Dangerous Sexual Predators Released

June 21, 2001 -- Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, who had a history of sexual crimes against boys, was released from the Massachusetts Treatment Center for the Sexually Dangerous after 12 years because a judge deemed him no longer sexually dangerous.

Within days of his release, he was arrested in connection with the attempted abduction of a small child.

Convicted rapist Michael Kelley was released from the same treatment center in 1991 after a psychologist concluded he did not need additional treatment — even though just weeks before the judgment he was found with a 14-inch knife and rope. After his discharge, he killed two women, burying one in the back yard of a home he was able to purchase while at the treatment center.

During her last years of working at the treatment center, Paula Erickson, a therapist there until the early '90s, says many such dangerous men were released from the facility. "I tried to warn people, but they wouldn't listen," says Erickson, who was laid off and has since settled a lawsuit she brought against the state. "I couldn't get anyone to investigate," she says.

So Erickson compiled her own list of 26 men she thought should not have been freed, and 10 years later, PrimeTime Thursday takes roll call of these sexual predators.

Sexual Fantasies, Cannibalism and Torture

From the time Bar-Jonah was admitted to the Massachusetts center, therapists documented his problems. Records from 1977 refer to him as "dangerously disturbed." In 1980, it was reported that he had "sexual fantasies" that involved cannibalism. Bar-Jonah admitted a "longstanding interest in the instruments of torture" in 1983.

But despite all this, Bar-Jonah had a chance to get out. Each year, inmates have the right to petition a judge to let them go. To stop the inmate from getting out, the state has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the inmate is still sexually dangerous.

Among inmates, it was no secret the key to getting out was finding sympathetic psychologists. So Bar-Jonah, who was part of a Christian group inside the institution, found two outside doctors who identify themselves as Christian psychologists, Richard Ober and Eric Sweitzer.

"It attracted mostly pedophiles," says Erickson of the Christian group in the treatment center. "They used that as a substitute for therapy."

Both Ober and Sweitzer sent evaluations to the judge saying Bar-Jonah was "no longer sexually dangerous." Bar-Jonah was released, and three weeks later he was arrested for getting into a parked car and sitting on a little boy's lap.

The state of Massachusetts offered Bar-Jonah a deal: If he'd leave the state with his mother, who was moving to Montana, charges would be dropped. So he did. He has since been charged with molesting three boys and with first-degree murder in the death of a little boy he allegedly cannibalized. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Asked if it's possible to predict whether sex offenders are still dangerous, Sweitzer now says, "No, not with any high level of certainty."

As for how he came to his decision that Bar-Jonah was no longer a threat, Sweitzer says, "He's duped a lot of us … There were strong enough statements apparently made by him or supposedly made by him that had I been aware of them, probably those in themselves would have caused me not to recommend his release."

Still, he says, "I'm clear in my conscience before God."

Playing the Treatment Center's Game

The same year as Bar-Jonah's release, Michael Kelley, who had been committed to the Massachusetts center for two brutal rapes, was released after 11 years.

"Michael Kelley was a model patient who cried when he was supposed to," says Sean Summer, one of Kelley's case workers. He says Kelley "got the appropriate support from the mental health staff and played the game."

While at the center, he was one of a handful of men allowed to leave unsupervised for days at a time. Even Kelley says he "was everybody's poster boy … Everything was politics," he says. "It wasn't really about who was getting proper treatment. It was who looked good … you had to present a good package."

Three weeks before the vote to determine if he was still sexually dangerous, Kelley was found with a 14-inch carving knife, barber scissors and rope. But he was able to convince officials that the knife was just an innocent kitchen utensil and he was released.

A few months after his discharge, Kelley confessed to killing two women. He is now serving a life sentence in prison.

Even Kelley says his release was a mistake. "I'm not releasable now," he says. "There's no way I could be then."

But belief in Kelly ran deep, especially for Robert Prentky, the treatment center's director of research whose only personal patient was Kelley.

"The 11 years of treatment turned him into a murderer as well as a rapist," says Rachel Prindle, an attorney who sued the state on behalf of the family of one of Kelley's victims, 21-year-old Coleen Coughlin.

The allegations against the state, says Prindle, include drug trafficking and money laundering inside the center. Prindle claims Kelley knew about corruption in the center, "so the staff sort of gave him his walking papers … so that he wouldn't implicate anyone," she says.

"It is simply not enough to hear that it was human error," counters Prentky, "that there was no conspiracy, that there was no deep, dark, sinister motive. It's hard to accept that it was simply human error."

System-Wide Problems

According to a PrimeTime investigation, the problems of the system were rampant. After looking into Erickson's list of 26 men she believed were too dangerous to be released from the treatment center, PrimeTime has discovered:

None of the 26 men was registered with the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board.

Three were discharged from the center to serve in prison; they will be eligible for release soon.

Eleven who were released are back in prison or are awaiting trial, mostly for new sex crimes.

Seven of the men are unaccounted for.