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Mistrial on release of abuser

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Times Staff Writer

An Orange County jury deadlocked Wednesday on whether an aging pedophile who admitted he molested 10 boys should be released from a state mental facility. It was the second time a jury had failed to reach a decision in the case.

Sid Landau, wearing a hearing aid, showed little reaction as jurors reported that they were at an impasse after 3 1/2 days of deliberations, leaning 8 to 4 in favor of the petition by prosecutors to keep him hospitalized because he remained a danger to society.

Judge Richard M. King declared a mistrial and ordered a hearing Friday on whether Landau should face a third trial. The 68-year-old’s first trial, in June 2006, ended in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of setting him free.

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After court adjourned Wednesday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Amy Pope said she believed “unequivocally” that Landau remained a danger but declined to say whether her office would retry the case.

Landau’s attorney, Leonard Levine, said, “We believe 12 people may never agree unanimously on a verdict.”

Landau has been hospitalized at state mental facilities for nearly eight years while prosecutors have pursued a petition under the state’s Sexually Violent Predator Statute, which allows offenders deemed a continual threat to remain in state custody after their prison sentences are completed.

In the 1990s, police, armed with the newly enacted Megan’s Law, distributed fliers to his Placentia neighbors identifying him as a sex offender. He had served two years in prison for molesting a 10-year-old boy and eight for molesting an 8-year-old boy. He admitted molesting eight other boys.

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christine.hanley@latimes.com

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