4-26-17 Illinois:INA — A Galesburg man who couldn’t meet the conditions of his release died in prison last week.
Vernon Beam, who had been suffering from cancer in recent months, died at 64 within the Illinois Department of Corrections late last week. His case was featured in a Feb. 7, 2016, Register-Mail story.
He had been ordered to be released from IDOC custody in May 2013 after then-Circuit Judge James Stewart found that he was no longer a sexually dangerous person. But Beam, a sex offender, couldn’t meet the conditions of his release and was stuck in prison until his death.
Beam was arrested in late October 1991 and charged with five offenses after he allegedly lured three boys, all under the age of 13, to a Galesburg motel, rented a VCR and showed them X-rated movies.
His charges were child abduction, providing harmful material to children and three counts of aggravated kidnapping. Beam remained in custody from the time of his arrest to his death.
After Beam rejected a 12-year plea deal, the Knox County State’s Attorney’s office changed direction. Rather than trying to convict Beam of those charges, then-State’s Attorney Ray Kimball pushed to classify Beam to be a sexually dangerous person, according to Register-Mail archives.
Two juries found Beam to be a sexually dangerous person and he was civilly confined to the state prison. His felony case never proceeded after he was indicted by a Knox County grand jury on all five counts.
A person suffering from a mental disorder for at least a year and who has shown a criminal propensity to commit sex offenses against children is eligible to be designated a sexually dangerous person.
Beam had two prior sex-related offenses involving minors in Henry County in the 1980s. Register-Mail archives said Beam was diagnosed as a pedophile with a mild learning disability and antisocial personality disorder before his confinement.
Court documents listed other disorders, such as organic brain syndrome due to serious head injuries and alcohol dependency.
Beam, in a letter seeking answers about his conditional release in 2013, wrote to Judge Stewart, “I really don’t want to be stuck here forever.”
Knox County Chief Public Defender David Hansen declined comment on Beam’s death.
“I really don’t want to spend the rest of my life here,” Beam wrote. ..Source.. by Robert Connelly
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