LAKEPORT — A judge ordered a former Nice resident committed to a state hospital for an indeterminate term Friday after a jury found he was a sexually violent predator Wednesday.
Scott Merlin Bagley, 47, will go to the State Hospital at Coalinga.
The jury made the decision against Bagley before he could be released on parole and back into the community, said Rich Hinchcliff, chief deputy district attorney. The office aimed to extend Bagley”s prison sentence.
Bagley was convicted of two violations of lewd and lascivious acts with a child younger than 14 with two separate victims in Sonoma County in 1984, and served a prison term for those offenses. ?In 1994, Bagley was convicted of nine counts of the same violation involving three victims in Lake County. Bagley”s victims ranged in age from 8 to 12 years old. All his victims were male.
On April 27 during the sexually violent predator trial, prosecutors established that Bagley has 11 qualifying convictions, all violations of lewd and lascivious act with a child younger than 14, the District Attorney”s Office reported.
Testimony by two Department of Mental Health psychologists, Deborah Inman and Andrea Shelley, established that Bagley suffers from pedophilia, a deviant sexual interest in prepubescent children, Hinchcliff said. Both doctors testified that in their opinion, Bagley posed a significant threat to the community if released because of his pedophilia and his demonstrated history of recidivism.
The California Department of Mental Health All evaluates all people convicted of a sexual violence crime before their release on parole to determine if the inmate meets the criteria to be deemed a Sexually Violent Predator, the District Attorney”s Office reported.
To establish that a person is a sexually violent predator at trial, the prosecutor must show beyond a reasonable doubt that: the inmate has been convicted of committing sexually violent offenses against one or more victims; the inmate has a diagnosed mental disorder; as a result of that diagnosed mental disorder, the inmate is a danger to the health and safety of others because it is likely that he or she will engage in sexually violent predatory criminal behavior; and that is necessary to keep him or her in custody in a secure facility to ensure the health and safety of others.
