By Leisa Zigman I-Team Reporter
St. Louis (KSDK) - We count on judges to be fair.
We count on them to protect the public.
But an I-Team investigation raises serious questions about why one Missouri judge allowed a convicted sex offender back the street without hearing from any experts.
Jessie Whitaker, a 47-year-old sex offender, first pleaded guilty nearly three decades ago.
In 1985 he admitted to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Pemiscot County about three hours south of St. Louis. He was sentenced to five years supervised probation.
Three years later, police arrested him for raping a 22-year-old woman. His probation was revoked and the attempted forcible rape case was then dismissed.
In July of 2003, police in Pemiscot County charged him with attempted forcible sodomy against a 16-year-old girl.
Whitaker fled, and two months later police in Boone County arrested him for fondling a teenage girl. He was sentenced to seven years for statutory sodomy.
Joe Dandurand is the Deputy Attorney General for the state of Missouri. He described Whitaker as, "a very dangerous man."
Dandurand, who is also a former judge, wanted to keep Whitaker away from the public and confined to a mental health facility called the sexually violent predator's unit in Farmington.
Civil commitment is not an easy process In Missouri. It is only for the most dangerous sex offenders who are about to be released from prison.
According to documents obtained by the I-Team, a mental health expert for Missouri's Department of Corrections recommended Whitaker be considered a sexually violent predator.
In addition, four other mental health professionals evaluated Whitaker and agreed he was too dangerous to be released.
One expert wrote, "Results suggest Mr. Whitaker has a mental abnormality that makes him more likely than not to commit future acts of predatory sexual violence unless confined to a secure faculty."
Before the attorney general's office took the case, five prosecutors from around the state reviewed the evidence, and they too agreed he was a sexually violent predator.
This past August, the civil commitment case went before Judge Charles Spitler in New Madrid. Without hearing any evidence or listening to any of the experts, the 21 year veteran judge ruled Whitaker did not qualify as a sexually violent predator.
Stunned, the prosecutor asked the court for time to appeal.
"We would at this time strongly request that you keep Mr. Whitaker incarcerated while we ask a higher court to review your decision," he explained .
But, Judge Spitler said no.
"We then said, well judge can we put on some evidence to let you know what kind of person Mr. Whitaker is and has been so you will have an idea so you will realize the gravity of the decision you are about to make? He said no, we won't hear any evidence. This is over here," said Dandurand.
The ruling meant Whitaker could go anywhere. He was a free man.
Whitaker ended up in Senath, Missouri about three-and-a-half hours south of St. Louis. Ten days after his release last August, police arrested Whitaker for raping a disabled 51-year-old woman in her apartment.
We are not identifying the alleged victim, but she told us (Whitaker) "pushed me on my bed and proceeded to do bad things. I couldn't move. He told me don't say a word."
The woman says it's too painful to stay in her apartment. She is moving out of state this week. She explained, "It plays on my mind. I try to forget about it, but there is no forgetting it." She continued, "Why would he (the judge) let him out? It doesn't make sense. He didn't do his job."
"The office of the attorney general believes that a big mistake was made here and we did everything we could to keep it from happening," Dandurand.
Judge Spitler refused our requests for an interview, as did the public defender that argued Whitaker was not a sexually violent predator.
The attorney general's office is appealing Judge Spitler's decision. In the meantime, Whitaker remains in custody on the rape charge, and is once again being evaluated as a sexually violent predator.
The new case was set to go before Judge Spitler but he recused himself.
KSDK