BISBEE — A convicted child molester who is appealing a court ruling that determined he was a sexually violent person in need of mental health care to stop recidivism could end up costing Cochise County a large sum in psychiatric fees.

Steven C. Jasper, who is from Sierra Vista, has numerous convictions for child molestation across three states including Arizona. He has appealed a July ruling and has requested a jury trial to determine if he is a sexually violent person and needs to be committed.

According to the case file, Jasper was convicted in 2001 of sexually molesting a 7-year-old and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. At the time, Jasper claimed he did nothing wrong and denied he had committed the offense or any of the past five offenses that led to convictions in Iowa and in California. He claimed he did not remember committing the offenses or to serving jail time. He has faced charges that include battery, theft, grand larceny, possession of drugs, vandalism and malicious mischief.

Jasper was found to be a sexually violent person during a bench trial by Superior Court Judge Wallace Hoggatt and was ordered to be detained within the Arizona State Hospital system based in part by the testimony of Sergio Martinez, a Department of Corrections contracted licensed forensic psychologist. The doctor’s opinion was based on Jasper’s history, lack of remorse and the use of a rating system for such criminals.

Jasper appealed the ruling on the grounds he did not receive notice of the hearing so he could not attend. His attorney was notified of the pending trial.

“Under Arizona state law, sexual offenders may be committed if found to be mentally ill. But, one must prove that beyond a reasonable doubt. If the jury finds him to be a sexually violent person, he will be committed to state care and remain there until such time as a determination can be made that they are no longer mentally ill or likely to re-offend,” said Britt Hanson, chief deputy county attorney in a phone interview last week.

Jasper’s attorney, who is funded through the depleted indigent defense budget, hired an expert psychiatrist from Phoenix who charges $250 per hour and $150 per hour, plus expenses for travel. Dr. Richard Samuels could be paid up to $8,000 for his services — the dollar figure approved by Superior Court Judge James Conlogue. Samuels is close to that limit and will probably be an expert witness at Jasper’s jury trial again at taxpayers’ expense. 

To prevent reaching for the red pen as the county attorney’s budget is balanced due to these new expenses for expert witness in the field of mental health, Hanson asked for guidance from the county Board of Supervisors.

Hanson recently met with the supervisors to get approval on a $10,000 possible expenditure for the prosecution’s expert psychiatric witnesses for the Jasper case and one other, but was looking to fund it out of county contingency fund monies. The Herald/Review was unable to review the second case linked to the expenditure.

Supervisors Richard Searle and Pat Call were reluctant to approve any expenditure that would come out of the county’s contingency fund, which has already been raided to meet budgetary needs. They preferred that Hanson use the criminal justice enhancement funds or other department budget lines to pay for the experts.

The County Attorney’s Office had two kind of funds in the past that have been drawn from for special things — Criminal Justice Enhancement fund and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, fund. Criminal justice enhancement funds also are used for salaries and other functions of the County Attorney’s Office. Hanson said it was important that the those funds not be depleted in case there was an emergency.

Criminal justice enhancement funds were recently used in the Nicholas Corbett trial prosecuted by an outside attorney, former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods. Though the County Attorney’s Office had built up a considerable sum in criminal justice enhancement funds over the years, Woods and all the prosecution’s experts and witnesses reduced the bottom line. Hanson did not know how much remained in the fund.

“We might have the money in the CJE fund, but I suspect we have drawn it down quite a bit,” he said. “We have salaries that are paid out of that. We don’t know if revenues from that fund are going to be as high as anticipated. We could wind up being fairly low on it. Is there money in there to take out now? Yes. Will that mean we have to come back to the board later to replenish it? Yes.”

Hanson emphasized that the County Attorney’s Office has not budgeted for expert witnesses in previous budget cycles.

The three supervisors agreed to allow the expenditure of $10,000 for psychiatric witnesses but stipulated the sum be paid for with the enhancement fund or other department sources. If funding problems arise, they agreed to another meeting to determine alternate funding through the county contingency fund.