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PROVO — A Utah lawmaker is crafting a bill he hopes will close a loophole that allowed a convicted sex offender facing 21 sex abuse charges to go free without a trial.
Lonnie Hyrum Johnson, 38, was convicted for rape of a child in Washington state and was charged in 2007 in Utah with nearly two dozen rape, sodomy and aggravated sexual assault of a child charges for alleged acts with his step-daughter and her cousin over five years beginning in 2001.
Johnson has a cognitive disorder and had been housed in the Utah State Hospital in Provo, where psychiatric evaluators found Johnson is not a substantial danger to himself or to society.
A judge ruled that Johnson is not only incompetent, but is not likely to be restored to competency.
On March 10, a judge ruled that Johnson is not only incompetent, but is not likely to be restored to competency, and on April 7 ordered his release. The judge cited the evaluations and ruled he could not be civilly committed.
Currently, the law says someone can be held in the state hospital if that person is mentally incompetent to stand trial and is at serious risk to cause “serious bodily injury” to themselves or others.
“If you look at the definition of serious bodily injury, it just simply doesn’t cover sexual assault of a child,” Rep. Bradley Daw, R-Orem, said. “It should, but right now it doesn’t.”
Christy Danner, the mother of one of the alleged victims, doesn’t understand how doctors could come to the conclusion that Johnson isn’t a threat to others.
“What kind of threat does it have to be? The molestation of a child is a physical and mental harm. … If that’s not a threat, I really don’t know what is, short of murder,” she said.
Daw says he wants to modify the law so that sexual assault of a child is reasonable and sufficient grounds to hold someone in a state hospital.
What kind of threat does it have to be? The molestation of a child is a physical and mental harm. If that's not a threat, I really don't know what is, short of murder.
–- Christy Danner, mother of victim
Danner says at a minimum the victims want the law changed. “They would at least feel good knowing that something good came out of this horrible thing,” she said.
Daw is meeting with attorneys and mental health experts to craft the bill.
"(The release of Johnson) should never of happened," he said. "But the fact is you craft laws the best way you can, and when this law was crafted this was simply an oversight, something they hadn't considered, that somebody who was both mentally incompetent and still capable of this type of behavior."
Daw hopes to have the law fast-tracked in the next general legislative session in January 2012.
Since his release, Johnson has moved to Oregon.
A competency hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 17.
Contributing: Viviane Vo-Duc
Email:rjeppesen@ksl.com
