PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:

June 17, 2005

Contact: William J. Smith (718) 556-7150

Testimony of Richmond County District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan, Jr. at Assembly Republican Task Force on Sex Crimes Against Women and Children

I would like to thank Assemblymen Mirones, McDonough, Raia and Ignizio as well as Task Force Chair Scozzafava and all of the members of the Assembly Republican Caucus for their continued support of Civil Confinement legislation. I would also like to congratulate the members of the New York State Senate for overwhelmingly approving this important legislation to the safety of our communities.

When I was elected Staten Island’s District Attorney I pledged to the people of my community that my office would be focused not only on prosecuting those criminals who commit crimes, but also to undertake efforts to prevent crimes as well. As District Attorney, I have commenced an effort to educate children and their parents on ways to prevent child abduction. However, as a prosecutor, I believe that current law in New York State does not go far enough to protect our most vulnerable citizens from violent sexual predators.

The recent sexual assault and murder of 9 year-old Jessica Lunsford in rural Florida, by a convicted sex offender, is the latest in a long string of tragedies where our children have been preyed upon by habitual sexual predators.

The pedophile who confessed to killing young Jessica, John Couey, has a long history of inappropriate contact with children and a rap sheet totaling 25 arrests for various crimes. Following a 1991 arrest in Central Florida in which Couey admitted to exposing himself to another young girl, he admitted to molesting numerous children over the years, but this was the first time he had been caught. In his confession to Kissimmee police, Couey told investigators that the five year prison sentence he was about to serve would not cure his desires.

Those desires led to the murder of little Jessica Lunsford. Our newspapers and airwaves have been filled with horrifying tales of children deprived of their innocence and their very lives. The names of Samantha Runnion and Megan Kanka are but two of dozens whom became household names due to the tragedy of sexual predators set free to roam our streets.

The innocence of two such victims has been similarly claimed, by career sexual predators, in our communities in recent months.

One case, in our borough of Staten Island, involved a career criminal who has spent 24 of the last 27 years in prison, having been convicted of the vicious rape of a young woman in Brooklyn in 1986. Three months after this sex offender was paroled for that case, in May 2004, this defendant is alleged to have beaten and repeatedly raped a 15 year old girl at knifepoint in her home in the Mariner’s Harbor section of Staten Island. He also is alleged to have beat the girl’s mother and then set their apartment aflame, further injuring both the mother and daughter. Fortunately no one was killed in this horrific attack.

In Westchester County pedophile Eddie W. Cordero, Sr., was indicted in February by a grand jury for the abduction and rape of a 12-year-old Yonkers girl. His victim was grabbed while waiting at a bus stop and dragged into his car. Eddie Cordero had previously served time in prison for sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl in Peekskill.

Similar cases, in which convicted sex offenders attacked again after being released from prison, have occurred throughout the nation and here in New York State. The fact is that many of these violent sex offenders, many of whom simply cannot be rehabilitated and are likely to strike again upon release.

Civil confinement would allow the courts to order the worst sex offenders to be held in a secure facility (staffed by mental health professionals) beyond their prison release date if, upon evaluation, there is significant reason to believe they may strike again. Legislation of this nature is vital because sexually violent predators are released into our communities upon the expiration of their prison sentences without the benefit of treatment designed to address their problems.

Enactment of this legislation, accompanied by the resources to successfully prosecute the civil confinement hearings, would give our justice system the discretion to keep the most dangerous, high risk predators locked in a secure mental facility, after having served their prison sentence, if they are unfit to return to society.

Legislation of this kind has already passed constitutional muster before the United States Supreme Court and is the law of the land in over a dozen states and the District of Columbia.

Some critics of this legislation have argued that the answer to violent sexual predators is to simply enact longer sentences. Our system of justice does not allow judges to incarcerate someone indefinitely. Short of a life sentence without parole, there will always be a chance that these predators will be free to roam our streets. Civil confinement meets both the need for treatment of the patient, and to ensure public safety by segregating the predator from the general public.

I would also like to take a few moments to thank you all and the entire Assembly Republican Caucus for your support of the comprehensive legislation to strengthen our state’s Megan’s Law passed by the State Senate on June 8th. This legislation would:

• Require the most dangerous sex offenders to wear electronic devices linked to Global Positioning   System (GPS) satellites in order to monitor their whereabouts. Until Civil Confinement is enacted, law   enforcement must use every tool at our disposal to monitor the whereabouts of these predators in our   communities.
• Expand the information available about sex offenders on the Division of Criminal Justice Services’   website to include information on all registered offenders. As presently constructed, New York State’s   website lags far behind other states in the level of detail available.
• Require law enforcement to release information on Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders - those at the   highest risk of committing additional crimes – to vulnerable populations in the community.
• Require lifetime registration for all sex offenders on the NYS Sex Offender Registry.

Also included in this legislation is a requirement that would prevent convicted sex offenders from living within 1000 feet of a school or school grounds. This would seem to be a common sense measure aimed at anyone who has been convicted of a sexual assault, let alone against a child. However, there are cases which illustrate why this requirement needs to be codified.

Just in the past few months, my office was contacted by citizens, who consulted our state’s Sex Offender Registry and learned that a sexual predator, convicted of 3rd Degree Rape against a 16 year old girl and 1st Degree Sexual Abuse against an 8 year old girl, moved into a hotel facility where he was working as a handyman. It just so happened that this hotel facility was directly across the street from an elementary school. Working with the Department of Probation, we were able to have this man moved from that location. Unfortunately, he then relocated to a new neighborhood, yet again a stone’s throw from an elementary school. Again, as a community, we were able to have this individual moved – to a new apartment where he is not in proximity to children.

Fortunately, members of our community, working with my office and Department of Probation were able to track this individual’s movements. However it is not realistic to leave this responsibility to the community. It is common sense that convicted sexual predators, many of whom readily admit they can barely contain their urges, should be prohibited from living so close to our children. It is a disaster waiting to happen. This bill, and the entire package of Megan’s Law enhancements must have immediate action in the State Assembly.

It is time for the majority leadership of the New York State Assembly to act before the recess of this legislative session. It is time for the majority leadership of the Assembly to act before violent sexual predators claim another innocent victim.

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