KANSAS
Kansas City Star
Associated Press
NEWTON, Kan. - When he admitted five years ago that he had molested altar boys in the 1980s, a former Catholic priest did so under an agreement that the state would not seek to keep him confined after he did his time in prison.
But now that 76-year-old Robert Larson is nearing release, Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline is moving ahead with an effort to keep him in state custody as a sexual predator after all.
Kline filed a petition Thursday in Harvey County District Court, asking that Larson be designated a sexual predator, which would enable the state to send him to Larned State Hospital for continued treatment and keep him there indefinitely.
Matt Treaster, who was the Harvey County prosecutor at the time, signed the plea agreement stating that Kansas would not seek Larson's continued confinement under the Violent Predator Act. But Kline maintains the power to make such agreements rests only with his office.