Former McHenry man once considered ‘sexually violent’ soon to be released from facility

A former McHenry man convicted of sexually abusing a 6-year-old child in 1993 and who has been held since 2002 in an Illinois Department of Human Services facility for people deemed to be “sexually violent” soon will be released.

Howard McGee Jr., 57, appeared on a video screen last week in the McHenry County courtroom of Judge Tiffany Davis where Davis appointed Assistant Public Defender Kim Messer to represent McGee during the hearing.

Assistant Attorney General Judy Shammo was in court representing the Illinois Attorney General’s office. Shammo said McGee recently was evaluated by two doctors who wrote reports that were “in agreement” that he no longer is considered a “sexually violent” person and is eligible for “conditional release.”

While on conditional release, Howard McGee will have housing provided and will be assigned a conditional release agent to supervise with conditions he must meet.

—  Drew Hill, deputy press secretary for the office of Attorney General Kwame Raoul

Shammo filed orders with the court agreeing with his conditional release and allowing a representative from IDHS to transport McGee to an Illinois Secretary of State facility to obtain an Illinois Identification card.

Davis entered both orders “without objection.” She said she found no “probable cause” for McGee to be held any longer as sexually violent.

The judge set Aug. 16 for the next date when a plan developed by Liberty Healthcare Corporation will be presented detailing how McGee would be managed when released from the IDHS’ Treatment and Detention Facility in Rushville.

The facility houses violent sexual offenders who have served prison time but the state determines are too violent to be released to the public.

On Oct. 19, 1993, a judge found McGee guilty but mentally ill when he sexually abused the McHenry girl after luring her away from her friends while they were riding bikes. He took her into a storage unit where he sexually abused her, according to court records and stories written in the Northwest Herald dated Oct. 20, 1993, and Sept. 3, 2003.

Doctors at the time diagnosed McGee as “mildly retarded,” according to the earlier stories.

The 2003 story was from coverage of a hearing debating whether McGee should be confined as a sexually violent person after he served half of his 18-year prison sentence.

At the time, McGee was the second man who state and local prosecutors had attempted to commit in McHenry County under the 1998 Illinois Sexually Violent Person’s Commitment Act.

At the 2003 hearing in a McHenry County courtroom his attorney argued McGee could be treated on an outpatient basis while prosecutors argued McGee, who was 37 at the time, should remain confined to protect children and to allow doctors to treat him.

Phil Reibda, a psychologist who examined McGee prior to the 2003 hearing, testified that McGee was “a pedophile with a high risk to offend again.”

Reibda said McGee was someone who had “a total lack of regard for conventional behavior.”

Prior to being convicted for abusing the 6-year-old McHenry girl, McGee had been charged four times prior “for sexual attacks on children,” Reibda said according to the story.

“He needs to be in a situation where he can’t escape treatment,” the doctor said.

Prior to abusing the 6-year-old McHenry girl, McGee in 1982, at the age of 16, was on a bus where he touched a younger girl inappropriately. He fondled a 9-year-old girl in a public swimming pool in 1983 at age 17; in 1989, when he was 23, he assaulted a 9-year-old girl, according to court documents.

McGee sexually assaulted the 6-year-old McHenry girl while out on parole for the 1989 assault, according to the story.

At the 2003 hearing, Reibda said McGee tried to minimize or deny each incident when confronted about them. He said treatment while in prison did not work and he did not believe McGee would cooperate with outpatient treatment at that time.

Drew Hill, deputy press secretary for the office of Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in an email Friday that McGee was granted conditional release at this time “after both an IDHS evaluator and a state-retained evaluator determined he had made sufficient progress in treatment to be safely managed on conditional release.”

“While on conditional release, Howard McGee will have housing provided and will be assigned a conditional release agent to supervise with conditions he must meet,” Hill said.