7-30-15 Texas:
Rodney Steve Haines showed no outward emotion when Montgomery County jurors unanimously declared him to be a “sexually violent predator” who could attack again and found that he should be civilly confined for treatment — with prosecutors calling it “scary” that Haines had been free for three months between his prison release and Wednesday’s commitment hearing.
Last month, it was reported that the state failed to hold mandated pre-release commitment hearings not only for the 60-year-old Haines, who was living with a relative in Helotes after he completed a 10-year prison sentence in April, but also for another sex offender, 56-year-old Joseph David Miller.
Miller has been living in Spring since his release from prison in May. Both were flagged as “high risk” pedophiles who under state law should have had hearings to determine if they should be civilly committed for treatment at least two months before their prison sentences ended.
When Haines’ hearing was finally held this week, prosecutors argued that he remained a threat to society. Haines’ attorney noted that his client had health issues and had not committed any new offenses since being freed.
The jury reached its unanimous verdict after deliberating less than 40 minutes.
Neither Haines nor his family members would comment after the verdict was announced in a Conroe courtroom. Afterward, he was taken into custody and transported to the Southeast Texas Transitional Center on Beaumont Highway in Houston, where he will be confined under strict supervision and forced to wear a GPS ankle monitor while undergoing treatment.
Texas’ civil commitment program was designed to keep Texas’ most dangerous sexual predators off the streets until they’re deemed safe to re-enter society, authorities said. But amid a mounting backlog of such cases, those commitment hearings never took place before Haines and Miller were set free.
The clogged docket can be traced back to a Montgomery County district judge, Mike Seiler, who was recently stripped of having sole authority over all of Texas’ civil commitment proceedings. A state judicial commission recently reprimanded Seiler for perceived bias after he’d suggested sex offenders were “psychopaths” who should be “castrated from the neck up,” among other things.
Texas lawmakers changed the law so that commitment hearings would no longer all be funneled to his Montgomery County court. The cases instead will be assigned to judges in each sex offender’s home county.
Nonetheless, Seiler continued to have jurisdiction over Haines’ and Miller’s cases, along with hundreds of other cases that were already pending in his court. So Haines and virtually every other offender with a pending case there demanded a hearing to have Seiler removed as the judge in their cases, creating long delays in the hearing process. So far, some 65 visiting judges have been assigned to take over Seiler’s cases — including retired Harris County Judge Lamar McKorkle, who presided over this week’s proceedings.
In closing arguments, Haines’ attorney, Scott Pawgan, argued against the further confinement of his client, saying the state had solely relied on his convictions of wrongdoing involving three young girls a decade ago. Pawgan said no evidence was produced of any wrongdoing since then, including during the three months he had been free.
But prosecutor Jacklyn Janis noted that it had taken 20 years before his sexual abuse of young victims surfaced in 2006. He was then sentenced to 10 years in prison after his conviction on nine counts of improper sexual activity with different under-aged girls, with some of the abuse starting when a female victim was age 9 and continuing for five years. “The fact that we have no record of what he’s done for the last 90 days is scary,” Janis told the jury. “It should be scary for all of us.”
Prosecutors also presented records of complaints from 10 other young girls who had accused Haines of wrongdoing.
Haines’ attorney was quick to point out that his client had never been charged in any of these other cases, and denied involvement.
Janis disagreed, saying, “This shows a persistent pattern of sex offending” by someone who refused to participate in any sex-offender treatment programs while in prison and maintained he “didn’t need it.”
At the same time, the prosecutors said, Haines demonstrated no remorse, She cited testimony this week in which Haines said 10-year-olds had bodies “mature” enough for sex, that his victims had been “willing” partners who “wanted” it. He also testified that having sex with them was wrong.
Dr. Lisa Clayton of Dallas, a forensic psychiatrist, was the only other witness to testify besides Haines. She diagnosed Haines as having both a pedophilia disorder and an anti-social personality that predisposed him to harm other children. She based this on his multiple sexual relationships with girls ages 9 to 14, whom she said he “groomed” to be his sexual partners, beginning with fondling and progressing to various other kinds of sexual assault, which sometimes occurred over a period of five years.
Pawgan said his client had been afraid of becoming a target in prison if he signed up for sex offender treatment there, but had recently voluntarily applied to attend such classes. Haines was also trying to turn his life around by attending church and working as a landscaper and painter, said Pawgan, adding that Haines suffered from coronary disease that had led to several heart attacks.
After the jury reached its verdict, Judge McKorkle encouraged Haines to continue on a path of self improvement so he could “get back into the free world.”
..Source.. by Cindy Horswell
9-30-16 Illinois:
