Jury splits on keeping rapist jailed

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 29, 2001

LARGO -- Six Pinellas jurors couldn't agree Wednesday on whether two-time rapist Roberto Valdez was a threat to sexually assault again.

A Pinellas judge declared a mistrial when jurors, after two hours of deliberations, said they were hopelessly deadlocked 5-1 in favor of committing him to a mental institution for treatment.

Valdez, 54, who has spent most of the last 29 years in state prison, will be held until prosecutors try him again within the next 90 days.

The three-day trial was the first in Pinellas under the state's controversial Jimmy Ryce civil commitment law. Under the Ryce law, prosecutors can seek the indefinite commitment of a convicted sex offender after he finishes serving time in prison on the sex charge.

The defendant can be held indefinitely for treatment until a judge or jury decides that he is again safe to be released.

Up to a dozen more Pinellas inmates await trial. Several others around the state have already been ordered committed after jury verdicts.

Prosecutors Tim Hessinger and Beverly Andringa told jurors that Valdez was a danger to rape again. He was convicted of rape in Pinellas in 1972 and in Alabama in 1982.

Three psychiatrists testified this week that Valdez had an anti-social personality disorder and was likely to rape again.

But Assistant Public Defenders Lorraine Kelly and Kevin Beck said that many of Valdez's problems were related to alcohol and drug abuse. They say he is now clean.

They also said he has made great progress with psychiatrists, who are trying to help him with his personality disorder.

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