Hollister – District Attorney Candice Hooper petitioned Wednesday to recommit Lance Purcell, San Benito County’s only convicted sexually violent predator, to a state hospital indefinitely.
Purcell, 60, is eligible for release from commitment to a state hospital every two years after being convicted in 1994 for attempting to kidnap a 5-year-old girl from in front of her home on Sunnyslope Road. Purcell is scheduled to be released Dec. 19, said his attorney, George Barton.
But because California voters passed Jessica’s Law in November 2006, Purcell could be committed indefinitely.
Hooper will ask that Purcell be recommitted indefinitely. His case will most likely be heard by a jury, Hooper said.
Barton said Purcell is no longer a threat to society and that the state’s committal of his client to a state hospital is “based on old history.”
