their prison sentences.

Reed, 48, pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual battery in May 2013. Circuit Judge Virginia Norton sentenced him to the 481 days he had already served in jail.

Usually that would mean Reed was free, but he remained in custody overnight to be “processed out.” The next day the Department of Corrections notified the Department of Children and Families that Reed was a potential Jimmy Ryce inmate. Children and Families responded with a “detainer” letter asking for Reed to be transported to the Florida Civil Commitment Center, which is where sexual offenders and predators are held under the Jimmy Ryce Act.

Judge declines to release serial rapist from state control

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7-8-15 Florida:

Following the advice of mental health evaluators, a judge has declined to release from state control a serial rapist who roamed southeast Ocala in the mid-1980s.

Frank Kash, 59, waived his appearance at a Tuesday hearing, during which Assistant Public Defender Susan Bailey said she had no evidence to contradict the evaluation of her client.

Kash pleaded guilty to sexual battery, robbery with a deadly weapon, burglary and two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in connection to a rape case in February 1985. His prison term in that case ended in 2003.

The Jimmy Ryce Act, enacted in 1999, states that before inmates with histories of sex offenses are released from prison they are evaluated to determine the level of risk for re-offense. Sometimes the inmates can be subject to civil proceedings and commitment to a facility for treatment.

Jimmy Ryce was a 9-year-old South Florida boy who was kidnapped, raped, murdered and dismembered in 1995 by Juan Carlos Chavez, who died by lethal injection in 2014. In the aftermath of the boy’s death, his family successfully lobbied for tighter restrictions on sexual offenders.

In 2003, prosecutors were seeking to commit Kash under the Jimmy Ryce Act. Before any proceeding took place, Kash stipulated, against his attorney’s advice, that he be committed to the Florida Civil Commitment Center in Arcadia indefinitely.

According to Bailey, her client is currently in the custody of the Department of Corrections, not the commitment center.

State prison records show Kash began serving a five-year prison sentence for aggravated assault in June 2012.

At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, Circuit Judge Jonathan Ohlman told the attorneys to make arrangements to have Kash re-evaluated again next year, as required by law.

Back in 1985, part of Kash’s plea agreement called for him to speak with law enforcement about other sexual assaults in the area. Kash, dubbed the “Southeast Rapist” by law enforcement, confessed to seven other rapes between February 1984 and March 1985 and 20 auto burglaries in about the same period of time. He was linked to four other rapes - which he did not confess to - by hair sample comparisons.

Kash was never prosecuted for any of the other rape cases because, according to the State Attorney’s Office, during the 1980s technology was far less advanced than today and not enough evidence existed for those cases to proceed to trial. ..Source.. by April Warren

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Morel v State

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5-14-14 Florida:

Morel v State

Ronald Morel ("Defendant") appeals the denial of his motion to dismiss the State's petition for civil commitment as a sexually violent predator ("SVP") for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

Based on the Florida Supreme Court's decisions in State v. Phillips, 119 So.3d 1233 (Fla.2013), Larimore v. State, 2 So.3d 101 (Fla.2008), and State v. Atkinson, 831 So.2d 172 (Fla. 2002), the trial court did not have jurisdiction over Defendant at the time of his civil commitment.

Accordingly, we reverse, and grant Defendant's motion.

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