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Interpol via AP
Britain's High Court on Thursday blocked a U.S. bid to extradite Shawn Sullivan to Minnesota, saying the state's restrictive treatment program for sex offenders was too draconian.
LONDON -- Minnesota prosecutors' efforts to have a convicted sexual predator brought to trial in the United States were thwarted on Thursday when Britain's High Court dropped extradition proceedings, saying the U.S. hadn't guaranteed the suspect would be kept out a program some deem draconian.
Shawn Sullivan, 43, is accused of molesting two girls and raping a third in the 1990s in Minnesota. Sullivan fled the United States and eventually ended up in London, where authorities caught up to him two years ago.
Judges Alan Moses and David Eady said in a ruling finalized Thursday that if Sullivan were returned to the U.S., he could face a real risk of being placed in the state's civil commitment program -- which provides for the indefinite detention of people found to be sexually dangerous -- and suffer "a flagrant denial of his rights."
'Slap in the face'
One of Sullivan's accusers called the decision "a slap in the face."
"That whole argument is just irrational," Jessica Schaefer, 29, told The Associated Press. Sullivan allegedly molested her and her cousin when they were both 11.
"It's just another loophole in the justice system that caters to the criminals. All they have to do is find a loophole or a technicality and they walk. ... "I feel like I'm just pleading for justice, and I'm not getting anywhere."
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The AP does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault without their consent. The Minnesota women Sullivan is accused of attacking as children agreed to let the AP use their names.
Two Minnesota prosecutors in the counties where Sullivan faces charges defended their decision not to guarantee Sullivan would be kept out of the program, saying it was "not in the interests of public safety."
"I think it's way beyond reasonableness for them to interfere in how we conduct business," said Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.
Irish conviction
Sullivan escaped to Ireland as prosecutors prepared to file charges, and while staying there was convicted of sexually assaulting two 12-year-old girls. Sullivan, a dual U.S.-Irish citizen, moved to London using an Irish passport that spelled his last name in Gaelic as "O'Suilleabhain."
The British judges made clear in an earlier decision that they would have supported Sullivan's extradition had it not been for the sex treatment program, which they described as among the toughest in the U.S.
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The program, which began in its current form in the mid-1990s, allows courts to commit a person for sex offender treatment if a judge decides the person is sexually psychopathic or sexually dangerous. As of April 1, 641 people were in Minnesota's program.
The program faces constitutional challenges by some who say it holds people indefinitely after their prison sentences. One 64-year-old man received a provisional discharge earlier this year when he was allowed to move into a Minneapolis-area halfway house. Only one other person was ever released from the program, and was soon taken back into custody on a violation.
The justices in London outlined a litany of concerns in their June 20 decision, noting offenders don't have to be mentally ill to be committed; their offenses don't have to be recent; and in some cases, they don't even have to have been convicted of a crime.
UK judge Moses said on Thursday that "the United States will not provide an assurance," thus allowing Sullivan's appeal, according to The Independent newspaper.
"The appellant will be discharged from the proceedings," the judge said, according to the paper.
'Open the floodgates'
Officials with the Minnesota Department of Human Services said they don't know of any instances where someone without a criminal conviction has been placed in the program, though they acknowledged it's theoretically possible.
Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom, who charged Sullivan with molesting the 11-year-old girls, said authorities hadn't decided whether to pursue civil commitment. However, he said making such a guarantee "could open the floodgates."
"It's a very slippery slope to go down once you start making agreements," Backstrom said.
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Peter Wold, Sullivan's criminal defense attorney in Minnesota, said the British judges balked at the prospect of indefinite detention. "That offended them, and it should offend a lot of people, to have the prospect of people being committed with no end in sight," he said.
Human rights concerns periodically complicate efforts by U.S. prosecutors to extradite suspects. For example, European Union countries typically won't extradite suspects who could face capital punishment to the U.S. unless American prosecutors give assurances they won't seek the death penalty.
Still, Bruce Zagaris, a Washington, D.C.,-based attorney specializing in international criminal law, said this was one of the first cases he had seen in which the U.K. has said no to extradition.
"I think foreign courts no longer give us the benefit of the doubt," Zagaris said.
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Sullivan still faces a civil case in Minnesota, and Michael Hall III, the attorney representing the three alleged victims, said he expects that to go forward. He said significant punitive damages are possible.
Sullivan's attorney in the civil case was out of the office Thursday and did not return a message.
Hannah Treziok, who was 14 when she says Sullivan raped her, said she was disappointed with the British court's ruling but that she had prepared herself for this possibility.
"The reality is, we, the victims, have for 18 years been fighting the good fight, and there is no shame in that," she said. "Even though it is not the exact outcome that we desired ... we brought him out of the shadows and exposed him for who and what he really is."
The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
One less sex offender here in the states. Let the Brits keep him. Too bad we can't send more sex offenders over to Britain!
LOL yeah big time, My town is full of them too 18 of them moved into this town in 10 months.
Yeah, let's send a whole plane full of them over there. Then we don't have to pay to take care of these people who can't be rehabilitated. Obviously, UK has no problem with sex offenders repeating on their citizens!
It's there Problem now over in the uk international Laws Suck. You know it.
Ol' mother England has been going down since the mid 60s. Now she's taking a nosedive. Only time, and God will straighten her out. It was in the 60s when the sun never set on her holdings,...boy, that sure has changed.
Are you kidding me !!! I’m thinking this guy needs a little ,no, a lot of TEXAS justice....
I like your idea!!! Now days i carry a tazer that shoots darts and strongest model u can get.
The Brits have come such a long way from their "drawing and quartering" and beheading young queens when they didn't produce a male heir. It has been ages since they executed a child for pick pocketing or stealing a scarf or a loaf of bread. By all means let them coddle a sex offender. I'm just sorry that we didn't treat the IRA the same way we treated Nealson Mandela, that is a a freedom fighting group.
I know these women want justice and I would want that too. But if UK is stupid enough to want to let him stay there and rape their children instead of raping ours they deserve the consequences of their idiotic actions. How about they tell their citizens that they are intending to release a rapist/molester back into their society and see what their people say about it!
Under civil commitment laws there is still ongoing due process so no violation of his rights. Civil commitment is determined in a court hearing and must be regularly reviewed in the same way. The individual committed has constant and regular rights to challenge the commitment. It appears the British court did not understand the processes in play here.
...simply tell the Brits that instead of an indefinite time incarcerated we have decided to have a trial and if convicted by a jury of his peers he will only have to spend one night in a cell....with the victims and their families!!
OH THE POOR LITTLE CHILD RAPIST!
UK calls it a Draconian place to serve time but what they "FAIL TO REALIZE" that the children have to live with that sorry mans attacks the rest of their lives! UK Courts, You are terrible but remembering the facts of History you condone Incest and rape plus child rape.You were taught by your rulers.
Uk's a joke and it's about to implode
Europe's a joke and it's imploding.
USA's a joke with a few more years before it implodes.
enjoy llibtards... you deserve this
JasonInNYC banned, multiple of JamesInSeattle, also banned.
Don't register multiple accounts.
WOW. Hugely disappointed by the UK on this one. They will extradite someone for civil piracy infringements but they won't extradite a pedo to be locked away for good (as pedos should be)
This is what
liberalsocialism is all about! If you like it get and vote for Obama!we can't punish those poor sexual predators.
they just need someone to talk to.
MrRentman: This has nothing to do with socialism, or Obama. And the UK's form of government is a constitutional monarchy which has nothing to do with socialism either. Congratulations on a totally fact-free post!
this is what happens when 2 great socialist powers collaborate with one another.
The United States has a greater percentage of its population in jail than any other country in the world. China under Mao and Russia under Stalin didn't even come close.
The United States has crossed the line (in 2007) whereby prisons are now a for-profit industry, modeled not surprisingly, on the for-profit health care industry. About 53% of all prisoners are held for profit and it is a many billion dollar industry with huge lobbying clout.
The United States has the highest recidivism (repeat recommit of the same crime) rate in the world.
The United States has the most racially imbalanced prison population in the world --- both in terms of race and economic level.
Almost 1/4 of all US prisoners comnmitted a "victimless" crime.
In short, the US prison system is a massive, expensive failure. There is no attempt to break the recidivism cycle and, just the opposite, prisons have become places to get your PhD in crime. And it is incredibly expensive --- people complain about college costs --- but it costs 8 times as much a year to keep a person in prison than to keep him in college.
There are plenty of ways to "fix" the system. Give judges greater latitude in sentencing. Immediately free all imprisoned for victimless crimes. Stop sentencing youthful offenders to serve alongside seasoned repeat criminals. For first time offenders, place great emphasis on education, job training, and counseling that can reduce recidivism at a cost effectiveness as high as 2,000:1. Stop the criminal exploitation of prisoners through thnings like phone cards and "priviledge" lists. The list of things that can be done is huge, but imprisoning more and more people for longer and longer sentences is the absolutely most expensive solution to the problem that anyone has ever come up with.
Fixing social problems requires a great deal of one-on-one, getting hands dirty, tedious work. But it pays huge dividents.
it's not my fault I'm black.
it's not my fault, i'm a druggie
it's not my fault....
PS - It is your fault
Stalin had an answer. A purge. See, no crowded jails. Liberal nonsense, victimless crimes? 1/4 of our prisoners are guilty of no criminal, society harming crime? What are you smoking? Or is that a victimless crime too? Tell that to the Mexicans that live in Narco Hell.
What is the definition of a "victimless crime"? Can you give an example of one?
JasonInNYC, why are you making this about black people when this is a story about child molestation? The guy in the article is white. 95% of the guys featured on "To Catch a Predator" are white. The little boy found under the porch, his mom, and his mom's boyfriend, are all white. In fact if Google through the year's pedophilia stories from the Catholic sex scandals to the Jerry Sandusky sex scandals and you will almost always find some white guy or group of white guys saying "its not my fault, I was abused. Its not my fault, I'm a druggie (since drug use among whites are statistically higher than all other groups including blacks). Its not my fault, you should have left me alone with those kids, yadda yadda yadda." In fact, other than Michael Jackson (who is dead, and who spent a good portion of his adult life trying to remake himself as a white woman) I bet you can't name three high profile cases of pedophilia among minority groups, while at the same time I can twice more acts of child molestation, pornography, and rape and murder that occured with white male suspects just in the last 45 days.
Say what you want, Jason, but child moslestation is wholly a white man's crime, and its reaching epidemic proportions.
Perskahya: In the US, the quintessential victimless crime would be smoking marijuana.
there is a reason china and russia have a lower inmate count
china and russia know how to hand out justice to murderers and big idiot problems
they remove the idiots heads
no long time stay at the bar hotel
you are guilty off with your head
no more murdering for ya no more abusing others for ya
You people are largely out of your minds. For those of you who say all "sexual predators" will "largely reoffend", get a clue! Look at the Dept of Justice website on the issue. Less than 5% reoffend. Chris-749391 has at least posted a fairly reasonable solution. As the father of two daughters, and the grandfather to four granddaughters, I would rather know where the true pedophiles are, rather than having to weed through the more than 800,000 (and growing) people registered nationwide.
For those of you who propose torture and death: I hope you are someday convicted of a crime that results in punishes you by forever stripping away your constitutional rights.
lollllll
WRONG.
sexual predators can't be healed.
you have to get caught to be counted
I am very disappointed in the British justice systems in regards to sexual abuse, if I was a parent of one of these victims there is no way in the world I wouldn't go after this SOB, don't care morally or immorally but he would pay dearly. He would suffer three times the pain, trauma, and agony the victims went through and I'd be enjoying every second of it.
Let the Brits keep him and then release him shortly. Then, lets go to London and take care of him. He won't be leaving Britain permanently if you know what I mean.
Screw the British!!! And that is just what this guy is going to do to young British girls. They like their ultra liberal bleeding heart system; fine. They can deal with him, and while we are at it lets just start letting all our sexual predators "escape" to the UK.
Let me get this straight, Sullivan is accused of molesting 2 girls and raping another and flees the country avoiding prosecution in Minnesota. He then goes to Ireland and molests 2 more girls? This guy has a clear cut problem and needs to be dealt with and these judges in the UK aren't helping the matter any. Here is where the problem lies. As a society we have become more acceptant to the strange and bizarre behavior of human beings in the name of political correctness. In the 50's, if you saw two men kissing each other in a public park and in plane view of everyone including children, the police would have been called and a lynch mob would have formed while waiting on the cops. I know this doesn't sound fair but that is the way it would have been. As time moves on, this type of human behavior is more and more accepted and the public becomes more and more desensitized to human actions and behavior that would have got you lynched in the 50's but now it's just a common occurrence. This "desensitizing" of the public has skewed what is right or wrong in a moral sense in the minds of many, many people. I'm not just talking about the child molesters out there I'm talking about the people that judge them. We have organizations trying to lower the age of sexual consent in courts today just to defend themselves from prosecution when they molest children. Guess what, they have lawyers that think the are fighting the good fight for civil rights when they are arguing these bizarre positions. My point is this, we don't look at child molesting as it were a terrible, terrible thing any longer. It's kinda like between stealing a car and running over a dog so why be so hard on these offenders, it's not that big of a deal is it? We are very lucky that this is not the mind set with all people today and that there are people out there that still care enough to make a fight of it. If it were up to me, I would bone 'em out and use 'em for wetsuits.
Amazing! The UK won't extradite a real sex offender, but has no problem extraditing Julian Assange to "answer" questions...not charges. Something's wrong with this picture. I say fine, you can keep a sex offender in Britain. Good that he stays out of the US. We have enough of them to deal with. He can be your problem now.
Jennifer, I know that sounds like a good idea but who is going to suffer again? Two little girls no matter their nationality will be molested or even worse. The people of the UK need to stand up to these judges and make a case to save their little girls from this monster. Then when they do that go ahead and do the right thing by staking this predator out on the arctic pack ice and leaving him for a polar bear to molest. This man must be destroyed because there is no rehabilitation for this type of sexual deviation. I can't be cured of my heterosexual activities just like Liberace couldn't be cured of his homosexual activities. Sullivan can't be cured and will stay a child molester forever and destroy many, many lives along the way. He must be dealt with.
Its "their" problem now. Based upon this guys escapades here in the US and in Ireland it will only be a matter of time before he "acts" again. Only this time in the UK. I wonder how they will manage him when its their kids who are damaged.
fine then let's stop helping england, and let the lymmies get overrun by some other government. screw england
Maybe now he can sexually assault the daughters and or grand daughters of the UK judges. The UK is going to Hell in a hand basket anyway. If he had assaulted my daughters, he'd have rights, the rights to dodge multiple bullets fired at him at very close range.
LOL
the uk can keep the pile of crap
apparently over there its ok to have sex with 10 and 11 year old kids
not to right in the head to protect someone who hurts children
live with the perversion uk
fits well with your intelligence lately
everything handed out eventually get handed back 10 fold
sick #@%^$
I hope the civility of the UK does not go so far as to prevent them from keeping a discerning eye on this monster. As he has proven already in Ireland, he will reoffend. Hopefully while soon exiting a pub in jolly old London to celebrate this victory over justice, may he stagger out in front of a Lorry racing to deliver Guinness ... and be run down in their streets before he can harm any other child, ours or theirs.
He's probably a damn 1%er!