Matter of State v. Donald DD

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10-28-2014 New York:

IN THE MATTER OF STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. DONALD DD., Appellant.
IN THE MATTER OF STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. KENNETH T., Appellant.

In Matter of State of New York v Donald DD., we hold that, in a Mental Hygiene article 10 trial, evidence that a respondent suffers from antisocial personality disorder cannot be used to support a finding that he has a mental abnormality as defined by Mental Hygiene Law § 10.03 (i), when it is not accompanied by any other diagnosis of mental abnormality. We dismiss the proceeding in Matter of State of New York v Kenneth T. on the ground of legal insufficiency. We begin our discussion with that appeal. ..Continued..

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Split Court Clarifies Role of ASPD in Civil Confinement

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10-31-2014 New York:

ALBANY - A diagnosis that a person suffers from antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), without any other condition linked to sexual violence, is insufficient to support the finding of mental abnormality needed for civil commitment to a mental heath facility, the state Court of Appeals held.

The ruling clarified what it said was an open question on whether the condition is itself a signal of an offender's propensity to commit sex crimes or an indicator of more general antisocial behavior without links to criminal sexual behavior.

Under Mental Hygiene Law Article 10, a finding of a mental abnormality must be made by a court before it can impose restrictions on offenders upon their release from prison that range from mandatory outpatient treatment to confinement in secure mental health facilities.

Antisocial personality disorder is defined as a condition or disorder that affects the emotional or cognitive capacity of a person in a way that predisposes him or her to commit a sex offense and "results in that person having serious difficulty in controlling such conduct."

Regional Treatment Center Patient Sentenced for Murdering Fellow Patient

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10-30-2014 Minnesota

ST. PETER, MINN. - A man convicted of killing a fellow patient at the Minnesota Security Hospital back in January is sentenced to 17 years in a state prison.

Darnell Whitefeather killed Michael Douglas by stomping on his head as many as 30 times.

Wednesday in court, Whitefeather apologized to the victim's family.

The prosecutor in the case read victim-impact statements from Douglas' family, which were directed at Whitefeather saying at one point "you have reached into my chest and removed my heart."

In court, Whitefeather's public defender questioned Security Hospital staff oversight at the time of the murder.

Tracy Bains, Whitefeather's Public Defender, said, "The tragedy is we have...some of our most mentally ill, dangerous people in a facility and that this occurred should be a question and pause for all of us."

Nicollet County Attorney Michelle Zehnder-Fischer said, "Mr. Whitefeather made a decision because he was mad to assault another patient, so we're here because of the choices and the decisions that Mr. Whitefeather made."

Prisoners' Religious Rights at Center of Lawsuit, Minnesota State Policy Change

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10-29-2014 Minnesota:

Should a prisoner be allowed to grow a beard? Or wear a yarmulke? Or a Muslim headscarf?

They're questions that are currently before the U.S. Supreme Court. And now, the state of Minnesota is being sued over its policy, even after it was pressured into a key change a few weeks ago.

It's a debate that pits religious freedom against safety and security, and it's playing out in our state as we speak.

"Religious freedom is a big issue right now, but the Supreme Court has pretty consistently held that prisoners don't have a lot of religious rights," said Marie Failinger, a law professor at Hamline University.

Two convicted sex offenders, who are being treated in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, are trying to change that.

Kenneth Daywitt and Merel Bishop filed a lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday. The lawsuit states that they are both Orthodox Jews, required to wear a yarmulke at all times and a suit coat while in public. But they allege the Minnesota Department of Human Services prohibits both, interfering with their right to practice their religion.

State withdraws plan to place sex offender in Borrego Springs

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10-29-2014 California:

The state Department of Hospitals on Wednesday withdrew a proposal to place sexually violent predator Gary Snavely in Borrego Springs.

In August, a judge determined that Snavely could be safely released as long as he continued to get treatment.

Officials proposed Tuesday that Snavely be housed in Borrego Springs, but that proposal was withdrawn without explanation today.

Authorities said Snavely will remain at Coalinga State Hospital pending further court hearings. The public will be notified when another site location has been identified.

Child molester may be placed in Borrego Springs

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10-28-2014 California:

BORREGO SPRINGS — A convicted child molester may be placed in the East County community of Borrego Springs, and community members are being asked to weigh in.

The Department of State Hospitals proposed Tuesday that Gary Snavely, who is classified as a sexually violent predator, live at 3184 Club Circle East #13 near the Borrego Springs Country Club. A public hearing on the suggested location is scheduled for Dec. 5 in San Diego Superior Court.

This is the second time Snavely, 51, has been cleared by a judge to live under supervision in San Diego County. He was placed in Jacumba in June 2008, but was sent back to Coalinga State Hospital several months later, in September, for abusing his psychotropic medication and being dishonest with his treatment and supervision staff. He was not accused of committing any new crimes.

Snavely was convicted in 1987 of molesting two Orange County girls, between the ages 8 and 9. He was sentenced to three years in prison. He was also convicted of failing to register as a sex offender in San Diego County in 1996 and was sentenced to 16 months in prison.

County Supervisor Bill Horn said Tuesday that he would likely be attending the hearing to protest Snavely's placement and encouraged Borrego Springs residents to do the same.

Castrated Sex Offender Kevin Reilly To Be Released From Mental Hospital

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UPDATE 11-1: Castrated Sex Offender Registers in Sacramento near School

10-27-2014 California:

A Southern California jury declared on Friday that castrated sex offender Kevin Reilly is no longer considered a threat and is therefore eligible for release.

“There was simply no evidence he was likely to reoffend,” Holly Galloway, deputy public defender, said. “What the jury did was amazing because they followed the law and that’s a hard thing to do with someone with his history.”

Reilly, 53, will not remain locked in a state mental hospital and can be released as early as Friday, according to his lawyer.

Reilly served time for sex offenses committed during the 1980s and 1990s, and has been locked up in a state mental hospital since 2000. According to California law, authorities can forcibly commit sex offenders to a mental hospital if they believe the convict will reoffend.

Jury rules sex offender not ready for transitional release

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10-25-2014 Iowa:

A former Waterloo man will remain in the fourth of a five-phase program for sex offenders.

Albert Allen Barnes, 55, had requested to be moved to the transitional release phase at the Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders (CCUSO) in Cherokee, a treatment program run by the Iowa Department of Health.

But on Friday, a jury of 10 women and two men ruled that Barnes’ mental abnormality continued to make it likely he would commit sex offenses and that he wasn’t suitable to be placed in the final step.

The civil trial to consider Barnes’ request began Thursday in Black Hawk County District Court with his attorney, Assistant State Public Defender Steven Addington, arguing that Barnes had made enough progress in treatment to quality for transitional release.

The move would have kept him in a locked unit at the Cherokee facility, but he would be allowed to leave with staff permission to apply for jobs and become accustomed to society while escorted or under GPS tracking.

Home> U.S. Jury Says Castrated Sex Offender Should Be Freed

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10-24-2014 California:

A Southern California jury on Friday found that a castrated sex offender who preyed on young girls should no longer be considered a sexually violent predator and is eligible for release.

Jurors in Orange County determined that Kevin Reilly, 53, does not need to remain locked up at a state mental hospital. He could be released as early as Friday, his lawyer said, but online jail records show he remained in custody as of mid-afternoon.

"There was simply no evidence he was likely to reoffend," said Holly Galloway, deputy public defender. "What the jury did was amazing because they followed the law and that's a hard thing to do with someone with his history, but it's the right thing to do."

Reilly served time in prison for sex offenses committed in the 1980s and 1990s and has been locked up in a state mental hospital since 2000 under a California law that enables authorities to forcibly commit sex offenders they believe will reoffend.

He paid to be surgically castrated in 2003 to help control his pedophilia and completed a treatment program for sex offenders in 2010. State-appointed evaluators found he was not likely to reoffend, Galloway said, adding that Reilly also completed a bachelor's degree and master's degree.

Waterloo sex offender seeks transitional release after 14 years

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10-24-2014 Iowa:

WATERLOO | Albert Allen Barnes has spent more than a decade in treatment after serving prison time for a number of sexual assaults dating back 30 years.

Now the 55-year-old former Waterloo resident said he’s ready to begin taking steps to join society.

The matter will be up to a jury to decide.

After prison, Barnes was declared a sexually violent predator in 2001 and housed in the state’s Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders in Cherokee, where he has reached phase four of a five-phase treatment program after 13 years, said Steven Addington of the state Public Defender’s Office.

Phase five involves transitional release where offenders are given increasing opportunities to live with fewer restrictions.

“Mr. Barnes’ scores have progressed through the years,” Addington said.

“He’s been locked up for a long time. Transitional release may be good for him,” he said. He said offenders can’t leave the facility without permission, and they are under GPS monitoring when they do.

Trial goes to the jury on fate of castrated child molester

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10-22-2014 California:

A jury began deliberating Wednesday in the case of a twice-convicted child molester who is seeking his freedom after spending 14 years in state mental hospitals.

Former Tustin resident Kevin Reilly, 53, won a court order in 2003 and paid $6,000 to be surgically castrated to help control his pedophilia. He later completed a treatment program at a state hospital for sex offenders and now says he is no longer a threat to children.

But prosecutors say Reilly is a chronic sexually violent predator who lied and manipulated his way through treatment to win his freedom. Deputy District Attorney Michael Carroll said Reilly could still reoffend despite his surgery because the effects of castration can be reversed with testosterone injections.

“All of his offenses were with his hands, and he still has his hands,” Carroll told jurors in closing arguments Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court.

Reilly’s attorney, however, said he worked through therapy and is one of only a small percentage of sex offenders to compete a rigorous treatment program at Coalinga State Hospital. His state-appointed doctors all deemed him safe to be released back to society.

Texas Gov. Perry appoints Mission police chief to governing board of the Office of Violent Sex Offender Management

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10-21-2014 Texas:

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry has appointed Roberto Dominguez of Elsa and reappointed Elizabeth “Christy” Jack of Fort Worth to the Governing Board of the Office of Violent Sex Offender Management for terms to expire Feb. 1, 2016. The office performs functions relating to the sex offender civil commitment program.

Dominguez is chief of the Mission Police Department. He is a member of the Texas Police Chief’s Association, Rio Grande Valley Border Chiefs Coalition, Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council (LRGVDC) Regional Police Academy Advisory Board, and City of Mission Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Board. He is coordinator of the Mission Traffic Safety Committee, and a past member of the LRGVDC Homeland Security Grant Review and Appropriations Subcommittee.

He is also a three-year trustee of the Knights of Columbus Council No. 9698, a member of HEROs – Helping Emergency Responders Organization Program, and a member of and volunteer for Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Elsa. Dominguez received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas–Pan American.

Rapist and killer is probably a sexual predator, judge rules

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10-20-2014 Wisconsin:

A man who raped and killed a 17-year-old DeForest girl in 1980 could spend the rest of his life in a state mental health facility after a judge found probable cause Monday that he is a sexually violent person.

Herbert E. Droste, 62, was released from prison on Aug. 19 but is being held in a state Department of Health Services facility until a trial in Juneau County Circuit Court determines whether he is subject to indefinite civil commitment as a sexual predator under state law.

The state Department of Justice is seeking the commitment.

Droste initially served 16 years of a 35-year prison sentence for the 1980 rape and murder of Sandra Bressler. He was released on parole. Around that time, the state had tried to have Droste committed under the then-new sexual predator law, but a Sauk County judge ruled that the state failed to prove its case.

But Droste's freedom was short-lived. He was sent back to prison in 1998 after his parole was revoked because he phoned a bomb threat to a business run by Bressler's family. The call was traced to the Baraboo apartment where Droste was living. ..Source.. by Ed Treleven

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How did Texas let rapist go free?

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10-20-2014 Texas, Virginia, Utah:

FAIRFAX, Va. — The “meltdown” that put Lloyd Joseph Wilson in a penitentiary in this state came less than a year after he was assigned to Texas' civil commitment program for dangerous sex offenders and exiled from the state.

It cost a 16-year-old girl her innocence — something she says Texas took away from her when a state judge banished Wilson to her home state of Virginia in 2004.

“Why would they do that?” said the victim, now the mother of a 3-year-old girl in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. “They released him to potentially many victims, and if they thought he was so violent that they couldn't keep him in Texas, why did they release him to another state?”

Mystified Texas officials say they have no good answer.

“This is bizarre,” said Marsha McLane, the new executive director of the Office of Violent Sex Offender Management, the Texas agency that is supposed to provide intensive supervision to sex offenders like Wilson, who was classified as a sexually violent predator.

Texas' civil commitment program, created by the Legislature in the late 1990s to keep offenders like Wilson off the streets so they could not claim new victims, has been under scrutiny since last spring, when a Houston Chronicle investigation exposed flaws in how it was managed.

In search of change, sex offenders at Moose Lake run for office

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10-17-2014 Minnesota:

Group at Moose Lake center aims to elect up to eight offenders to city and county positions.

Sex offenders at a treatment center in northern Minnesota, fed up with political gridlock over their controversial program, are taking matters into their own hands: They are running for elected office.

For the last three months, a group of sex offenders has quietly run a voter-registration drive up and down the hallways of the prisonlike treatment center in Moose Lake, where about 460 convicted rapists, pedophiles and other offenders are locked away indefinitely behind razor wire.

Some 155 are now registered to vote — amounting to nearly 20 percent of all voters registered in Moose Lake.

Their goal is to elect sex offenders to as many as eight city and county offices, where they can push for more freedoms and reintegration into the community. Among their demands, the offenders want the right to leave the facility without shackles and handcuffs; and for the city of Moose Lake to allow for halfway houses for offenders who progress in treatment for their sexual disorders.

“The Holy Grail is to get outside the razor wire,” said Ben Alverson, a leader of the get-out-the-vote drive. “We want to demonstrate to the world that we’re not monsters and can live in the community.”

Tired of waiting for reform, sex offenders run for office

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10-17-2014 Minnesota:

Back in the ’90s, the Minnesota Supreme Court struck down the law that allows the state to incarcerate people after they’ve served their prison sentences because they might offend again. The court said it was unconstitutional to place the burden on the men to prove they wouldn’t commit more crimes, shifting the burden to the state.

Ostensibly the men are in the Moose Lake facility for sex offenders for “treatment,” not punishment. But only two have been released over the last 20 years, a fact that more than suggests the court decision of the ’90s really didn’t change anything, and neither has the Legislature, which punted on the recommendations of a task force. A federal judge has sent the issue to trial.

So now it’s come to this, the Star Tribune reports today: The sex offenders are trying to get elected to office.

Sex offenders banished from Texas committed assaults in other states

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Commitment Orders: 2004 Whipple and 2004 Wilson

9-26-2014 Texas, Utah, Virginia:

Pair commit new crimes after Texas fails to notify states to which they were sent

In the past decade, Texas made this deal with at least two men deemed by officials as among the state's most violent sex offenders: If you leave Texas and never return, you can live on your own.

Each of those men had been ordered into civil commitment under a state program that keeps high-risk sex offenders in state custody even after they have completed their prison sentences because of the severity of their crimes.

Both men, classified by Texas officials as too dangerous to live freely in society, claimed new victims only a few years after their release from prison - in states where local officials could not verify they had been notified the offenders had been required to relocate under court orders, an investigation by the Houston Chronicle revealed.

The cases belie a long-standing assertion by Texas officials that no offender in the civil commitment program had ever committed another sexual offense.

Moreover, the decisions to exile the men from Texas likely were illegal because of a provision in the state constitution that prohibits the banishment of criminals to other states, legal experts said.

Tangled web of Texas banishment leads to Virginia rape

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10-10-2014 Texas, Virginia:

FAIRFAX, VA - The "meltdown" that put Lloyd Joseph Wilson in a Virginia penitentiary came less than a year after he was placed in Texas' civil commitment program for dangerous sex offenders and exiled from the state.

It cost a 16-year-old girl her innocence - something she says Texas took away from her when a state court judge banished Wilson to her home state of Virginia in 2004.

"Why would they do that?" said the victim, now the mother of a 3-year-old girl in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. "They released him to potentially many victims, and if they thought he was so violent that they couldn't keep him in Texas, why did they release him to another state?"

Mystified Texas officials say they have no good answer. The agency that was supposed to monitor and supervise Wilson never got his records, and there is no evidence that a special prosecutions unit that signed off on his release ever checked up on Wilson again after he left the Lone Star State.

"This is bizarre," said Marsha McLane, the new executive director of the Office of Violent Sex Offender Management, the Texas agency that is supposed to provide intensive supervision to ex-offenders like Wilson, who was classified as a sexually violent predator.

Texas' civil-commitment program, formed by the Legislature in the late 1990s to keep sex offenders just like Wilson off the streets so they could not claim new victims, has been under scrutiny since last spring, when a Houston Chronicle investigation exposed flaws in how it was managed.

Officials seek to bring banished sex offenders back to Texas

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9-29-2014 Texas:

Prosecutors file to bring offenders back from exile

State prosecutors on Monday filed court documents to reclaim two violent sex offenders banished to Utah and Virginia a decade ago, where they ended up in prison after committing new sex crimes in those states.

Because the statute of limitations has expired on new criminal charges against the men in Texas, officials filed a request for a "writ of attachment," a legal maneuver most commonly used in civil cases to seize or reclaim property.

"We're asking the court to grant the writ of attachment, so that the court can then enforce its order, and in this case it would be enforcing the orders of civil commitment from 2004," said Erin Faseler, section chief for the civil division of Texas' Special Prosecution Unit, the state agency that prosecute prison convicts. She filed the request in the Montgomery County 435th district court Monday.

On Sunday, the Houston Chronicle revealed that the two men - Lloyd Joseph Wilson and Melvin Cody Whipple - were banished from Texas in 2004 after they completed their prison sentences for sex crimes. The banishments were agreed to by the men as part of their placement in the state's civil commitment program, which keeps high-risk sex offenders in custody even after they have completed their prison sentences because of the severity of their crimes.

The banishments were included in court orders signed by two different judges despite the fact the Texas Constitution prohibits banishment.

"To have sent these two violent offenders to other states where they claimed new victims is criminal, beyond incompetence," said Austin lawyer William "Rusty" Hubbarth, vice president of Justice for All, a Houston-based victims'-rights advocacy group. "If these other states had done this to Texas, we'd be up in arms, as the people in those other states should be right now. We owe an apology to the people of Utah and Virginia for what we did."

MSOP resident in jail on charges related to attack of fellow sex offender

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10-8-2014 Minnesota:

A resident of the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) in Moose Lake is in the Carlton County jail Wednesday facing charges relating to a knife attack on a fellow sex offender program resident.

Flores Mauro, 32–years–old, is facing two charges of second degree assault with a dangerous weapon, causing substantial bodily harm, as well as a charge of making terroristic threats.

It is unclear how Mauro acquired the weapon in a secure lock–up facility.

Other residents we talked with said there has been a lot of unrest, resulting in a significant increase in resident fighting in recent weeks, as the sex offenders wait for a court decision on the constitutionality of Minnesota's Civil Commitment Program.

Mauro's first court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 15. He has been granted a public defender. Bail has been set at $3,000. ..Source.. by Barbara Reyelts

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Missouri sexually violent predator trials to be put on hold for class action lawsuit

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Oddball post, read last few paragraphs.

10-7-2014 Missouri:

The Missouri attorney general’s office has agreed to take a limited break from civil trials that seek to indefinitely commit sexually violent predators to secure treatment facilities run by the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

Sexually violent predators are held at Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services, or SORTS, in Farmington and Fulton after completing lengthy prison sentences. Law enforcement officials try to commit about 20 men each year to the controversial program through civil commitment trials.

According to a stipulation filed Thursday in federal court, the attorney general’s office agreed not to set civil commitment cases for trial between Dec. 1 and May 1. The decision clears the deck for a large federal lawsuit against Missouri that alleges SORTS is unconstitutional. An April 21 trial date was recently set for the federal case, an attorney said.

“There is a fundamental constitutional issue that has to be resolved, and until that is resolved the process should be stopped,” said Eric Selig, lead attorney representing about 200 sex offenders who are plaintiffs in the class-action suit. “The AG’s office was pretty reasonable to agree with us to put everything on hold.”

The break is expected to affect seven civil commitment trials. Six separate cases set for trial before Dec. 1 will go forward.

Meet pedophiles who mean well

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6-30-2012 National:

The men behind VirtuousPedophiles.com are attracted to children but devoted to denying their desires

Nick Devin is a happily married man in his mid-60s with four grown children. “I have advanced degrees from prestigious universities, a very good job, a lot of friends and am well-respected in my community,” he writes on his Web site. “In short, I have a very good life.”

But he’s also a pedophile. While he experiences some attraction to adult women, he only fantasizes about pubescent boys — and none of his family or friends know. He says he’s never acted on his desires, though.

Devin is the co-founder of a new organization for men like himself: Virtuous Pedophiles. “We do not choose to be attracted to children, and we cannot make that attraction go away,” reads the group’s Web site. “But we can resist the temptation to abuse children sexually, and many of us present no danger to children whatsoever.” The goal of the organization is to offer support to pedophiles who want to live virtuously and to raise public awareness about the fact that such pedophiles exist.

It’s hard to know just how many there are of these “gold-star pedophiles,” as sex columnist Dan Savage calls them. James Cantor, a clinical psychologist and editor in chief of the scientific journal “Sexual Abuse,” says, “In my clinic, roughly half of the people who commit an offense against a child is pedophilic. We do not know, however, how many pedophiles there are who never commit any offenses and never come to our attention.” That’s because very few pedophiles will voluntarily out themselves, given the stigma; and due to mandatory reporting rules, which are open to interpretation, non-offending pedophiles can reasonably fear being reported to the police.

Pedophilia: A Disorder, Not a Crime

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10-6-2014 National:

THINK back to your first childhood crush. Maybe it was a classmate or a friend next door. Most likely, through school and into adulthood, your affections continued to focus on others in your approximate age group. But imagine if they did not.

By some estimates, 1 percent of the male population continues, long after puberty, to find themselves attracted to prepubescent children. These people are living with pedophilia, a sexual attraction to prepubescents that often constitutes a mental illness. Unfortunately, our laws are failing them and, consequently, ignoring opportunities to prevent child abuse.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines pedophilia as an intense and recurrent sexual interest in prepubescent children, and a disorder if it causes a person “marked distress or interpersonal difficulty” or if the person acts on his interests. Yet our laws ignore pedophilia until after the commission of a sexual offense, emphasizing punishment, not prevention.

Part of this failure stems from the misconception that pedophilia is the same as child molestation. One can live with pedophilia and not act on it. Sites like Virtuous Pedophiles provide support for pedophiles who do not molest children and believe that sex with children is wrong. It is not that these individuals are “inactive” or “nonpracticing” pedophiles, but rather that pedophilia is a status and not an act. In fact, research shows, about half of all child molesters are not sexually attracted to their victims.

Mark Dayton, Jeff Johnson campaigns spar on Minnesota Sex Offender Program

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10-5-2014 Minnesota:

Gov. Mark Dayton leads his Republican rival Jeff Johnson by ten percentage points, according to a poll commissioned by Rasmussen.

Republicans remain hopeful that they will narrow the Governor's significant lead in the coming weeks.

In an interview with KBJR, Johnson said Gov. Dayton deserves an "F" in regards to the Minnesota Sex Offender program (MSOP), and has gone as far as to question the Governor's competency on this issue.

Johnson has criticized Gov. Dayton for "considering" the release of Thomas Duvall, who has a history of violent sexual crimes dating back to the 1970s.

Johnson said Duvall's case is a case study of how the Dayton Administration is mismanaging the MSOP.

McNeil Island, McCleary, and an impending tax avalanche

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10-2-2014 Washington:

Washington state is in violation of a reversionary clause in the 1984 deed that transferred McNeil Island from Federal ownership to state ownership.

The deed required that the property be “maintained as a correctional facility in perpetuity” with ownership reverting back to the United States if violated.

Washington closed its McNeil Island prison in 2011, leaving the State Civil Commitment (SCC) facility on the island. The problem is that the SCC is not a “correctional facility” (a prison), it instead houses persons that have already served their full criminal sentence, but are still held under “civil” statutory provisions indefinitely because they are a “threat to society,” similar to being terminally insane.

At a recent meeting, the spokesperson for the General Services Administration (the agency that “owns” all federal property), said that the Feds have no current intention of reclaiming McNeil Island, but he also later admitted that he was not privy to discussions by higher ups.

Due to budgetary problems, the state has not even funded a study of alternative “public uses” which might allow an amendment of the deed restriction.