Attorney General's News Release

February 23, 2009

Jury commits Sikeston man as sexually violent predator

Sikeston, Mo. - A Scott County jury on Feb. 18 found Bobby G. Ballard of Sikeston to be a sexually violent predator (SVP) and committed him to the Missouri Sexual Offender Treatment Center in Farmington, Attorney General Chris Koster announced. Associate Circuit Judge W.H. Winchester III signed the judgment and commitment order.

The Attorney General's Office sought to have Ballard, 25, committed as an SVP after he completed a five-year prison sentence. He pleaded guilty in Scott County in 2001 to two counts of deviate sexual misconduct with a nine-year-old boy.

"These sexually violent predator commitments serve the dual purpose of protecting our citizens, and treating the offender in order to prevent similar sexually violent behavior in the future," Koster said.

Those committed by the court as sexually violent predators go into the custody of the Missouri Department of Mental Health. They have the right to have their cases reviewed to determine if their mental abnormality has changed so that they are not likely to commit further acts of sexual violence if released.

Currently, there are 121 sexually violent predators committed in Missouri. These commitments are handled by the Public Safety Division in Koster's office. Missouri's SVP law took effect in 1999.