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Hyde Park Rapist Case Reveals Past Misfires Of Legal System

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 31, 2008

The Hyde Park rapist is free and living in a Melbourne apartment. An outrage? You bet.

But the case of Bobby Joe Helms, who terrorized the South Tampa neighborhood in the 1980s, also underscores how far the state has come in shoring up the criminal justice system since then.

If not for state reforms and vigilant prosecutors, Helms might have been released without any restrictions. At least now he is under strict supervision.

A serial rapist convicted today would probably spend the rest of his life in prison. But the laws were much flimsier when Helms was convicted of two sexual battery cases, one in Hillsborough and one in Pinellas.

He was sentenced to only 10 years for the Hillsborough battery.

Hillsborough prosecutors in 1986 said they were forced to go with the light sentence because of a lack of physical evidence. As part of the agreement, Helms confessed to 12 rapes and a number of other attacks, helping police clear cases that had occurred over three years.

Many victims were never consulted about the agreement. Such neglect could not happen now, says Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober, who wasn't in office then, because of state victim-rights laws that were subsequently adopted.

Moreover, Pinellas convictions were to add another 17 years, to be served consecutive to Helms' Hillsborough term.

But Helms served only 13 years in prison, thanks to the state's absurd policy of awarding prisoners gain time for good behavior. This was done to avoid prison overcrowding but allowed violent offenders to serve only a fraction of their sentences. The result? A crime epidemic.

Lawmakers finally reacted in the 1990s. They funded the construction of more prisons, adopted tough sentencing guidelines and required offenders to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.

These reforms came too late to apply to Helms. Another reform, however, did give prosecutors a way to keep Helms under control after he was released from prison in 1999.

The Jimmy Ryce Act, which the Legislature enacted in 1999, allows a civil court jury to confine sex offenders to a state treatment center indefinitely after they have served their prison sentences. An offender can be released only with the approval of the court, which considers the testimony of psychiatrists.

Even then prosecutors can remain involved by negotiating a contract with the offender that stipulates the conditions of release. Hillsborough's prosecutors, fortunately, got Helms under the Ryce Act jurisdiction. After nearly eight years at the Florida Civil Commitment Center in Arcadia, where Helms underwent sex-offender treatment, psychiatrists deemed him no threat.

Housing arrangements in Pinellas and Melbourne fell through - neighbors understandably didn't want a serial rapist nearby - but last week another apartment was found for Helms in Melbourne.

But Helms is not free to do as he pleases. He must follow the requirements of the civil contract with Hillsborough prosecutors, which includes continued visits with an approved therapist. He also must attend meetings for drugs or alcohol abusers at least twice a week, remain at home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. seven days a week and take regular polygraph examinations.

Helms, it should be noted, has cooperated with prosecutors. He says he wanted to live in Melbourne because he has family there but also because he doesn't want his victims worrying about him living in the same community.

Perhaps Helms, 50, has been rehabilitated. That shouldn't matter. Some crimes are so heinous that offenders should spend the rest of their days behind bars. That's where the Hyde Park rapist should be.

His favorite method was to break into homes while the occupants were sleeping. In one incident in 1983, a Hyde Park woman woke up with a towel over her face and a knife at her throat. Helms raped her for two hours, then for several more years taunted her with obscene messages.

Such terror is impossible to forget, but it also is impossible to undo the flaws of past laws.

What's important now is that prosecutors continue to do everything legally possible to keep Helms, as Ober aptly puts it, "under our thumb."

Given the legal hand they've been dealt, they've done a good job of that so far.

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