Sex offender ruled sexually violent, committed to IDHS treatment facility
CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) - A sex offender was ordered institutionalized with the Illinois Department of Human Services after a jury found that he was a sexually violent person.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge William Gamboney ordered 52-year-old Derrick Patterson to remain in IDHS custody after the ruling, according to a statement from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. He will be transferred to a facility in downstate Rushville.
Patterson was sentenced to 25 years in prison after his conviction in 1996 conviction for aggravated criminal sexual assault with bodily harm for an incident in Chicago, prosecutors said. He was previously charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault and attempted criminal sexual assault in 1987. Most recently, he was convicted of criminal sexual abuse in 2002 for an attack on a prison nurse.
Under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act, a judge can commit offenders to the custody of IDHS if they have been convicted of a sexually violent offense and suffer from a mental disorder, according to the attorney general’s office.
“This offender’s violent sexual attacks on women did not end even while in state custody,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in the statement. “I appreciate the jury’s decision to prevent him from reentering society.”