Should be...
Posted on 08/09/2005 4:07:42 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
A sex offender who has criminal convictions for assaulting young girls was recaptured early Tuesday, a day after he escaped through a bathroom window at North Dakota's state psychiatric hospital, authorities said.
David Johnson, 28, was captured about 1 a.m., after a chase through downtown Jamestown and a scuffle with police and another man, Police Capt. Gary Peterson said.
Johnson did not have a weapon, Peterson said, but he struck and kicked officers and ran several blocks before they cornered him. Johnson also hit another man in the face after he tried to help, Peterson said.
Johnson crawled through the first-floor window of the bathroom at the state Hospital between 1:05 a.m. and 1:25 a.m. on Monday, Highway Patrol Capt. Mark Bethke said. Peterson said officials believe the screen was cut from the inside.
For about five years, Johnson has been under indefinite civil confinement for counseling and treatment for sexually predatory behavior. He is a psychiatric patient, and privacy rules barred state hospital officials on Monday from disclosing much information about him, including how long he has been at the hospital.
Kerry Wicks, clinical director for residential services at the Jamestown hospital, said the sex offender treatment ward is not fenced outside. Once Johnson got outside the window, he could flee. Interstate 94 is about 300 yards away, Wicks said.
Authorities did not immediately find a cutting tool. The heavy stainless steel mesh over the window would have been difficult to cut, Wicks said. He was unsure whether Johnson could have cut the mesh over time.
It would have been possible for someone to approach the first-floor window from the outside, Wicks said. "That's not likely, but we're not ruling anything out right now," he said.
Thirty-five people were being housed in the Jamestown hospital's sex offender treatment unit on Monday. Of those, 12 are being evaluated for possible civil commitment, while the remaining 23 are committed. Wicks said Johnson was the first committed sex offender patient to escape.
Aside from the lack of a fence encircling the treatment building, the sex offender ward has security similar to that of a medium-security prison, Wicks says. A regular state prison, the James River Correctional Center, is nearby on the state hospital campus.
"We have a very tightly secured area," Wicks said. "We do an awful lot of searching. Anything that people have access to, we keep under very close monitoring ... We're investigating right now to see where in the world he could have come up with some sort of means (for cutting the mesh)."
The civil commitment process takes place when prosecutors, a judge and analysts consider a person sexually dangerous. Someone may be committed without being convicted of any crime, although most offenders who are undergoing treatment have criminal records.
Sex offenders who are required to register with authorities have their photos, addresses and other information posted on a state Web site maintained by Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem's office. The site says Johnson has sexual assault convictions in Ransom and Sargent counties, in southeastern North Dakota.
In December 1996, he received a 30-day suspended jail sentence in Ransom County for having sex with a 12-year-old girl, who protested when she found he was not wearing a condom, according to a state Web site that has information on sex offenders' criminal histories.
Johnson was convicted in June 1999 of gross sexual imposition for fondling three young girls when they visited his home, records say. He was sentenced to five years in prison, with all but eight months suspended.
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Sex offender Web site: http://www.ndsexoffender.com
UPDATE PING
Should be...
Glad he's back in custody...but I'm telling ya once again...we will not be safe from these scumbags until we execute the whole lot of them.
I agree, but that means we all have to get off our butts, demand that congress critter's do what we want, if they don't get rid of them until someone serves the wishes of the people.
Good news that he was caught. Bad news is that he is going back for "counseling" which means he has a good chance of being back out on the street. Look at this guy's record and the sentences he has had. He should be serving a life without parole or facing execution. The prosecutors and judges who let him out should be serving along with him.
This is good news, even better news is that they were treating him as an inpatient inside a REAL prison.
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