Original Story URL:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=633030 Sex thoughts lead to trial Court to decide if deviant imaginings make man a predator
By DAVID DOEGE
Posted: July 15, 2007
Waukesha - When Michael Monyelle stands trial next month, prosecutors aim to show that he is among the state's most dangerous sexual predators and should be committed - perhaps for the rest of his life - for treatment as a "sexually violent person."
But what landed Monyelle in hot water wasn't anything he did.
It was what he thought.He told his parole agent that he was having deviant thoughts about children, and his disclosures are being used against him by prosecutors who contend he is apt to act on his thoughts.
"I started to look at the shoes and I saw a little girl about 7, I think," Monyelle told his agent of his visit to a thrift store shortly after his release from prison for having consensual sexual contact with two underage girls when he was 19 and 20, according to court records. "I couldn't get a good look, so I went around to the other side to get a better look.
"That is all I did. . . . Sometimes I have thoughts of kidnapping kids, too.
"I see kids on the street and I look and I have (deviant) thoughts. But I keep on going to where I was going."
Because of his sexual contact with the girls a decade ago and with a 9-year-old boy when he was 16, Monyelle's thoughts show he is a danger, according to a commitment petition.
Monyelle "is dangerous to others because his mental disorder makes it likely he will engage in acts of sexual violence," the petition says.
The 1994 law that enables authorities to commit sex offenders to secure inpatient treatment as "sexually violent persons" typically is used when they are about to be released from prison and are considered a risk to re-offend because of inadequate treatment while incarcerated.
Monyelle, however, finds himself facing possible commitment under the law primarily because he shared disturbing thoughts with his agent while he was under supervision in the community.
A 'judgment call'
Linda Morrison, executive director of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, termed the decision to seek a commitment under such circumstances "a judgment call."
"These cases are very complicated," Morrison said. "You've got to start somewhere to look for markers that are indicators of possible future violence.
"The judgment here is that the thoughts he is expressing are indicating what is in his head and what could lead to violence."
Monyelle, 30, of Waukesha, was placed on 10 years of probation in 1997 on two counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child for relationships he had with two girls, one 16 and the other 14. Both girls willingly participated in the sex but were legally underage.
In 1999, Monyelle had his probation revoked and was sent to prison because of inadequate participation in a treatment program for sex offenders.
In 2004, he was paroled with a requirement that he participate in treatment. The following year, he was taken into custody three times, according to court records, for having deviant thoughts about children that he did not report to his treatment group and delayed reporting to his agent.
Kids trigger thoughts
Some of the thoughts, he said, concerned his sister's young children, whom he encountered at her home.
"I haven't told her that I'm sexually attracted to the kids," he said in the statement. "I have sexual thoughts about all the children."
He also reported having sexual thoughts while at work, once when a woman with an infant child walked past.
"I have sexual thoughts about little and older girls and boys, anything sexual," he wrote in the statement.
His parole was revoked in June 2005 after he provided the statement, and he has been in custody since. In April 2006, the state attorney general's office filed a petition to have Monyelle committed indefinitely for treatment under the sexually violent person law.
The three standard assessments used in such cases set Monyelle's potential for re-offending in the years ahead between 49% and 70%. The results, according to psychologist Anthony Jurek, indicate "that it is likely (more likely than not) that (Monyelle) will engage in sexually violent behavior in the future."
The prosecutor in the case, Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Gabrysiak, has indicated in a motion that he intends to use Monyelle's remarks to his agent about his deviant thoughts in his upcoming trial.
Monyelle's attorney, R. Steven Prifogle, could not be reached for comment. However, court records indicate that a psychologist retained by the defense, Luis Rosell, has concluded that Monyelle "does not pose a serious risk for sexual violence" and can be safely returned to Waukesha on parole, which would expire in August 2008.
If prosecutors convince a jury that Monyelle is a danger to act out on the thoughts he expressed, he will be committed indefinitely for treatment and can petition once a year for a supervised release.
