SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California jury on Friday found that a castrated sex offender who preyed on young girls should no longer be considered a sexually violent predator and is eligible for release.
Jurors in Orange County determined that Kevin Reilly, 53, does not need to remain locked up at a state mental hospital. He could be released as early as Friday, his lawyer said, but online jail records show he remained in custody as of mid-afternoon.
“There was simply no evidence he was likely to reoffend,” said Holly Galloway, deputy public defender. “What the jury did was amazing because they followed the law and that’s a hard thing to do with someone with his history, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Reilly served time in prison for sex offenses committed in the 1980s and 1990s and has been locked up in a state mental hospital since 2000 under a California law that enables authorities to forcibly commit sex offenders they believe will reoffend.
He paid to be surgically castrated in 2003 to help control his pedophilia and completed a treatment program for sex offenders in 2010. State-appointed evaluators found he was not likely to reoffend, Galloway said, adding that Reilly also completed a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree.
Prosecutors argued that Reilly is still dangerous and that the effects of his castration, which aimed eliminate his sex drive, can be mitigated through testosterone injections.
Michael Carroll, deputy district attorney, said Reilly did not confess to molesting one of his victims until three years ago and there were conflicting reports about what he told his evaluators and the court.
“I don’t think he was honest during his treatment,” Carroll said. “I think he continued to lie and attempted to manipulate because his ultimate purpose, I think, is to get out of the hospital, not necessarily to prevent creating any future victims.”
Reilly served time for committing lewd acts on four young girls over more than a decade, and later conceded he had abused at least three others, Carroll said. Most of the girls were between 4 and 8 years old.
He is required to register as a sex offender once he is released, and is planning to move to Utah, where he will participate in an outpatient treatment program for sex offenders and look for an accounting job, Carroll said.
In 1983, Reilly was arrested and charged with lewd acts on two neighbors, Carroll said. While out on bail, he kidnapped his daughter and took her to Arizona, where he abused another girl and showed obscene materials to her brother. He served time in Arizona and California and was released in 1988, he said.
In 1997, Reilly was arrested for molesting another girl, Carroll said. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison. Authorities had him committed as a sexually violent predator in 2000.
