NH- Legislature pushed to fix sex offender law

4-22-2009 New Hampshire:

CONCORD – A state prosecutor and human services official said Tuesday the Legislature needs to address a Supreme Court ruling that ordered three violent sexual offenders to be released because judges had missed deadlines to keep them behind bars.

The proposal was tacked onto an unrelated criminal offenders bill (SB 142) following statewide outrage over the release of three inmates the state had warned were a continuing danger to the community.

Attorney General Kelly Ayotte's office proposed Tuesday a detailed schedule of deadlines to avoid repeating what happened when three offenders completed their criminal sentences recently. The state wanted to continue their incarceration on a civil action, as allowed by law, but failed to meet key deadlines, thus setting the stage for their release.

The proposal presented Tuesday would allow the state to seek involuntary commitment at the secure psychiatric unit of the State Hospital for certain sexual offenders, even if legal deadlines are missed while the offender is still in prison completing a criminal sentence.

The matter gained statewide attention after the release of Raymond K. Fournier and fellow inmate Richard Hilton last month.

The state's high court ruled March 17 that Hillsborough County justices James Barry Jr. and Gilliam Abramson failed to act on the state's involuntary commitment petition within the deadlines provided by law, so Fournier and Hilton had to be released after completing their criminal sentences.

Fournier and Hilton had served their full sentences and could no longer be held without a successful civil commitment.

A third inmate, Wayne Sawyer, was also the target of a petition for commitment that was not acted on in time. Without naming names, Associate Attorney General Ann Rice said one of the three offenders is not free.

"Two are in community; one is not in community. His whereabouts at this point I can't discuss. It's confidential,'' Rice told the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Broderick has asked retired judge Bruce Mohl to investigate the delays in processing the state's petitions in all three cases.

Earlier this month, Superior Court Chief Justice Robert Lynn ordered new, strict rules for handling such cases.

Claire Ebel, executive director of the Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, blamed the error on the court's budget problems.

"We don't even know why it happened but it has been the business of the Legislature to fund the courts and the chief justice has been poignant in his pleas to you that the courts are not funded. They aren't going to be funded next year or the year after that,'' Ebel said. "More things like this are going to happen, it is inevitable that these things are going to happen.''

Rice said the state was seeking continued commitment in the three cases because they involved violent sexual offenders who did not complete a sexual offender treatment program or confess to the crimes.

Their convictions were for crimes specified in the involuntary commitment statutes, including murder with rape, violent rape and kidnapping or burglary with sexual assault intended.

A 2007 law cracking down on sexual predators permitted the state to seek civil commitment for such offenders beyond their criminal sentences in five-year increments.

The law forced state officials to send out hundreds of notices about impending releases, many for sex offenders who completed treatment and whom the state did not want to keep incarcerated, Rice explained.

The new proposal would allow the state Departments of Health & Human Services, Corrections and Justice to devote their attention to a smaller group of offenders who pose a continued risk, Rice said.

"It really narrows the focus of who is eligible for civil commitment,'' Rice explained.

John Wallace, an HHS attorney, said the agency's long-term goal remains a new facility for sexually violent offenders covered under the involuntary commitment law. "New Hampshire Hospital should not end up being de facto sex offender treatment facilities; it doesn't have level of security and programs to do that,'' he said.

In 2007, former HHS Commissioner John Stephen proposed renovating an existing state building for $20 million specifically for involuntary commitment of habitual sexual offenders, but the Legislature turned down his request.

Earlier this winter, Ayotte had proposed a separate bill (HB 138) to preclude dismissal of civil commitment cases because of missed deadlines.

The House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee voted last month to retain that bill for more study. The committee's vote came two days before the Supreme Court issued its decision in the Fournier case. ..News Source.. by KEVIN LANDRIGAN