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A sex offender who has finished his prison sentence is before a jury that will decide if he should be held for indefinite treatment.
By GRAHAM BRINK
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 17, 2000
TAMPA -- Kevin Kinder looked at the jurors Tuesday as he told them in detail how he raped four young boys in the early 1990s. He spoke in a calm voice, stopping only occasionally to let out a deep sigh or stop himself from crying.
"I was sick. I was perverted, and I was twisted," Kinder told the prosecutor when asked why he had molested the boys.
Kinder pleaded guilty in 1992 to performing lewd acts on the boys. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison and 15 years' probation, but was released early under a program to ease prison overcrowding.
Now Kinder finds himself in a civil proceeding that could keep him imprisoned indefinitely. The jury will have to decide whether Kinder is fit to re-enter society or should be committed for treatment as a sexually violent predator.
The civil proceeding is required under the Jimmy Ryce Act, named for a 9-year-old Miami-Dade County boy who was kidnapped, raped, murdered and dismembered in 1995.
Since the law went into effect in January, it has prompted a flood of constitutional challenges, mostly related to whether the commitment constitutes double jeopardy -- punishing defendants twice for the same crime.
Kinder, 28, talked about how he was molested for years, starting when he was 8, and how he had sex with older boys throughout his teenage years. He spoke matter of factly as he told jurors about how he molested the four boys when he was 19. He described the woods where they went and the cigarette wrappers on the ground. He said some of the boys looked scared and told him to stop.
"I didn't care about any of that at the time," he testified. "I just cared about what I wanted. I wanted to have sex."
Kinder's lawyer, assistant public defender Jeanine Cohen, warned the jurors not to fall prey to their fear. Their job, she emphasized, was not to decide Kinder's guilt, but to determine whether he meets the criteria for civil commitment.
Cohen promised that doctors presented by the state and the defense would differ on whether Kinder met the criteria and should be committed. She urged the jurors to listen carefully to the doctors.
"I have no doubt that it will take a tremendous amount of courage to stand up to these fears," she said. "This is not about punishing Kevin Kinder. He has already been punished."
Protesters lined the entrance to the courthouse during jury selection on Monday. Parents and friends of the victims, along with other concerned people, expressed outrage that someone like Kinder could be back in their neighborhoods so soon after his conviction.
A mother of one of Kinder's victims, whose name the St. Petersburg Times in is withholding to protect the boy's identity, led the protests and sat through jury selection and many of the legal motions. She said her son has tried to commit suicide several times since he was raped.
She said sh has no doubt that Kinder will attack boys again.
"It's tough to believe we are even having this discussion," she said. "Listen to what he did. It was brutal and it ruined lives ," she said. Do you want to risk that happening again?"