MISSOURI
KTTN
(Joplin Globe) – A judge found probable cause at a hearing Wednesday to believe that former Sarcoxie minister Donald Peckham may fit the legal criteria for a sexually violent predator requiring a commitment to the Missouri Department of Mental Health past completion of his prison sentence.
Circuit Judge David Mouton sustained a petition filed in Jasper County Circuit Court by the state attorney general’s office seeking a court order to have Peckham held beyond his scheduled release from prison.
Peckham, 83, was convicted in 2004 of first-degree statutory sodomy and second-degree statutory sodomy and was sentenced to concurrent terms of 15 years and seven years. With credit for good behavior behind bars, the former pastor of the Jubilee Christian Fellowship Church in Sarcoxie is scheduled to be released from prison on Wednesday of next week.
State law provides for the commitment of inmates who fit the criteria for sexually violent predators past completion of their prison terms. But there first must be a determination by a judge in a civil court proceeding that probable cause exists to believe that the inmate fits the criteria. The inmate then must be evaluated and a trial conducted on the proposed commitment.
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