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Castration weighed in rape case
By BILL VARIAN © St. Petersburg Times, published February 5, 2001 INVERNESS -- Timothy Conley, accused of committing his third rape of a young woman in less than a decade, could be ordered to undergo chemical castration if convicted of his latest charge. A prosecutor last week filed notice that he intends to ask a judge to order the treatment if Conley -- in light of his record -- is found guilty of raping a 17-year-old girl last year. If that happens, Conley could become Citrus County's first defendant sentenced to chemical castration since passage of a controversial law three years ago that created the penalty. However, the likelihood that he would actually undergo the treatment any time soon appears remote. Treatment would begin only after he got out of prison, and if Conley, 30, is convicted as charged, that could be a long time. The 1997 law, championed by Sen. Anna Cowin, R-Leesburg, allows chemical castration for all convicted rapists, but mandates it for repeat offenders. The caveat: a medical expert must make a determination that the defendant is an "appropriate candidate" during a hearing conducted within 60 days of sentencing. If such a determination is made, the judge can order a rapist to take doses of medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) for life. The drug "lowers the serum testosterone levels in males and is said to reduce sexual deviate response," according to literature from the National Conference of State Legislators. Given the language of the law, Assistant State Attorney Donald McCathran Jr. said last week he has no option but to seek chemical castration for Conley. "The way I read it is it's mandatory," McCathran said. "I filed the notice just so everyone's on the same page." Conley was arrested on his latest rape charge Aug. 3. That day, Citrus County sheriff's deputies say he picked up a 17-year-old girl walking near Croft Avenue, west of Inverness. The girl told authorities that Conley said he had a gun. She said he took her to a nearby home, where investigators say he was house-sitting, and raped her twice. In a jailhouse interview with the Citrus Times, Conley admitted having sex with the girl, but said it was consensual and that the girl accompanied him willingly. He is charged with four counts of sexual battery, one count of kidnapping and another count of engaging in unlawful sex acts with a minor. Authorities were already quite familiar with Conley. He was accused of raping two other young women, ages 16 and 18, in separate incidents in 1993 that bore similarities to the latest accusation. He pleaded no contest to sexual battery charges, was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison starting in March 1995. But that was before changes in state law that forced inmates to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence. Thanks to gain time for good behavior, and credit for the year he spent in jail awaiting trial, Conley served only about half of his sentence. He was released on probation in December 1999. McCathran has also filed a notice with the court asking for permission to use information about the prior cases against him on the latest charges. No ruling has been made on that request. Conley's trial has not been scheduled yet. Conley's attorney, Jack Moring, declined comment for this story, saying he hadn't seen the notice filed by McCathran or spoken to his client about it. Defense attorney Jim Cummins, who is familiar with the chemical castration provision and Conley's case, said it appears that he has several options. For one, Conley claims his latest encounter was consensual. While it is still a felony for an adult older than 24 to have sex with a minor, if he were convicted of that charge, he could not be forced to undergo the treatment, Cummins said. Also, he said the law is vague enough to allow plenty of challenges. For instance, what does "appropriate candidate" mean, he asks. It's a matter for debate. "Unless they get the convictions in this case, they won't get to do it," Cummins said. Chemical castration does not appear to have been widely used yet, despite passage of the law three years ago. Jerry Burford, an assistant state attorney in Ocala who specializes in prosecuting sex crimes, says he has yet to use it. "Most sex offenders have a history of committing sex crimes," Burford said. "It's very seldom that they have been convicted for it." Conley would not be the first Citrus defendant ordered to undergo chemical castration. Shortly before the new law passed, Ellsworth Landry, 57, of Inverness volunteered for the treatment as part of a plea bargain that enabled him to avoid a lengthy prison sentence. He faced a nearly 15-year prison term for convictions on two counts of having lewd contact with children younger than 16. Most of that time was suspended in exchange for Landry's agreeing to chemical castration. He later unsuccessfully appealed the deal. But the state had a difficult time finding a doctor who would agree to administer the treatment. Finally, one located in FortMyers agreed to give Landry injections of a sex drive-diminishing drug.. Landry has since challenged the fairness of making him travel to Fort Myers regularly to receive his treatment. He now faces a violation-of-probation charge for allegedly failing to submit to the treatment, court records show. The 1997 law avoids some of that hassle by putting the Department of Corrections in charge of administering MPA to rape convicts when they are released. But the Landry case perhaps foreshadows challenges ahead for chemical castration. The provision remains controversial and is widely expected to face challenges in higher courts as being cruel and unusual punishment. So far, it appears no cases have received a ruling at the appellate level. Tom Baxter, librarian for the state Attorney General's Office, reviewed rulings from the appellate courts on behalf of the Citrus Times last week. "The best I can say is so far I've found nothing," Baxter said. At least nine states now have a chemical castration law, following the lead of California, which was the first to enact such a measure in 1996. Supporters of the Florida law such as Cowin touted studies she said showed that use of chemical castration reduces the likelihood that sex offenders will rape again. But even some prosecutors, such as Burford, have trouble with the language. Burford notes that rape is not a crime so much about sex as it is about domination. "I get a lot of people who are impotent that still commit sexual battery," he said. "It's not their gonads that cause them to commit sexual battery. It's their heads." Indeed, perhaps the nation's most celebrated and scrutinized case of chemical castration is nearly 20 years old. Joseph Frank Smith was dubbed the Ski Mask Rapist in 1983 after he was convicted of raping the same woman twice, while wearing only a cloth over his face and socks. He was hailed as a possible success story on the news program 60 Minutes after agreeing to undergo chemical castration treatment as a term of his probation. Two years ago he was convicted of raping a 5-year-old girl after moving to Richmond, Va., and he has been linked to as many as 70 other sex crimes since the late 1980s. Burford said if the treatment is believed to be effective, he doesn't understand why it isn't administered to inmates in prison. It's not like rapes don't happen there, he said. Perhaps ironically, the main shelter to Conley from chemical castration may be a lengthy prison sentence if he is convicted as charged. New laws allow prosecutors to seek a doubling of prison terms for so-called habitual criminals with repeat convictions. There's also the Jimmy Ryce Act, which enables authorities to hold people convicted of sex crimes past their prison sentence if they are deemed still to be a risk. Conley underwent such an evaluation before he was released from prison in 1999. A panel of mental health experts, while divided in its findings, ultimately concluded he was not a risk to reoffend. - Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report, which included information from Times files, the San Antonio Express-News, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Sebring News-Sun.
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