The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled a man who suffers from a brain disorder that makes him “act out” sexually should stay in a state facility for sexual predators. Before July of 2000, Anthony Betsworth lived a pretty normal life. He had a wife, a daughter, a job, but then everything changed. He began sleeping for days at a time and eating compulsively and excessively. His sex drive changed, too, and he began exposing himself in public.
Betsworth was declared “seriously mentally impaired” in August of 2000, and he was put in a treatment program for the mentally ill. Over the next few years he engaged in sexually aggressive behavior with staff and even fellow patients and was convicted of assault three different times.
In August of 2004 a jury ruled that Betsworth was a sexually violent predator and he was committed indefinitely to a state facility. He appealed, arguing a person who suffers from a brain abnormality like his can’t be “treated” and made well, so he shouldn’t be sentenced to a treatment program.
The Iowa Supreme Court’s justices disagree, called one of his legal arguments “illogical and absurd,” and said his confinement as a sexually violent predator is appropriate even if treatment will not cure him.
