Sex Offender Fights Removal From Hospice

See also: Dying, Wheelchair-Bound Sex Offender Must Leave Hospice Care Because There's a Preschool Nearby and especially: RSOL

9-10-16 Florida:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CN) - A Florida city's sex-offender law faces scrutiny in litigation over whether a wheelchair-bound former doctor, convicted of patient abuse in the 1980s, should be forced out of a hospice due to its proximity to a school.

A Palm Beach County court petition filed Aug. 31 claims Jack Ehrhart, a hospice patient with end-stage Alzheimer's disease, has been threatened with arrest if he does not move out of Heartland of Boynton Beach, a nursing home near a local preschool.

The City of Boynton Beach purportedly issued a notice to Ehrhart and the hospice accusing them of violating an ordinance that prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school, daycare center or playground.

"Heartland claims to be incurring fines imposed by the city due to plaintiff's status and has threatened to have Boynton Beach Police arrest [him] for a violation of the ordinance," according to the emergency petition, filed by Ehrhart's wife under a power of attorney.

The pleading insists that a criminal prosecution of Ehrhart would have to show he made a "purposeful decision" to maintain residency within the restricted area. His Alzheimer's disease renders him "completely incapable of having the requisite intent or mens rea necessary" to prove as much, the filing states.

Heartland has tried to relocate Ehrhart to another facility, but options are scarce because the former gynecologist remains in the Florida sex-offender registry, on account of his conviction for felony indecent assault in Massachusetts.

State’s Involuntary Commitment Law Ruled Unconstitutional

10-16-15 Florida:

A federal appeals court has ruled that a Florida law dealing with the involuntary commitment of people with intellectual disabilities violates constitutional due-process rights.

The ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stems from a man identified only by the initials J.R. who has an IQ of 56 and functions as a 7-year-old. In 2000, he was charged with sexual battery in Lee County but was later found incompetent to stand trial and was involuntarily sent to a non-secure residential facility.

Attorneys for J.R. filed a lawsuit against the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities in 2011 because they said Florida law allows indefinite involuntary commitment without periodic reviews by judges. The ruling said a circuit judge has not held a hearing on J.R.’s commitment since 2005.

A federal district judge upheld the constitutionality of the state law, but the appeals court disagreed.

“A state must release a person who is involuntarily committed if the grounds for his commitment cease to exist. But that requirement — release the committed when they deserve to be let out — is toothless if a state does not periodically review whether the grounds for commitment are met,” Thursday’s ruling said. “That is, a state could get around the timely-release requirement by simply refusing to ever consider the continued propriety of commitment. To effectuate that requirement, then, the state must undertake some form of periodic review.” ..Source.. by CBSLocal.com

Child molester claims he can't be held responsible for abusing girl, seven, because suffers from 'sexsomnia' and attacked her in his sleep

8-24-2014 Florida:

A child molester who sexually abused a seven year old girl has claimed that he can't be held responsible for his action because he suffers from a condition called 'sexsomnia' and was asleep when he attacked her.

Caleb Ruh, 29, says had just taken the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and that he was 'sleep sexing' when he grabbed the girl at his home in Flagler County, Florida, in July 2012 and tried to kiss and fondle her.

A jury wasn't impressed by his defense and convicted him of lewd and lascivious molestation. He faces life in prison and will be designated a sexual predator, Flagler Live reports.

Convicted: Caleb Ruh, 29, claimed he was 'sleep sexing' when he attacked a seven-year-old girl in 2012. A jury didn't believe him and convicted him of lewd and lascivious molestation.

People purporting to suffer from sexsomnia appear to be awake and conscious when they engage in sexual behavior, though they are actually asleep and have no memory of the incident.

Florida seniors consider going without home insurance as Citizens hikes premiums

8-16-2012 Florida:

With the cost of insurance soaring, many senior citizens in Florida are choosing the precarious option of dropping insurance altogether and bearing the risk of a hurricane hit on their own.

Senior citizens are more likely to own their homes outright, meaning they have the option of going without property insurance. As Citizens Property Insurance Corp. raises its rates and its post-claim deductibles, more elderly Floridians are doing the math and opting to do just that.

Consider Al Jacobs, a Miami Beach retiree who was forced to buy insurance with Citizens after all other insurers declined to cover his waterfront home.

Jacobs, 70, pays about $5,000 for windstorm insurance and $2,000 for flood insurance each year. On top of that, his deductible for windstorm coverage is $12,000, meaning if a storm hit he'd have to spend nearly $20,000 in a single year before his insurance kicked in to pay for damage.

Jacobs, who saw his insurance premiums double this year, said it may be time to get rid of insurance and go "naked."

"The irony of it is the land is worth more than the house," he said. "If the whole thing blew away … "

His voice trailed off in thought as he weighed the macabre scenario of repairing a hurricane-damaged home without any insurance.

Bill would help establish rules for sex in group homes

3-24-2011 Florida:

State senators proposed reforms Wednesday to how developmentally disabled sex offenders are housed and want a task force of experts to recommend new guidelines for sex in group homes.

The changes are part of Senate Bill 2062, proposed by the Senate Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs on Wednesday. They grow out of issues reported at a Seffner group home for developmentally disabled men where residents, including sex offenders, were permitted to have sex with one another even though some men lacked the ability to consent.

"Many issues have been brought to light through these shocking events," said Sen. Ronda Storms, who chairs the committee, "and I strongly believe it is the state's obligation … to ensure better environments."

According to a St. Petersburg Times story, staffers at the Human Development Center group home viewed sex between peers as part of a therapeutic program. A state disabilities official told senators last month that the group home matched up sexual partners.

Reports also documented one encounter in 2005 that the staff characterized as rape. But that case did not cause the home to curtail a program the men knew as "quiet time," during which sanctioned sexual contact occurred.

In 2008, Storms, R-Valrico, called for an investigation that stopped "quiet time" and state officials promised to tackle the issue of sexual activity in group homes. After a Times story in December revealed that the pledge and other changes hadn't been implemented, Storms convened Senate hearings last month to address the lingering issues.

One resident, upset about sexual activity in the group home, for instance, had been trying to move to another group home, but a judge's order kept him tied to the Human Development Center for years. The proposed bill would give the Agency for Persons with Disabilities more freedom to move these clients by barring judges from sending sex offenders to a particular home.

The bill would also give developmentally disabled sex offenders and their guardians more choices on where to live by making the agency create or license more group homes. Now, just a handful of state-licensed group homes, including the Human Development Center, accept men accused of sex crimes.

"Guardians of developmentally disabled deserve a choice in placement, even those who are sexual offenders," Storms said. "In some cases, there is only one provider in the entire state … and that … should not be allowed."

The bill also calls for a task force that would include officials from the state agency, Department of Children and Families, courts, prosecutors, public defenders, university experts and disabled advocacy groups to draw up policies to address sexual activity in group homes. The task force would present a report by Nov. 1.

Jim DeBeaugrine, a former director of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, supported the bill.

"Most people with developmental disabilities are adults with full civil rights, and they do have the right to engage in lawful sexual activity. So it is a real tricky subject and one that's uncomfortable for a lot of people," he said.

The Agency for Persons with Disabilities declined to comment because it was analyzing the bill. ..Source.. by Justin George

Florida Parole Commission releases dying inmate

1-6-2011 Florida:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A 27-year-old prison inmate born with AIDS in Haiti and now dying of cancer will be released to a hospice after supporters, including three state lawmakers, spoke on her behalf Wednesday to the Florida Parole Commission.

The panel voted 2-1 to approve a medical release for Betsie Gallardo with conditions that amount to house arrest. Last week, she was moved from prison to a secure area of the Kendall Regional Medical Center where family visits are limited to two hours a day.

"A miracle has happened," said Jessica Bussert, one of Gallardo's adoptive parents. "I look forward to finally having her out of shackles."

Gallardo has served slightly more than a year of a five-year sentence, the maximum possible, for biting a Collier County sheriff's deputy and kicking another while intoxicated. It happened after her 2008 arrest in Naples on a child neglect charge that later was dropped.

Four months into her sentence, Gallardo was diagnosed with gall bladder cancer. It has since spread to her liver, lungs and ovaries. She's not expected to live more than 30 days, said HIV-AIDS activist Michael Emanuel Rajner of Fort Lauderdale.