Judge orders sexual predator to be removed from group home
Associated Press
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. - Two days after convicted sexual predator Leroy Hendricks was
moved into a Leavenworth County residence, a district court judge ordered him to
be removed because the owners don't have a permit to run a group home.
Hendricks, 70, was the first Kansan committed for treatment as a sexual predator
after completing his prison term under the 1994 Kansas Violent Predator Act,
which allowed for civil commitments of those who could engage in predatory acts
of sexual violence.
Judge Robert Bednar made his ruling late Friday night in response to a
restraining order filed by Leavenworth County Attorney David Van Parys.
Word that Hendricks was due for release from Larned State Hospital, and that he
would be moving to the Lawrence area, sparked a petition drive by people opposed
to having him there.
When Leavenworth County officials found out he was moving to a group home in
their county, they were outraged that nobody from the Department of Social and
Rehabilitative Services had bothered to tell them about it.
Van Parys said the restraining order would prevent future use of the property as
a group home.
County zoning regulations require a special-use permit for things such as adult
care facilities, but officials said the property owners did not have one.
SRS officials had said Hendricks would be under 24-hour supervision at the home.
He has limited use of his hands after a stroke in 2001, and a judge determined
he could be moved from Larned after a decade of treatment there.
Hendricks molested at least 10 children over three decades. He served a 10-year
prison term for indecent liberties with two 13-year-old boys before being kept
in custody for treatment under the predator act.
His challenge of the program went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 in
1997 that the law is constitutional. That led at least 14 other states to pass
similar legislation.
There are 129 people in the Kansas sexual predator program, and Hendricks is the
fourth to be returned to the community.
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