2-Time Sex Offender, 72, To Ask Court For Change In 'Predator' Status
SANTA ANA (CBS) — A twice-convicted child molester was granted a new chance on Friday to win his freedom from a state hospital.
KNX 1070's Mike Landa reports 72-year-old Sid Landau will have his day in court to prove he no longer poses a threat as a sexually violent predator.
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Orange County Superior Court Judge W. Michael Hayes set a jury trial scheduled for Oct. 22 to determine whether Landau remains a sexually violent predator and should be confined to a state hospital indefinitely.
Two doctors have concluded Landau's poor health and advanced age make him incapable of being a sexually violent predator, Deputy District Attorney Dan Wagner said.
Landau went before a jury four years ago and failed to prove he was no longer a sexually violent predator, the prosecutor said.
"The records from the hospital over the last four years show no evidence of change," Wagner said. "He hasn't participated in any therapy and he's the same man we tried four years ago."
At his trial four years ago, Landau's attorneys said he had suffered a heart attack, which required a pacemaker, and had prostate cancer which is in "complete remission" now, Wagner said.
Landau was found to be a sexually violent predator and confined indefinitely to a state hospital on April 24, 2009. As a sexually violent
predator, he is evaluated each year to see if he still needs to be hospitalized.
An evaluator at the Coalinga State Mental Hospital determined that while he remains a pedophile, Landau no longer poses a danger and could be
treated as an outpatient, but the director of the hospital disagreed.
On Oct. 13, 2010, Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue ruled that Landau could not have a hearing on his petition for release, because the hospital director would not let Landau file the petition.
A state appellate panel ruled last September that a hospital director cannot overrule an evaluator, and Landau had the right to a "show cause hearing."
The three-judge panel also rejected Landau's request to have Donahue disqualified from future hearings.
Landau has been confined to mental hospitals since 2000.
Landau was convicted in 1982 of molesting a 10-year-old Anaheim boy and sentenced to three years in prison. He pleaded guilty in 1988 to molesting a 9-year-old boy and was sentenced to 17 years in prison. He served eight years and was paroled in 1996.
Landau spent the next four years in and out of prison for violating his parole. When his latest prison term ended in 2000, prosecutors filed a petition to have him declared a sexually violent predator, and he was sent to a mental hospital.
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