SALT LAKE CITY -- A convicted sex offender facing nearly two dozen charges of child sex abuse may be soon be set free because doctors says he's no danger to society even though he's not mentally competent for trial.
Lonnie Hyrum Johnson was charged in 2007 in Utah with rape, sodomy and aggravated sexual abuse of a child for alleged acts with his niece and her step-cousin between 2001 and 2006.
Each charge is a first-degree felony. If convicted at a trial, the 38-year-old Johnson would face life sentences for every count. Instead, it appears he will be freed sometime soon after a hearing Thursday afternoon.
Deemed incompetent for trial by a judge in 2008, Johnson has been institutionalized at Utah State Hospital in Provo, about 45 miles north of Salt Lake City, where doctors have been working to restore his mental capacity.
But several weeks ago, the judge found that he likely would not be made competent to face the charges, and doctors believe he wouldn't be a danger to society if freed.
"That magic language effectively kills our criminal case," county Assistant District Attorney Craig Johnson said.
Johnson sought to have the defendant civilly committed, but doctors say he doesn't meet the necessary legal standard.
5 comments:
If this pig had touched my kid, he would not make it 10 feet from the door after being freed. I would smile every day of my life sentence.
This is a crock of bull!!! If he's not compentent to stand trial then he should be instutionalized for life, his whole natural life.
they should let them all go. NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN
I think a condition of release should be that the parolee must live in the home of whatever judge releases them for a period of 60 days. And the judge, of course, is NOT allowed to have a gun. Or police protection. Or a security detail. Why? Because these are the conditions that judges and police impose upon the citizens. When animals like that are released to live among us again, the police don't patrol our neighborhoods more than usual, no security detail is posted outside our homes. The police tell us we're not to be trusted with guns. Its just us, hoping and praying that we're NOT the next victim. Maybe 90 days would be a better term...
Lmao..this proves a phd doesn't make you intelligent. It may make you a doctor but not intelligent...or logical. Over education at its best.
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