Keeping Predators Locked Up High Court To Decide Whether States Can Keep Violent Sexual Offenders Confined After Their Prison Terms Are Completed

Leroy Hendricks had a way of attracting kids. They’d gather to watch him fly his remote-controlled airplane in a park. Sometimes, he’d buy them illicit treats, like cigarettes and chewing tobacco.

At some point, he started molesting them. And he says only his death will guarantee that he stops.

Now the 62-year-old former carnival worker is at the center of a closely watched constitutional battle which the U.S. Supreme Court will take up Tuesday.

The question is whether states may confine sexually violent predators after their prison terms are completed. Kansas law allows that, if a prisoner is diagnosed with a personality disorder or mental abnormality that makes them a threat to sexually prey on children.

Hendricks already has spent more than half of the last 36 years in prisons or state hospitals for crimes against children.

The justices will review a ruling that struck down Kansas’ 1994 law as unconstitutional. A decision is expected next year.

Forty-five states and territories have filed documents supporting the Kansas appeal, including five states with sexual predator laws: Arizona, California, Minnesota, Washington and Wisconsin.

Hendricks began exposing himself to girls while he was a young airman at McConnell Air Base in Wichita. He was convicted in 1956 and fined $2.90.

His first prison term came in 1960 in Washington state, where he spent two years behind bars for molesting two boys. In 1963, he was convicted of molesting a 7-year-old boy in Seattle.

After spending time at a state hospital, Hendricks was released in 1965 - and was arrested two years later for taking indecent liberties with an 8-year-old girl and her 11-year-old brother. He served five years in prison.

Hendricks was sent back to prison in 1984 for attempting to molest two 13-year-old boys in a Wichita electronics store where he worked.

When he was released 10 years later, a prosecutor argued that Hendricks was a sexually violent predator and should be locked up.

At his commitment trial, Hendricks himself testified that only his death would guarantee he would never again molest a child.

A jury sent him to the state’s mental health facility in Larned, where he is one of nine men declared sexual predators. They can be held there for treatment until doctors decide they no longer pose a threat. Exams are conducted at least once a year.

Then, however, the Kansas Supreme Court said the law violated Hendricks’ due-process rights because it allowed him to be committed without proof he is mentally ill.

Attorney General Carla Stovall immediately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, keeping Hendricks confined. She expects the court to question whether Hendricks’ alleged mental abnormality merits confinement.

“The key is that the court has never ruled exactly what you have to have for that mental condition,” Stovall said. “Mr. Hendricks’ 40-year history of abusing children is much more than idiosyncratic behavior.”

Stovall contends that Hendricks, who was not treated for sexual deviance during his Kansas prison term, should continue to receive the 30 hours of weekly therapy Larned provides.

“We’re spending almost $100,000 per predator at Larned for their care, custody and treatment,” she said. “The average tends to be about $20,000 per inmate in the Department of Corrections system, so it’s clear we’re doing something very, very different for these predators versus the inmates.’

Hendricks’ lawyer, Thomas Weilert of Wichita, said the confinement is an “extension of his criminal sentence” that violates constitutional protections against double jeopardy.

“It’s a second prosecution for the same acts that occurred in 1984,” Weilert said.

The law was passed largely in response to the 1993 slaying of Stephanie Schmidt, a 19-year-old student at Pittsburg State University. Donald Gideon was convicted; he had been on parole after serving 10 years for raping and sodomizing a woman in 1982.

The Kansas law is the first significant attempt to expand the types of people the state can confine, said Chris Hansen, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in New York.

Traditionally, only people convicted of crimes or found insane can be locked up. The Kansas law creates a third category - people likely to commit crimes based on past behavior.

“That has very strong potential ramifications,” Hansen said. “It can be extended beyond pedophiles.”

Rose Loux, Hendricks’ former stepdaughter, has testified that he molested her for four years starting when she was 9, although he was never charged for it.

Now 33, Loux said she hopes the Supreme Court upholds the law because she believes Hendricks will never stop molesting children.

“He will do it again,” she said. “It’s just a matter of when, and I don’t think it will take that long.”