Boston Herald - October 27, 2009

Hoping to hinder the David Flavells of the world from running amok, Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone Jr. will today appeal to legislators to strip serial perverts of the last word on whether a judge or jury should decide if they’re fit to live among us.

Since 2006, Flavell, a convicted sex offender, has been charged with making obscene phone calls, crawling under an occupied ladies room stall door and, just last week, attempting to rape a woman at Massachusetts General Hospital - all in the time two judges determined he wasn’t dangerous enough to warrant civil commitment.

State law currently allows the defendant in a sexually dangerous person hearing to choose between a judge and jury of their peers to decide their case. Leone, who will testify at the State House this afternoon, wants prosecutors to decide.

Senate Bill 1548 “allows prosecutors the right to request a jury trial, and if we request it, we get it,” Leone explained.

“All I’m looking to do is just to give community members a greater voice in deciding whether these dangerous sex offenders should be released back into their neighboroods,” he told the Herald. “The public is astonished that people like this are not kept where they should be when there’s an opportunity to do so.”

Since he took office in 2007, Leone said Middlesex County has civilly committed seven of seven perverts thanks to juries, but only four of nine who opted for bench trial.

“We’re not asking for our burden to be lessened,” Leone said. “We’re just asking for the public to be part of it. It’s about including the public’s voice in a matter that has a direct impact on public safety.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1207504