Editorial: State agencies place Iowa seniors in harm's way

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4-15-17 Iowa:

The Iowa Supreme Court issued a perfectly reasoned, legally sound decision on Friday that should scare the daylights out of anyone who has a loved one in an Iowa nursing home.

The court was reviewing a 2016 Iowa Court of Appeals decision that stemmed from two lawsuits tied to the sexual assault of 95-year-old Mercedes Gottschalk at the Pomeroy Care Center. In August 2011, a child who was visiting the nursing home saw four-time-convicted sex offender William Cubbage sexually abusing Gottschalk in her bed as she called out, "No, no, no!"

Before moving into the Pomeroy home, Cubbage lived in the state-run Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders for eight years. He was released from the unit primarily because his medical needs were such that he required nursing home care.

He was transferred directly from the state-run sex-offender unit into the Pomeroy nursing home by order of an Iowa judge as part of a civil commitment. In fact, he was sent to the home specifically because state officials had determined that he posed a threat to himself and to others due to his growing dementia.

The judge who ordered Cubbage into the home did so only after the Iowa Department of Human Services, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, and the office of the State Public Defender agreed to the transfer.

After Cubbage assaulted Gottschalk, the care facility sued the state and Gottschalk’s relatives sued both the state and the care facility.

State Of Iowa Not Liable In Alleged Sexual Assault By Man Who Had Been Civilly Committed

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See also: Supreme Court rules on sex assault by habitual offender at Pomeroy Care Center

4-15-17 Iowa:

The Iowa Supreme Court says the state of Iowa is not liable for a sexual assault allegedly committed by a man who for years had lived at the state’s Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders, because the assault occurred after William Cubbage was discharged from state custody.

CCUSO released Cubbage to the Pomeroy Care Center after he developed dementia. He hadn't made any progress in his treatment during his civil confinement, but the CCUSO staff told Pomeroy that Cubbage wouldn't be a risk to older people because he was a pedophile.

Yet in 2011, Cubbage allegedly assaulted 95-year-old Mercedes Gottschalk, another Pomeroy resident. Gottschalk died in 2012, though her family wants to sue both the nursing home and the state for negligence.

Cherokee’s CCUSO serves to rehabilitate offenders

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4-11-17 Iowa:

What happens when a sexual offender have served his prison term, but is deemed likely to commit further violent sexual offenses? The Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders (CCUSO) provides a secure, long-term, and highly-structured setting to treat sexually violent predators (SVP) who have served their prison terms, but who, in a separate civil trial, have been found likely to commit further violent sexual offenses.

The Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders (CCUSO) program was created by the 1998 Sexually Violent Predators Act of Iowa to provide secure, inpatient treatment for sexual offenders who are believed to be a high risk for sexually re-offending. Inpatient treatment is indefinite, with the length of commitment dependent upon the time required for each individual to complete the criteria for advancement through five treatment phases. It went in to effect in April of 1999.

The CCUSO is located on the campus of the Cherokee Mental Health Institute. A unit has be remodeled to accommodate 150 inpatients in a highly secured environment. CCUSO provides secure treatment to individuals who have been committed by the court for treatment purposes. It has a five-phase treatment program which includes group and individual therapy, educational programming, physiological assessments, and a transition program.

Sex Offenders Sue Over Iowa's Civil Commitment Program

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9-22-16 Iowa:

Nine men who were convicted of sex crimes, served their prison sentences and are now indefinitely confined to an Iowa mental health unit have filed a federal lawsuit against the state, claiming its civil commitment program is unconstitutional because it fails to offer adequate counseling and other services that would rehabilitate them enough for release.

The lawsuit, filed in September 2012 in federal court in Cedar Rapids, again highlights the difficult balance states must strike between keeping dangerous sexual predators off the streets and not violating their constitutional rights by imprisoning them longer than their court-mandated sentences. The men claim Iowa's five-phase program is undue punishment and inhumane treatment.

More than 5,000 people are believed to be civilly committed in such programs in 20 states and by the federal Bureau of Prisons. In the last year, federal judges in Minnesota and Missouri have ordered changes to those states' programs after finding them unconstitutional due to inadequate rehabilitation and proper assessment of risk of reoffending. A similar challenge in North Dakota is likely to go to trial next year.

In Iowa, U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett rejected the state's motion to dismiss the lawsuit in March, using "Hotel California" lyrics in his 50-page ruling to describe Iowa's Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders program: "You can check-out any time you like, But you can never leave!"

State seeks to commit Waterloo man under sexual predator laws

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9-14-16 Iowa:

WATERLOO – The Iowa Attorney General’s Office is asking the court to commit a Waterloo man to treatment under the state’s sexually violent predator laws.

Michael Allen Gray, 25, served prison time for abusing a 3-year-old boy in 2008. More recently, Gray was sentenced for not telling authorities he was living at a Commercial Street home with a 9-year-old girl, an allegation that came to light when officials received an anonymous call and found footage of Gray holding hands with the girl on a surveillance video, according to court records.

On Monday, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office filed a petition alleging that Gray suffers from a mental abnormality that places him at risk to commit future sex crimes unless he is given treatment. Dr. Jeffrey Davis, a forensic psychologist who reviewed Gray’s documents, noted prior diagnoses that included pedophilia, bipolar disorder, adjustment disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, court records state.

A probable cause hearing is slated for next week in Black Hawk County District Court, and then the matter could be scheduled for trial. If the state is ultimately successful, Gray would be sent to an Iowa Department of Human Services facility for treatment until he is deemed no longer be a risk.

Iowa's Cherokee Mental Health Institute weathers system upheaval

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9-12-16 Iowa:

CHEROKEE, Iowa (AP) — More than a year after two of Iowa’s four mental health facilities were closed, the institute in Cherokee is operating similarly to how it had in recent years.

Apprehension had run through Cherokee in 2009, when state officials explored closing one or more of the state’s four mental health institutes. The loss of the northwest Iowa campus would have delivered a $24 million hit to the local economy.

But the facility, which has treated patients for 114 years, survived possible cuts a second time in seven years, the Sioux City Journal reported.

The state in July 2015 closed the mental health institutes in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda. The closings, however, have not resulted in more patients being treated in Cherokee or the other remaining institute, in Independence.

... ... ...

When the Clarinda and Mount Pleasant facilities were shut down, three patients were transferred to Cherokee.

Cherokee stayed off the state chopping block by having national accreditation, meeting rigorous standards in providing modern care and operating the state’s only civil commitment unit for sex offenders.

McCoy and Turner said there are no plans for the state to close the Cherokee institute. ..Source.. by Omaha World-Herald

Violent rapist moves to Davenport Tuesday

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10-10-15 Iowa:

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) – 67-year-old Ben Sanders, a sexually violent predator, will be arriving in Davenport on Tuesday, October 13, 2015.

In January, the Scott County Sheriff’s Office announced that Ben Sanders was planning to move to Davenport after his release at the Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders (CCUSO) in Cherokee, Iowa. On Friday, October 9, 2015, Detective Thomas Leonard confirmed Sanders will be in town the following week.

Sanders was declared a sexually violent predator in 2012. Since then, he was in the treatment program at CCUSO.

The Sheriff’s Office will be putting out a level three notification, which is the highest level. This means the media, all schools, neighbors and businesses will be notified.

The Scott County Iowa Sex Offender Task Force went door to door on Friday within a certain radius of his residence to give neighbors and businesses information.

In re Detention Calvin Matlock

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3-13-15 Iowa:

In re Detention Calvin Matlock

A person committed under the Sexually Violent Predator Act alleges his release with supervision violates the Due Process Clauses of the Iowa and the United States Constitutions.

We find the statutory scheme contained in Iowa Code sections 229A.8 and 229A.9A does not violate the Due Process Clauses of the Iowa and the United States Constitutions as long as: the person continues to suffer from a mental abnormality, the testimony supports the need for supervision, and the supervision strikes the right balance between the need to protect the community and the person's liberty interest.

Applying these principles to this appeal, we find the committed person still suffers from a mental abnormality and the testimony supports his release with supervision. Thus, we affirm that part of the district court's judgment.

We are not satisfied the State met its burden to prove the release conditions adopted by the district court balance the need to protect the community and the person's liberty interest.

Accordingly, we remand the case to the district court to review the release conditions and enter the appropriate order consistent with due process.

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Sex offender challenges supervised release state law

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3-13-15 Iowa:

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld a state law that allows sex offenders to remain under supervised release even if they've been found unlikely to engage in acts of sexual violence.

The law was challenged by 57-year-old Calvin Matlock, of Waterloo, who has three sex abuse convictions. He was released from prison in 2000 but confined to a Cherokee sex offenders unit as a sexually violent predator.

In 2013, he was released under supervision of a probation officer after he was found to have a mental abnormality but prosecutors failed to prove he was likely to reoffend.

Inmate's release threatens Davenport safety

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1-24-2015 Iowa:

On January 9, 2015, the Seventh Judicial Citizen Review Board voted to support placing Ben Sanders, a repeat and violent rapist, back in Davenport.

In 1966, Ben Sanders was convicted of rape after breaking into a home, tying up a man and raping his wife. In 1980, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for breaking into a woman's home and raping her in front of her teenage son. In 1986, he was convicted of sex abuse and sentenced to 25 years in prison after attacking a woman while on work release.

Ben is one of several men currently being discharged from the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders in Cherokee, Iowa. The Department of Corrections personnel are searching for an apartment for him in Davenport. The judicial system claims the Department of Corrections facility at 605 Main St., across from Davenport Central High School, is capable of treating and monitoring these sexual predators.

Rapist Will Live In Davenport; Victim Speaks Out

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1-23-2015 Iowa:

DAVENPORT, IA — 67-year-old Ben Sanders, a Sexually Violent Predator, is being released from the Civil Commitment Unit in Cherokee, Iowa, a sex offender treatment facility. Sanders is a repeat offender, and will soon be living in Davenport.

He has a long history of violence, dating back 50 years. In 1965, he broke into a woman’s home, tied up her husband and raped her. He was released less than a decade later in 1973. The same years, he was back behind bars after he broke into a home. The woman living there shot him three times. Then in 1980, while on a weekend furlough from prison, Sanders force his way into his neighbors house “expecting sex”, according to court records. Again in 1986, he was released from prison, but soon after was arrested again for raping another woman.

Sanders was declare a sexually violent predator in 2012. Since then, he has been at a treatment program for sex offenders in Cherokee.

There was a hearing Thursday at the Scott County Court House. The judge approved a release plan for Sanders’ that was written by the Civil Commitment Unit and the Department of Corrections. The judge says he will be released and approved to live in Davenport.

Unexpectedly, the first victim from 1965 was at the hearing. She testified, but said she heard about the hearing only after watching TV-6 at 10:00 p.m. Wednesday night. She says she was not notified of his release. The victim wants to remain anonymous but is speaking out to warn the public.

PLEASE NOTE: THE FOLLOWING DETAILS ARE DISTURBING.

“We had a light at the stairs and we seen this guy standing there.” The victim was upstairs with her husband when they saw Sanders. He tied up the victim’s husband and brought her downstairs. She says her three kids were in the house at the time. “He threw me on the couch, pointed the gun at my temple, raped me. He held the gun to my head all the time he was raping me.”

Release plan approved for sex offender

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1-22-2015 Iowa:

The 69-year-old woman can still feel the cold gun against her head nearly 50 years later.

The woman, then 20, was lying in bed with her husband the night of Sept. 2, 1965, when she saw a man who she thought was her brother-in-law standing at the top of the stairs. The man started to go back down the stairs, then turned around, walked into the bedroom and pointed a gun at the couple.

The intruder tied up her husband, took her down to the living room and raped her at gunpoint before fleeing.

Her three daughters — then 4, 2 and 3 months — were in the house at the time.

On the witness stand in a Scott County courtroom Thursday, her voice wavered when she said the word “rape.”

“I haven’t said that word all these years,” she said. “I just came out there years ago to say that I was a rape victim.”

The woman recounted the incident during a hearing for her attacker, Ben Sanders, who is seeking to be released from a long-term sex offender treatment facility known as the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders in Cherokee, Iowa. The Quad-City Times does not name victims of sex offenses.

During a nearly hourlong hearing Thursday, District Judge John Telleen approved an amended release plan for Sanders, 67. He will remain at the civil commitment unit until he locates a housing arrangement that must be approved by Iowa Community-Based Corrections.

Once released, Sanders also must wear a GPS tracking device, stay away from drugs, alcohol, firearms and pornography and cannot have any unsupervised contact with minors.

Some CCUSO patients return to communities

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1-12-2015 Iowa:

Both the commitment process for patients at the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders (CCUSO) at the Mental Health Institute campus in Cherokee and the release process are court directed, according to Amy McCoy, public information officer for the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Only a fraction of the inmates committed to CCUSO since the program started in 1998 have been granted supervised release to communities where they came from or other communities where they have found employment.

Anyone committed to CCUSO has completed a prison term for a predatory sexual felony and then in a separate legal proceeding, been committed to the CCUSO unit as at high risk to re-offend. There are currently six individuals released from the facility in Cherokee, the only CCUSO unit in the state. All have supervision and all remain on a sex offender watch list maintained by the state.

Sex offenders making transition from civil commitment

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See also: First graduates released from Iowa rehab program for sex offenders

1-2-2015 Iowa:

DES MOINES | Iowa's 1998 law allowing convicted sex offenders to be civilly committed for treatment and rehabilitation after completing their prison terms has matured to where six men have graduated from the program and have been released under court-approved supervision in Iowa communities.

Another 14 patients being housed in the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders, or CCUSO, at the Cherokee Mental Health Institute in northwest Iowa are in transitional release phases of the highly structured inpatient treatment program for violent sexual predators that have served their prison sentences but in a separate civil trial were found likely to commit further sex offenses.

CCUSO patients are receiving secure treatment services from Iowa Department of Human Services staff, but are supervised upon their court-sanctioned discharge by the state Department of Corrections which contracts with community-based professionals in the state's judicial districts. In the various court-ordered releases, Iowa judges found that the state did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the six committed men should not be discharged under provisions of DHS release plans but in one case over-ruled a constitutional objection to any level of supervision.

Sex offenders are at the threshold

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1-2-2015 Iowa:

17 years after a law allowed Iowa to commit people who already served jail time, doors are starting to open

DES MOINES, Iowa – Iowa’s 1998 law allowing convicted sex offenders to be civilly committed for treatment and rehabilitation after completing their prison terms has opened the door for six men to graduate from the program and be released under court-approved supervision in Iowa communities.

Another 14 patients being housed in the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders, or CCUSO, at the Cherokee Mental Health Institute in northwest Iowa are in transitional release phases of the highly structured inpatient treatment program for violent sexual predators that have served their prison sentences but in a separate civil trial were found likely to commit further sex offenses.

CCUSO patients are receiving secure treatment services from Iowa Department of Human Services staff, but are supervised upon their court-sanctioned discharge by the state Department of Corrections, which contracts with community-based professionals in the state’s judicial districts. In the various court-ordered releases, Iowa judges found that the state did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the six committed men should not be discharged under provisions of DHS release plans, but in one case over-ruled a constitutionally based objection to any level of supervision.

Addressing concerns

State corrections director John Baldwin said all agencies are complying with current law to maximize public safety, but some concerns have arisen as CCUSO patients released from involuntary civil commitment who are no longer on offender status locate in smaller communities that don’t have the treatment resources and law enforcement capabilities to track activities covered under release plans that are available in larger cities.

Coralville prison inmate dies of cancer

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6-8-2012 Iowa:

An inmate serving a 25-year prison sentence in Coralville’s Iowa Medical Classification Center died Thursday at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

Danny Lee Beason, 64, died of lung cancer that had spread to the liver, according to Iowa Department of Corrections officials.

Beason was convicted of second-degree sex abuse in Mahaska County, and he began serving his 25-year term on April 2, 2004.

According to court documents, Beason was charged in October 2002 with one count of second-degree sexual abuse, and his first trial to the court resulted in a guilty verdict. The court, however, overruled its own findings of fact and ordered a new trial.

Beason’s second trial to a jury ended without a verdict, and the jury in his third trial found him guilty. Beason appealed that conviction, claiming he had ineffective counsel because the attorney didn’t inform Beason that the offense carried a mandatory minimum sentence, the attorney didn’t call additional witnesses at trial and he didn’t adequately communicate with Beason.

The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction. ..Source..

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Iowa Medical and Classification Center inmate dies

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5-23-2012 Iowa:

An inmate at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center has died at University Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

Charles Ray Parker, 73, died of natural causes due to complication from COPD and congestive heart failure.

Parker was serving a 25-year sentence for second-degree sex abuse and lascivious acts with a child from Benton County, two counts of indecent exposure and dissemination of obscene material to a minor from Iowa Coutny. His sentence began on Sept. 3, 2010. ..Source..

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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.

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.

CA8: Video recording bathroom stalls of civilly committed sex offenders violates Fourth Amendment

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8-25-2014 Iowa:

Putting video camera over bathroom stalls of the Iowa Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders violated the inmates’ reasonable expectation of privacy. The recordings were not monitored in real time. Arnzen v. Palmer, 713 F.3d 369 (8th Cir. 2013):

A search occurs under the Fourth Amendment when, as relevant here, “the government violates a subjective expectation of privacy that society recognizes as reasonable.” Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27, 31-33, 121 S. Ct. 2038, 150 L. Ed. 2d 94 (2001); see also United States v. Jones, 132 S. Ct. 945, 950, 181 L. Ed. 2d 911 (2012). “[I]nvoluntarily civilly committed persons retain the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches that is analogous to the right retained by pretrial detainees.” Beaulieu v. Ludeman, 690 F.3d 1017, 1028 (8th Cir. 2012).

Although the expectation of privacy shared by involuntarily civilly committed persons and pretrial detainees is of a “diminished scope,” see Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 559, 99 S. Ct. 1861, 60 L. Ed. 2d 447 (1979), neither our court nor the Supreme Court has ever outlined exactly what expectation of privacy these persons reasonably have, outside of our holding that detainees do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their jail cells, see United States v. Hogan, 539 F.3d 916, 923 (8th Cir. 2008).

We believe, though, that single-person bathrooms (intended for functions “‘traditionally shielded by great privacy’”) are inherently different from cells, and that a civilly committed person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in a single-person bathroom when there is no immediate indication that it is being used for purposes other than those ordinarily associated with bathroom facilities. …

We therefore believe that by capturing images of patients while they occupy single-user bathrooms, CCUSO violated its patients’ reasonable expectation of privacy, thus conducting a search under the Fourth Amendment, irrespective of whether there is some chance that those images will not be viewed, see Kyllo, 533 U.S. at 31-33.

After we determine that the government’s action is indeed a search, as we did here, we apply a so-called “balancing test” to determine whether the search or seizure of involuntarily committed individuals is reasonable, considering the “‘scope of the particular intrusion, the manner in which it is conducted, the justification for initiating it, and the place in which it is conducted.’” See Serna v. Goodno, 567 F.3d 944, 949 (8th Cir. 2009), cert. denied, 558 U.S. 972, 130 S. Ct. 465, 175 L. Ed. 2d 312 (2009) (quoting Bell, 441 U.S. at 559).

We “must defer to the judgment of correctional officials unless the record contains substantial evidence showing their policies are an unnecessary or unjustified response to problems of institutional security.” Beaulieu, 690 F.3d at 1029 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

..Continued.. by 4th Amend Blog

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