Prosecutors try to keep child sex abuser locked up
Sentence for former priest who abused 28 ended in January
From Jonathan Wald
CNN
(CNN) -- Prosecutors in Massachusetts tried to convince a judge Friday that convicted pedophile and former Catholic priest James Porter should be held in prison.
"We want to keep him behind bars indefinitely as a 'sexually dangerous person'," said Lisa Leonard, assistant to Bristol District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr.
Porter was scheduled to have been released in January of this year from the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater.
A sexual offender deemed likely to re-offend -- even after serving his or her time -- can be kept locked up as a "sexually dangerous person," Leonard said. "We think Porter qualifies."
Porter's lawyer disagreed.
"This whole issue is laughable," said Michael Farrington. At 69 years old, his client has "lost his sex drive," he said.
"This case has nothing to do with whether he's a danger or not -- because he's not," Farrington said. "The government want to keep him in prison because they don't like his crime."
Porter was convicted in 1993 on 41 counts of sexual assault against 28 victims and was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Porter must remain in detention until the "sexually dangerous person" petition is resolved.
Porter preyed upon victims in at least five states in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, and more than 100 people said he had abused them, said Tom Carroll, a child abuse investigator for the Bristol district attorney.
If Judge David McLaughlin determines that Porter is indeed a "sexually dangerous person," the case would go to trial.
The case has drawn attention to the therapy used at the center.
As part of a wider program, therapists use "aversion therapy" or "behavior therapy," despite doubts among some professionals about whether it works.
"We measure pedophiles' sexual-arousal patterns by gauging their reactions to different audiotapes depicting very graphic, deviant sexual activity and those depicting appropriate sexual behavior," said Dr. Barbara Schwartz, clinical director of the Sex Offenders Treatment Program at the center between 1992 and 2002.
"We then pair the deviant fantasies with noxious odors by reading the fantasies to the pedophiles, who give themselves ammonia salts just before they become aroused," Schwartz said.
Pedophiles also pair "negative fantasies -- such as drowning -- with their deviant fantasies, by recording one after the other on an audiotape and playing them back," she said.
"It's effective on anyone with deviant sexual arousals who is willing to undergo the treatment," Schwartz said.
But Schwartz's view is not universally held.
"I personally don't know any agency which uses it, and I think it isn't useful," said Susan Wayne, president of the Justice Resource Institute, in Boston, which offers treatment programs for sexual offenders.
