Sex offenders moved to mental hospitals lose case
Print Edition
A judge has decided that the former governor of New York didn’t violate the rights of sex offenders by transferring them to mental institutions after their prison sentences ended instead of letting them go free.
Former Governor George Pataki decided in 2005 to have heath and prison officials evaluate the worst sex offenders for possible involuntary commitment to mental institutions once released from prison.
The practice was halted in 2006 after a court found that several men who were committed should have been entitled to hearings before it happened.
Some remained in psychiatric institutions for years.
Six of the sex offenders sued Pataki and other officials in 2008, claiming the officials had abused their authority by denying them their freedom.
The Sexually Violent Predator initiative was a “sham” attempt to “bypass the Constitution,” their attorney Reza Rezvani said in closing arguments on Monday.
Pataki’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, told the jury that the most shocking part of the case was what the offenders did, not what the governor did.
In a statement on Wednesday, Lowell said Pataki “sought to ensure the safety of all New Yorkers ... He achieved this by keeping the law and the constitution priorities all the time. The jury verdict confirmed this.”
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