Illinois- A Burbank man once charged with soliciting a 12-year-old girl for sex in 1997 will remain in an Illinois prison, even though he has neither pleaded guilty to a crime nor been convicted of one.
James Masterson, 41, has been held for more than six years under a rarely used civil procedure known as the Sexually Dangerous Person Act, which was amended this month.
The Illinois law, which allows the state to hold a “sexually dangerous person or criminal sexual psychopathic person” until they have “recovered,” drew criticism from civil libertarian organizations when it passed, but has stirred little public controversy, in part because it is used so infrequently.
Created in 1997, the act was strengthened earlier this month by the state legislature, making it harder for inmates to appeal.
In 1997 Masterson gave a letter to a prostitute he had known for years, offering money to sleep with her 12-year-old daughter, according to testimony Monday at a civil procedural hearing in Cook County Criminal Court.
“She has to do what I say,” Masterson wrote, detailing explicit acts, according to the letter supplied by Assistant State’s Atty. Maria McCarthy.
The woman instead turned the letter over to police, who had her set up a meeting with Masterson at a predetermined time. Masterson was arrested in his truck near the family’s house. A gym bag in the vehicle contained $504 cash, 53 adult magazines, three pornographic movies and a set of handcuffs, prosecutors said.
He was charged at the time with attempted aggravated criminal sexual assault and indecent solicitation.
If Masterson had been convicted he would have served between two to five years, said Assistant State’s Atty. Joseph Magats. Instead, he was sent to prison in 1999 when a judge ruled he was a threat.
Prosecutors prefer a conviction to using the act, said Mary Ellen Murphy, an assistant state’s attorney on the sex crimes unit. But in some cases “using the act is more of a sure thing,” she said.
Although representatives with the state’s attorney office and the Illinois Department of Corrections said Monday that they were unsure how many people are being held under the Sexually Dangerous Person Act, they are few and far between, several officials said.
Murphy, McCarthy and Magats said they had never before handled one.
Earlier this month, Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed an amendment to the law, making it harder for inmates such as Masterson to appeal their commitment. Introduced by state Rep. Dan Brady, (R-Bloomington), the changes will limit an inmate to one appeal a year after their first appeal.
“I don’t want to see the time in Illinois when people are filing these and get out one day because people let down their guard,” Brady said.
The amendment also allows inmates the right to bring in their own experts to determine if they are a threat. The changes will go into effect next year.
Masterson has admitted to threatening a 16-year-old with a screwdriver in 1983 after she refused a ride with him, and to molesting a 12-year-old girl the next year, the state’s attorney’s office said, quoting two psychiatrists who interviewed him.