An Orange County jury Tuesday found that serial sex offender Sid Landau is a sexually violent predator who should remain confined in a state mental hospital.
Jurors deliberated for about an hour before reaching the verdict in the case of the 85-year-old sex offender. Orange County Superior Court Robert Knox ordered Landau to return to the state hospital in Coalinga indefinitely for treatment.
Landau, a former Anaheim resident, has a criminal record dating back to 1982, when he was first convicted of child molestation. He has been repeatedly released from custody over the years, only to reoffend, according to prosecutors.
Landau’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Mark Kim, argued Tuesday that his client should be released as multiple evaluators found he had met requirements for it under the law.
“Mr. Landau has come to understand how his pedophilic disorder has come to be,” Kim said, adding it was due to an “abusive” father.
Landau has “had trouble relating to adults,” and found it “easier to relate” to children, Kim said.
In Landau’s words, he realizes the public views him as a “horrible child molester and people hate me,” Kim said.
Landau also “understands children can’t consent” to sex, Kim said.
“He realizes it was wrong,” Kim added. “He knows he can’t be around children. He knows it will cause him problems.”
Landau “has a plan to be with his brother” and other family in New York and go to synagogue and join a senior center, Kim said.
At Landau’s age and considering his health, “he does not have the ability to groom children the way he did when he was in his 20s, 30s, or 40s,” Kim said. “He’s almost 86 years old.”
Landau also lacks the “financial means” from his one-time construction business to build a “paradise for kids” to attract victims, Kim said.
“He’s using a wheelchair,” Kim said. “He’s hunched over. And he’s wearing a diaper.”
Kim also argued that people are far more “vigilant” when it comes to protecting children from predators these days. Kim recalled in 1996 how the media “hounded” him when he was released from custody.
“I remember that… the continuing saga of Mr. Landau on the news,” Kim said. “I saw Mr. Landau’s hand over the lens (of a news camera).”
Kim challenged the “inconsistent” testimony of some of Landau’s victims, and also disputed a claim from prosecutors that Landau has 20 victims. Kim said it was nine victims.
The jury could also have opted to grant him conditional release or let him go altogether.
“He needs to stay in a hospital to ensure the safety of others,” Deputy District Attorney Jeremy Hudson argued Monday.
Nearly all of the psychiatric experts who testified in the trial agreed that Landau has pedophilic disorder, Hudson said.
“His brain is wired to see children as targets,” Hudson said. “He seems them as sex objects, as targets to manipulate.”
Landau has “molested kids for decades,” Hudson said.
“He built his house to lure children,” Hudson said of Landau’s home in Anaheim near Disneyland, which he stocked with pinball machines, an air hockey table, a pool, candy and a large television.
Prosecutors have said in the past that Landau also plied the boys with drugs and alcohol.
One of Landau’s victims described it as a “kids paradise,” Hudson said.
Hudson argued that Landau has as many as 20 victims. He preferred “hairless children… That’s why he has so may victims because they would get too old for him,” Hudson said.
Landau also focused on “vulnerable children,” whose parents were splitting up, Hudson said.
“Landau is a master manipulator,” Hudson argued.
One of his victims said Landau “gets you caught in his web… He makes you think he cares about you,” Hudson said.
At the home in Anaheim he would lead “group sex” with the boys, Hudson said.
Landau would also take pictures of the boys unclothed “so he could have a keepsake,” Hudson said. “So he could victimize them over and over again.”
One boy was molested “hundreds of times,” starting when he was 10, Hudson said.
Landau was first convicted in 1982 and released from custody two years later.
“What happened when he was released was he kept molesting children,” Hudson said.
In 1988, Landau was convicted of 18 counts of child molestation, including one boy who was 9 as his father was dying of cancer, Hudson said.
Landau was released again in 1998, and he violated terms of parole by tampering with his GPS device, Hudson said. He was also caught in possession of child pornography, Hudson said.
Landau has put his heart issues behind him and “religiously exercises” at the state hospital where he resides, Hudson said. He uses his wheelchair as a sort of walker, the prosecutor added.
“He’s much more mobile than others his age,” Hudson argued.
While at Coalinga, Landau tracked down the personal phone number of one of his evaluators, Hudson said.
“He said it’s not a private number if I can find it,” Hudson said.
When it was suggested the evaluator might be frightened by a call at home, “He laughed. He still lacks empathy,” Hudson said.
Seven months later, Landau called another hospital staffer on a personal phone, Hudson said. He told a family member who answered that he knew how many children he had, Hudson said.
In 2022, Landau got into a fight at the hospital, Hudson added.
“He was still able to chase a guy down and beat him up,” Hudson said. “It took three staff members to hold him back. He was 83 years old at this time. Is this the kind of person ready for conditional release, let alone out on his own?”
Landau was caught at one point with thumb drives and SD cards, and has computer skills, Hudson argued.
“Imagine how he can contact children in this day and age,” Hudson said. “Don’t think GPS is going to make him safe. He will find a way. Nothing has stopped him before. He has re-offended every time he has gotten out.”