07-02-2003, 12:11 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Registered User
Location: Somewhere in Ohio
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A child molester with some brains?
LINKY
Quote:
Molester would pay for his own castration
By CATHY REDFERN
Sentinel STAFF WRITER
SANTA CRUZ — A sexually violent predator who served the required 14 years of a 29-year prison sentence for molesting an 8-year-old boy wants to be castrated.
And he says he’s willing to pay for it.
Last year, Gregory Donald Grant asked the county to pay for the operation, a request Judge Art Danner denied.
On Monday, Grant, 57, and his attorney were back in court, seeking permission for the procedure, which can cost up to $5,000.
But Danner said he must first hear from at least one expert to make sure Grant knows all the implications of his request.
It’s unclear how Grant has the means to pay for the operation.
Grant had a record of sexually assaulting boys when he was sentenced in 1983 to 29 years in prison for kidnapping and molesting an 8-year-old boy he met at the Beach Boardwalk.
In 1998, when he was up for parole, county jurors decided that Grant qualified as a sexually violent predator under a 1996 state law. That decision sent him to Atascadero State Hospital for a renewable two-year term.
His renewal hearings have been tied up in court since 2000 due to several appeals in what prosecutor Christine McGuire calls "a pretty litigious process."
The reason for his request was not detailed Monday, but McGuire said Grant wants the operation so he can get out of the state mental hospital. But, she said, castration is no guarantee of release.
His attorney said Grant has several reasons for wanting the castration, which he declined to specify.
McGuire cited an order from the state Department of Mental Health which says the procedure has limited benefit and significant social and medical issues which make it "a poor choice for sex offenders."
Poor or not, it’s his choice, argued attorney Art Dudley, who contended it is his client’s constitutional right to decide on his medical care.
"It’s his decision, and his decision alone," he said.
Denying the request would be "emasculating my client’s right to privacy," Dudley said.
Danner ordered a hearing with testimony by at least one doctor "who has taken into account other viewpoints."
He also ruled the District Attorney’s Office had "no standing" to argue the issue.
Danner asked Dudley to return Wednesday with a report on what doctor or doctors he could line up.
Grant complained last year that the anti-androgen drugs he was taking, which act as a "chemical castration" and prevent the release of testosterone, were causing harmful side effects. They can weaken bone mass, Dudley said.
Last year, psychologist Deborah Paladino testified Grant had refused to participate in psychological classes and said the operation alone would not make him safe for release into the community.
Conversely, psychiatrist Mary Flavan testified that castration would be the only effective way to stop Grant from acting on his urges to molest children.
Grant uses a wheelcharin after a 1981 industrial accident. In the crime which led to his 1983 conviction, he had offered the 8-year-old boy $1 to push him around before forcing the child into his car and then into a motel room.
Danner was district attorney in 1998 and petitioned the court to have Grant committed under the sexually violent predator law.
The law allows for sex offenders who have victimized at least two people, who are deemed to have a mental disorder and who may pose a continued risk to be committed for additional two-year terms in a state mental hospital. A state Department of Mental Health evaluation found that Grant suffered from pedophilia, a disorder marked by sexual attraction to children and sadism.
His record includes convictions for molesting boys in Southern California and Kansas. Similar charges were filed against him, but dropped, in Contra Costa County.
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I say let him do it. Or better yet. Cut his god damn head off!
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