High Court to Rule on Release of Serial Rapist
The state Supreme Court is expected next week to issue a ruling in the case of a Marin County serial rapist battling mental health officials to be set free from a state mental hospital.
The lawyer for Patrick Henry Ghilotti this week asked the court to allow his client to be released from Atascadero State Hospital, saying officials have no legal right to continue detaining him.
In a written brief filed late Thursday, Marin County Public Defender Frank Cox said Ghilotti was no longer a sexually violent predator and should be released immediately.
Ghilotti, 45, is the first inmate to complete a controversial treatment program designed to crack down on repeat sex offenders.
A Marin County judge last week refused to block the release of the eight-time rapist, who has spent nearly half of his life behind bars. The attorney general’s office then filed an emergency appeal with the state’s highest court, which has agreed to rule on the matter.
In his filing, Cox claimed the campaign to keep Ghilotti locked up “has become a lightening rod for intense media, public and political interest.”
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