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In re Detention of Gardner

Case Date: 09/03/1999
Court: 4th District Appellate
Docket No: 4-98-1029

In re Detention of Gardner, No. 4-98-1029

4th District, 3 September 1999



In Re: the Detention of JACK GARDNER, Inmate No. B-28367,

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS,

Petitioner-Appellant,

v.

JACK GARDNER,

Respondent-Appellee.

 Appeal from Circuit Court of Coles County

No. 98MR89

Honorable Ashton C. Waller, Judge Presiding.

JUSTICE STEIGMANN delivered the opinion of the court:

In December 1998, respondent, Jack Gardner, moved to dismiss the State's petition seeking to have him committed as a sexually violent person, pursuant to the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act (Act) (725 ILCS 207/1 et seq. (West 1998)). Later that same month, the trial court conducted a hearing and granted respondent's motion. The State appeals, and we reverse and remand.

I. BACKGROUND

On November 24, 1998, the State filed a petition to commit respondent as a sexually violent person, alleging the following: (1) in February 1995, respondent was convicted of a sexually violent offense--namely, three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse (720 ILCS 5/12-16 (West 1994)) (Coles County case No. 94-CF-289); (2) respondent was within 90 days of entry into mandatory supervised release (MSR) from a five-year sentence imposed for those convictions; (3) respondent suffered from the mental disorders of pedophilia, alcohol abuse, and borderline intellectual functioning; and (4) respondent was dangerous to others because his mental disorders created a substantial probability that he would engage in acts of sexual violence. That same day, the trial court ordered respondent to be detained and scheduled a probable-cause hearing, pursuant to section 30 of the Act (725 ILCS 207/30 (West 1998)), for November 30, 1998.

At the November 30, 1998, hearing, the State moved to amend its petition to further allege that (1) respondent was then serving a sentence for a conviction for failing to report a change of address as a sex offender (730 ILCS 150/6 (West 1996)) (Coles County case No. 97-CF-59), which was being served consecutively with or concurrently to his sentence for the aggravated criminal sexual abuse convictions; and (2) respondent "was to be released within 90 days of the filing of the original petition," on November 28, 1998. The State pointed out that the Act had recently been amended to allow the State to file a petition when the offender was serving a sentence that was running consecutively to or concurrently with a sentence for a sexually violent offense (Pub. Act 90-793,