Judge grants community release to child molester

KIM CURTIS, Associated Press Writer

Monday, February 24, 2003

(02-24) 16:18 PST SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) --

A judge ruled Monday that a man convicted of molesting at least nine young boys in three states is ready for release. Brian DeVries, 44, has spent more than five years at Atascadero State Hospital in a treatment program for sexually violent predators, the state's most dangerous, repeat sex offenders. But Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Robert Baines said he's now ready for outpatient treatment and close supervision.

"(DeVries) has met his burden and is eligible for supervision and treatment in the community," Baines said during a brief court hearing. DeVries did not attend. The Department of Mental Health now has three weeks to find a treatment provider and a place for him to live and to come up with a plan to monitor his day-to-day activities. But DMH can ask for extra time, if necessary. And officials said they've had trouble finding an agency that will provide care.

A letter from DMH to the judge last week called the search a "daunting process." But DeVries' lawyer, Brian Matthews, thinks they're dragging their feet. He said only three providers have been contacted. "I don't think they want anybody out. When does that turn into a constitutional problem," he said outside court. "I want this to go as quickly as possible ... he's waited long enough, the time has come." The judge asked Susan King, a DMH lawyer, if she could pinpoint a date when a provider would be ready. She said she could not. A progress report is expected at DeVries' next hearing March 3.

DeVries was first arrested in 1978 for molesting the 5-year-old son of his single mother landlord in New Hampshire. While on probation, he sexually assaulted at least three other boys ages 8, 10 and 12. He molested four more boys in Florida and an 8-year-old boy in San Jose. He finished serving his last prison sentence in 1997 and has been at Atascadero ever since.

The controversial treatment program requires offenders to work their way through four phases. They get recommitted every two years until mental health evaluators decide they're ready for the fifth phase, community release. No one has gone through the program and successfully graduated into supervised release. To help make his case for release, DeVries had himself surgically castrated in August.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... ST0095.DTL

these dangerous criminals ever to be released. We jail non-violent drug offenders forever. Why do legislatures set sentences of only a few years or decades for someone who sexually abuses children?

The answer is simple - money & lawyers.

Think OJ Simpson & Johnnie Cochran!

OR, just the lawyer with not much money who really wants to make a stink and get some limelight shining on himself. Make enough noise, and they WILL want you to just GO away.

This could rapidly turn into a crime & punishment thread, though, but some of those soon become very interesting!

While I'm all for extended sentences and not letting criminals off with a slap on the wrist, it's a very touchy area.

For example, murder - cold blooded and planned or crime of passion? He said, she said, they said ... POW ... then someone's dead. Now what do we do with him? Or child molesting - is it an open and shut issue, or parents over-reacting? Is the child making it up? Did the 'guily' party really do it? Once it's all resolved, what kind of sentence? Can you really run over someone four times and say it was an accident?

:tongueout

Personally, I'm glad it's not MY job.

Of course, in this fellow's case, though, it's rather obvious that he's quite incorrigible. I don't think I would have let him out just yet, but that's me. I'm rather touchy on THAT issue, you know.

Ow, that doesn't sound good AT ALL, but you know what I meant!

Comments?

Castration alone is not adequate. To have any chance of being effective, you would have to remove both his penis and testicles.

Old Softee,

You and I are both old enough to KNOW that logic has nothing whatsoever to do with human behavior. It makes perfect sense to law enforcement officials and the politicians who write the laws that perpetrators of victimless crimes – "crimes" where they are the only ones hurt – ought to suffer longer and harsher punishment than those who destroy lives – such as murderers or child molesters. I can go on about the subject longer than anyone on the Archive would ever care to read about it.

Jesus

I am a probation officer who works with those on probation for misdemeanor offenses. We handle many domestic violence and driving while intoxicated offenses. Many offenders benefit from our services. However, some of those whom I supervise might just as well have been prosecuted for felony offenses.

I am oriented toward rehab and work hard to nurture it. Some people benefit from probation. Others don't.

In the case of sexual offenders, I agree that proper prosecution is critical. The abusive prosecution for abuse of children in child care facilities by law enforcement people in California, North Carolina, Florida, and other places of people who clearly have not abused children is itself a great crime. The Wall Street Journal and the televisio program Frontline have exposed the absurdity of many prosecutions.

However, it is possible to prosecute offenders who do abuse children and adults.

What bothers me is that the prison sentences defined by law for sexual violence against children and others are not as severe as those for many non-violent offenses. The creep in Southern Califronia who cut off his victims hands, for example, got out of jail!

We end up with absurd situations where we attempt to hold sex offenders past their prison sentences when we could have sentenced them to long or life terms initially. That is what I don't understand.

On the other hand, we do need to measure the actual harm that sex offenders cause their victims and we do need to determine fairly the risk such offenders are to the public. Simply removing an offender's sexual organs is to misread how these folks are dangerous.

Like all such matters, these are complex and developing mattes of concern. It is the case that most violent offenders eventually leave prison. We do not live in a risk free world. I doubt that we could ever craft a risk free world.