A panel of appellate court justices in Santa Ana have rejected a twice-convicted child molester’s bid to be freed from a state mental health facility, according to records obtained today.
(Flickr: Phil Roeder)
Sid Landau has been confined to mental hospitals since 2000 as prosecutors sought to have him declared a sexually violent predator.
Mistrials were declared the first two times Landau went before juries in separate trials to determine whether he was a sexually violent predator when jurors could not reach verdicts.
A jury found on July 31, 2008 that Landau was a sexually violent predator.
Landau’s attorneys raised multiple issues in his appeal, including claims of violations of due process because of delays getting his case to trial, ineffective counsel, and a violation of Fourth Amendment rights when a judge allowed prosecutors to see the contents of a box of items the defendant mailed to a business.
The panel of appellate justices ruled Thursday that there was no undue delay in Landau’s case in part because his attorneys sought the rescheduling of hearings.
Landau also sent a box of belongings in December 2003 to his brother and sister-in-law, who threw it away because it contained pornography, according to the appellate court.
Landau mailed 18 boxes of belongings between 2003 and 2006 to a relative’s address.
They contained more than 45,000 articles and pictures, including ones about intergenerational daycare centers, how to set up a babysitting business, visiting Walt Disney World, where to buy toys wholesale and stories about children getting lost at water parks.
Landau said, “He was interested in the (lost child) article because it discussed locator bracelets and he thought he could use a locator if he got a dog,” according to the ruling from the appellate justices.
Landau had also collected an article about a boy who exposed himself online, according to the justices.
Landau also “clipped pictures for other patients interested in children,” according to the ruling.
“He traded them for snacks. Photographs of children were in the 18 boxes. One included a boy lying on a bed in a pair of briefs. Another showed Russell Crowe kissing a boy on the forehead. According to appellate, those photographs were meant for other patients and were mistakenly included in the boxes,” according to the ruling.
Landau claims that a heart attack and prostate issues have taken away his sex drive, so he will not be a threat if he is released from custody.
Landau “believes that as long as he stays away from children, he will not reoffend,” according to the justices. “He hopes that having an adult with him when he goes to Disneyland will reduce any risk or danger presented by his presence at the park.”
Landau also wishes to move to New York to live with his brother and sister-in-law.
A physician who has reviewed Landau’s medical records regarding the implanting of a pacemaker in 2004 and his treatment for prostate cancer noted Landau’s “daily exercise regiment” includes 80 pushups, 100 situps and walking three to four hours, according the appellate justices.
Landau has also been diagnosed as having Asperger’s syndrome.
Defense attorneys have argued that Landau’s sister-in-law has pledged a “zero tolerance policy” and would call police immediately if Landau does “anything wrong,” according to the justices.
Landau, who in the past has used a pet dog to lure children, won’t be allowed to have a dog while living with his brother, the sister-in-law has said, according to the justices.
Landau’s attorneys have asked to the state Supreme Court to overturn another earlier appellate court ruling in favor of allowing prosecutors to have another psychological expert interview Landau, Assistant Attorney General Dan Wagner said.
Landau is next scheduled in court Feb. 22 for a pretrial hearing on the petition to have him declared a sexually violent predator.
Another trial will have to wait until the state Supreme Court rules on whether a prosecution expert can interview Landau, Wagner said.
An evaluator at the Coalinga State Mental Hospital has determined that, while Landau remains a pedophile, he no longer poses a danger and could be treated as an outpatient, but the director of the hospital disagreed.
Landau was convicted in 1982 of molesting a 10-year-old Anaheim boy and sentenced to three years in prison.
He pleaded guilty in 1988 to molesting a 9-year-old boy and sentenced to 17 years in prison. He served eight years and was paroled in 1996.
Landau spent the next four years in and out of prison for violating parole.
When his latest prison term ended in 2000, prosecutors filed a petition to have him declared a sexually violent predator, and he was sent to a mental hospital.
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