11-3-2011 New Hampshire:The state Supreme Court yesterday upheld the 2007 law that allows the state to detain the most dangerous sex offenders past their prison sentences.
In an unanimous decision, the court affirmed the 2009 commitment of William Ploof, the first sex offender ordered held under the law. The justices rejected Ploof's arguments that the law violates constitutional protections because it doesn't require the same rules of evidence or burden of proof as criminal cases.
"(Ploof) argues that the procedures contained in (the law) carry the risk of erroneous deprivation of his liberty interests," the court said. "However, the statute affords a number of safeguards designed to protect against erroneous commitment." Among those protections, the court said, are the rights to counsel, an unanimous jury verdict, state-paid experts and an independent mental health assessment.
Ploof, 52, has been held and treated at the state's Secure Psychiatric Unit since his commitment in 2009, but he faces more prison time on another case. Ploof was convicted last month in Coos County on new charges of raping and attempting to rape a boy in the early 1980s. Ploof has not been sentenced on the new convictions.
Christopher Johnson, the public appellate defender who argued Ploof's appeal, can ask the justices to reconsider. He was out of the office yesterday and could not be reached. Thomas Bocian, who fought Ploof's appeal for the state attorney general's office, was also out of the office yesterday.
Michael Valentine, the Hillsborough County prosecutor who presented the commitment case against Ploof, said his office was pleased with the court's finding. "When sex offenders max out of prison untreated and unsupervised, they represent a real risk to the community," Valentine said by email. "Civil commitment is an important tool for protecting the public from sexually violent predators."
