Bloomington sex suspect battles extradition from U.K.

LONDON - Minnesota's tough stance on civilly committing sex offenders was on trial in one of Britain's highest courtrooms Tuesday at a hearing to decide whether Shawn Sullivan, accused of pedophilia, should be extradited back to the United States.

Sullivan, charged with raping a 14-year-old girl in Bloomington in 1994 and sexually molesting two cousins in Eagan in 1993, argued he could be locked up for life with no likelihood of release if British courts force him to return to the United States.

"Minnesota commits greater numbers of sex offenders per capita of state population than any other state in the union," said Ben Brandon, Sullivan's defense attorney, during a daylong hearing at London's High Court of Justice.

He also noted the Minnesota Sex Offender Program, created in 1994 to hold and treat dangerous offenders who had completed their prison sentences, has become a virtual life sentence for offenders. Last month, the first patient in more than a decade was discharged from the program.

One of two judges deciding the case, Lord Justice Alan Moses, questioned Minnesota's sex offender program. "It's horrific," he said. "Here we have on paper a system for people who need treatment but none of it ever works. It sounds more to me like people saying 'Let's not let them out.'"

Brandon argued that even if Sullivan, 43, were acquitted of charges in Minnesota, there was still a chance he would be detained under the sex offender program if declared "sexually dangerous." Describing the system as punitive, he said it was meant to offer treatment and rehabilitation but in reality was about "locking people up" from society.

"Mr. Sullivan says he will return to face a trial in Minnesota but is concerned about the prospect that, acquitted or convicted, he will be incarcerated for the rest of his natural life, which is obviously a clear and flagrant breach of his human rights" under the European Convention on Human Rights, Brandon said.

The court is being asked to block a decision in February last year by United Kingdom Home Secretary Theresa May to order his extradition to the United States. Sullivan's legal team was also seeking to overturn a lower court decision in December 2010 that there was no legal reason why extradition should not go ahead.

The three women Sullivan is accused of sexually abusing when they were girls nearly two decades ago filed suit against him in Hennepin County District Court early this year.

In an answer to the lawsuit, Minneapolis attorney Keith Johnson wrote in court papers that Sullivan denies all the claims of sexual assault. The document also argues that it's too late for the lawsuit to be filed.

The women's lawyer, Michael Hall III, said Tuesday that it's unfair for Sullivan to rely on the laws of another country.

"When he committed the crime that he committed, he was subject to these laws. It doesn't matter where he is now," Hall argued.

Married twice

Sullivan left the United States after he was questioned in early 1994 about molesting the cousins. He settled in Ireland, where he married and obtained an Irish passport, gaining dual citizenship, changing his name to the Gaelic version Seaghan Eoin O'Suilleabhain. In 1997 he was convicted of two indecent assaults on two 12-year-old girls in Ireland, for which he received a suspended prison sentence of five years.

It is thought he then moved to continental Europe, where he lived in various countries before entering the United Kingdom, where he was arrested in London in June 2010 after being placed on Interpol's "most wanted" list.

In November 2010 he married Sarah Smith while on remand in Wandsworth Prison in London. Two prison officers signed the marriage certificate which listed Sullivan's job as an international property consultant. A month later he was released on bail but ordered to wear an electronic tag and observe a curfew.

On Tuesday, Smith, who works as a policy manager in the country's Ministry of Justice, accompanied her husband to court. Sullivan sat impassively on the public benches referring to case files at different stages of the hearing, which has been delayed for months. During breaks, he could be seen pulling a suitcase outside the courtroom.

Counsel for the U.S. government, Aaron Watkins, said U.S. authorities were unable to give any assurances that Sullivan would not be committed indefinitely to the sex offender program.

"The purpose of this extradition is to get Mr Sullivan back to the U.S. to face trial, where we think he presents a risk to society because he is unable to control his sexual urges."

He added: "We cannot say what the situation will be after any prison sentence so we cannot give any assurances."

However, he told the court he was prepared to revisit the civil commitment issue with Minnesota authorities if it proved an obstacle to Sullivan returning to the United States.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Tuesday that officials in the United States won't traditionally make a blanket agreement to never potentially commit someone.

"We just don't tie our hands that way, and I don't think we feel that our present commitment law is violative of the European convention," Freeman said. "We don't have any present plans to commit him."

William Mitchell College of Law Dean Eric Janus, an expert on the legal issues surrounding sex offender release, said he consulted with Sullivan's legal representation in London.

If Sullivan were convicted in the local cases, he said, "I think there's a very real possibility that he would be subjected to commitment."

And even if Sullivan were not convicted, he said, the possibility of civil commitment exists because the burden of proof is less in such proceedings.

"The odds may go down, but they don't become zero," Janus said. "It would depend on why he wasn't convicted, I would think."

Under the law, he said, there is no requirement of a prior conviction to be committed.

The judges are expected to rule in the coming weeks.

Star Tribune staff writer Pam Louwagie contributed to this report. Ian Evans is a freelance journalist based in London.