State Orders Female Violent Sexual Predator Free (Missouri)

ST. LOUIS -- A Missouri appeals court Tuesday ordered freedom for an HIV-positive woman indefinitely confined as a violent sexual predator, ruling there was scant evidence proving recidivism of women convicted of sex crimes.

In mandating Angela Coffel's release, a three-judge Missouri Court of Appeals panel unanimously cited expert testimony that there is less than a 2 percent chance that a woman would be a repeat sex offender.

"All of the experts who testified in this case agreed that, based on what little research has been performed to date on the likelihood of reoffense by female sexual offenders, reoffense is extremely rare," Appellate Judge Lawrence Crahan wrote in the opinion.

Barring a finding that Coffel had a sexual disorder or deviancy "that would predispose her to prey on children, it is simply not reasonable to assume that Angela is any more likely to reoffend than female offenders are generally," Crahan wrote.

It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether the state would appeal to keep Coffel confined. Calls to the Missouri Attorney General's Office were not returned.

"The only firm statistics they have on recidivism (of female sex offenders) is between zero and 3 percent," said Emmett Queener, a public defender in Columbia who handled Coffel's case. "That just doesn't seem like that would meet the definition of being more likely to engage in that behavior."

Tuesday's ruling sided with arguments made to the court on Coffel's behalf last October, when her defenders said a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Kansas case bars states from involuntarily holding a violent sexual predator without showing that a mental illness interferes with an inmate's self-control.

That high court ruling in 2001 came after a Lincoln County judge, in a two-day civil bench trial in July 2001, classified Coffel as a violent sexual predator, allowing Missouri to confine her indefinitely at a state mental health lockup.

"It's speculation and conjecture that she may reoffend. There's no way to know," Hoff told the Missouri appellate court in October, citing an absence of scientific research on female sexual predators.

Coffel, 26, pleaded guilty in 1996 to two sodomy counts involving two brothers, ages 14 and 11. She served a five-year sentence, but before she could be released from prison the state petitioned the judge to confine her indefinitely as a violent sexual predator.

At trial, the state argued Coffel was likely to offend again because she suffers from an anti-social personality disorder and alcohol abuse.

The state's attorney, Ted Bruce, has said two expert witnesses testified that Coffel has "absolutely no control" over her sexual behavior. Coffel also has used sex to make friends and has illustrated poor judgment and self-control by having unprotected sex while knowing she has HIV, Bruce has said.

Coffel has been among a handful of women nationwide who have been committed as sexually violent predators.

Coffel effectively has been in solitary confinement at a Farmington site because state law requires segregation of violent sexual predators from other inmates.

Discussion purposes only? A picture is worth a thousand words.

Angela Coffel, 24, center, after the verdict in her trial.

From the accompanying Court TV story:

TROY, Mo. — A Missouri judge found a woman with a history of sexual problems to be the nation's fourth female sexually violent predator Friday, sending 24-year-old Angela Coffel away in tears to spend at least one more year under lock and key. The bench trial ruling by Judge Patrick Flynn requires Coffel, who has already completed a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of sodomy for giving oral sex to a 13-year-old and an 11-year old in a 1994 game of truth or dare, to be housed at the Biggs psychiatric facility in Missouri until she demonstrates that she is fit for release. She will be able to petition for a review of her condition once a year.

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TheKansasCityChannel.com

State Orders Female Violent Sexual Predator Free

Judges Rule Reoffense By Female Offenders Unlikely