Loophole means Utah sex offender set to be freed

Let me get this right,
We invade, attack, and kill others in foreign countries to supposedly protect their human rights but who is protecting human rights on American soil??
Certainly not the law.
Should we change it to "God bless America, land of the evil and home of the corrupt"
No need to attack America they don't need protection everything is perfect and we are the only country that has it right, so nothing wrong here move along and invade sovereign nations to ensure everyone else in the world is protected except Americans that live on American soil.
I use to bleed red, white, and blue and would fight anyone that would talk bad about my country and now i am utterly ASHAMED to even call myself an american (not worthy of capital letters) and it's not because of the people in the country but what america has now come to represent and be associated with, i liken the new america to the aids virus as one in the same.







Loophole means Utah sex offender set to be freed
AP



By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Jennifer Dobner, Associated Press – Thu Mar 31, 5:02 am ET

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.

Under Utah law, a defendant is incompetent to stand trial if he suffers from mental illness, cannot understand the charges against him or is unable to participate in his own defense. For a civil commitment, a doctor must find that a person's mental illness makes them a danger to himself or others. Johnson, who suffers from a cognitive disorder, falls into a gap somewhere in between.

"So we're hamstrung," the prosecutor said. "And I really can't wrap my arms around why there is this loophole, this gap in the law."

Relatives of the victims are outraged.

"I am just floored," said Christy Danner, the mother of one victim. "I don't understand how he's competent enough to let go but not competent enough to stand trial. It's not fair to the girls. It's almost like they are victimized again."

Danner said her deepest fear is that another child might be harmed.

Johnson's defense attorney, Tom Means, declined to comment because he said had not yet seen the latest doctors' reports.

In 2006, Johnson was convicted of raping a teenage girl in Washington state and sent to prison, but served less than a year before being released. He is now required to register as a sex offender, no matter where he moves.

It was only after that Washington conviction that Danner's daughter and her step-cousin, both of whom are now adults, approached their families and police, Danner said.

"He's found the perfect loophole and the scary thing is now he's got it figured out if he ever does something like this again," she said.

reply to post by laslidealist


Sorry to break the news to you but its a court of law,not a court of justice.

reply to post by laslidealist


Big deal. Look at the Federal Reserve and what they've been doing for all these years. They are ten times worst.
Sorry to go a little off topic, but this happens a lot.

reply to post by laslidealist


Accidental Double Post.

If one of the parents kills him, there better not be any charges brought. This man needs to be put out of our misery. There is no cure for him, he is a danger to children everywhere, so just release him? These doctors should be ashamed of themselves.

"Deemed incompetent for trial"

This sick person is "INCOMPETENT" !!!!!! any person who commits acts such as these are "INCOMPETENT" as a "person" and should not be free in society.

Interpretation of the law by "INCOMPETENT" judges put our society in danger every day. Let the normal people judge this sick idiot and I hope he gets what he has coming.

There is a special place in hell for judges and sickos like this.