SPRINGFIELD — A convicted sex offender has been committed for treatment following a Coles County jury’s verdict, Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced Wednesday.
A jury found Kenneth A. Lewis, 59, to be a sexually violent person under the state’s Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act. Lewis was then ordered by Coles County Circuit Court Judge James Glenn to be remanded to the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services.
To be committed under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act, a person must have been convicted of a sexually violent offense, suffer from a mental disorder and be proven by prosecutors likely to recommit acts of sexual violence if released from custody.
“I appreciate the jury’s work to find this offender to be a sexually violent person,” Raoul said in a news release. “His criminal record shows a disturbing pattern of harming children, and now this verdict prevents him from being able to harm any more innocent children.”
He had been sentenced to a total of 20 consecutive years in prison following a 2004 conviction for predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and a 2005 conviction for aggravated criminal sexual abuse in Coles County.
In 2001, Lewis was found guilty of rape in the state of Washington and was sentenced to two months in jail.
Lewis had been awaiting this trial at the IDHS Rushville Sexually Violent Person Treatment and Detention Facility in Rushville after being transferred to the facility from the Illinois Department of Corrections in 2020.
Offenders committed to IDHS custody under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act are regularly re-evaluated to determine if they still meet the criteria for commitment as a sexually violent persons.
Read the coverage: Spotlight on sex offenses in Central Illinois
The Journal Gazette-Times Courier this week began an ongoing project to shine a spotlight on sex offenses, including the history and effectiveness of public sex offender registries and the impact of COVID-19 on sex offenses in our communities.
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Contact Taylor Vidmar at (217) 421-6949. Follow her on Twitter: @taylorvidmar11.