Judge Gives State More Time For Sex Offender Program

A Contra Costa County Superior Court judge this morning gave the state more time to set up a community release treatment plan for convicted sex predator Cary Verse.

Verse sexually assaulted two teenage boys and a homeless man. He´s hoping to be the first sex predator freed after treatment at a state mental hospital under a 1996 program. Cary Verse wants the court to release him from the program at Atascadero State Hospital and put him in a treatment plan in Martinez. The program is designed to treat and then release the state´s worst sex predators after they serve prison sentences.

Judge Minney granted Verse´s petition last month over the objections of the Contra Costa County prosecutor, Atascadero doctors and state Department of Mental Health officials. He told the state to have the plan ready today. Verse´s public defender, Ron Boyer, says the state is dragging its feet. Minney set another hearing for March seventh.