Not sure where to put this. This is a horrible crime in the making. You have no idea how close to this man I work and live.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091125/A_NEWS/911250324/-1/a_news#STS=g2gqemhb.r38Convicted child molester says he's changed his ways
Man, 50, had been in state mental hospital for assaulting two boys; he was released in Manteca
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By Scott Smith
Record Staff Writer
November 25, 2009 12:00 AMSTOCKTON - A man set free by a jury this week after years in a state mental hospital for sexually assaulting two boys - one in Manteca - said he's no longer a danger to society.
Dwayne Smith, 50, said Tuesday he is a different man from the person once labeled a sexually violent predator. A combination of treatment, an antidepressant drug and religion helps him keep himself in check, he said.
"They don't have to be concerned for me," Smith said. "I'm not as young as I used to be."
He agreed to an interview Tuesday at his father and stepmother's mobile home in Manteca after being released from the San Joaquin County Jail. He had been incarcerated for the past 22 years.
Jurors believed he is no longer a threat. After a three-week trial, they decided it was time to let Smith go free. The decision drew a prosecutor's concerns. The lack of a support system for somebody such as Smith drew criticism from his attorney.
Smith was convicted of luring an 8-year-old Manteca boy in 1987 into his van and sodomizing him. He was on parole at the time for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy in 1983 at knife point in Los Angeles.
Doctors have diagnosed Smith with schizotypal personality disorder, a condition in which a person experiences extreme anxiety in social situations, responds inappropriately to social cues and holds peculiar beliefs.
Smith was among the first in California incarcerated at a maximum security state hospital under the sexually violent predator law adopted in 1996. After his state prison term ended, jurors at least twice committed him.
But on Monday, Smith learned he didn't have to spend any more time at the Coalinga State Hospital.
San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Grant Brooks said he believes Smith is still a pedophile. Smith was initially locked up for violently assaulting boys he didn't know.
"We're talking about a sexual preference," Brooks said. "It doesn't go away. It doesn't change."
Brooks said jurors told him they worried about the expense and that Smith had not exhibited recent behavior that showed he was a threat.
"For better or worse, the community has spoken," Brooks said.
Attorney Vittoria Bossi said the jury made the right decision. They listened to doctors testify about Smith, who himself took the witness stand for more than a day. After that, the jury made its decision.
Bossi's criticism is that the criminal justice system in California doesn't provide any support for people such as Smith. He is under no parole supervision nor required counseling.
She urged citizens to contact their legislators. Somebody such as Smith should have supervised housing upon release, where he could sleep in a secure place at night and be allowed to leave during the day with GPS tracking, she said.
Smith's 84-year-old father, Donald Smith, said he can barely make his own way and had no means or space to help his son. Bossi said she is making arrangements for her client.
"He will not be under a bridge," Bossi said. She has found a place for him to live outside of San Joaquin County, but she declined to say where.
In court Tuesday morning, San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Richard Mallett told Smith to stay away from children and to register every three months as a sexual offender, according to the laws.
"You cannot afford any legal entanglements of any kind," Mallett told Smith, who replied that he understood. A misstep as simple as failing to register could result in more state prison time, Mallett told Smith.
Sitting at the kitchen table of his father's mobile home, Smith said he acknowledges his crimes but says they were so long ago. He now takes Zoloft, which suppresses his sexual desires, and in 1993 he became a Christian, he said.
He learned to read and write since being locked up. Now, he's adjusting to life outside an institution after so many years. He looked around the kitchen and noted the color on the walls - a contrast to blank prison walls.
"I want to get me a job and a nice little house," he said, still wearing the beige T-shirt and shorts from the mental hospital. He doesn't plan on removing a plastic identification bracelet on his left arm.
