Lexington Sex Offender Denied Release

Despite the recommendations of the state, S.C. Circuit Court Judge R. Knox McMahon has denied a request that convicted sex offender Wade Hubbard of Lexington be released from a local mental health facility. 

The S.C. Department of Mental Health and the state Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services had recommended that Hubbard be released to the supervision of his father in Lexington — the same residence where Hubbard admittedly molested a seven-year-old child. 

The two agencies had signed off on Hubbard's structured release, pending court approval, based on an assessment by the Forensics Division of the G. Werber Bryan Psychiatric Hospital in Columbia.

According to the hospital's assessment, Hubbard would "benefit from a structured placement and recommended aftercare plan."

It also added there was "a reasonable degree of certainty that Mr. Wade Hubbard is no longer in need of inpatient hospitalization."

However, the report added, Hubbard still was in need of continued mental health treatment and follow-up care. 

A year ago, Hubbard had pleaded guilty, but mentally ill, in the molestation of a family member, and also pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity for the molestation of several others. Rather than prison, Hubbard had been ordered to a psychiatric facility for treatment instead. Hubbard suffers from bi-polar disorder and multiple sclerosis and suffers brain lesions in areas of his brain that control his impulses.

Among other things, victims' counsel argued that being assigned to the supervision of his father was improper, since one of the victims was allegedly molested during a supervised visit at his parents' home while they were there. 

Further, Rep. Rick Quinn (R-Lexington) noted in a Nov. 9 letter to SCDMH director John Magill that the home is also "very close to a school and a church with a daycare facility."

"Given the information I have received at this point, it is alarming to me that your agency would recommend this discharge," Quinn wrote Magill.

"Additionally, it is my understanding that no one has disputed the fact that Mr. Hubbard committed multiple molestations against children and senior citizens, which only heightens my concerns for the safety of our community."

The fact that Hubbard will remain in a mental institution, at least for the time being, has eased Quinn's mind, he told Patch. 

"I was pretty proud of the bench. It was obviously a very difficult case, but [the judge] ruled on the merits and the facts," said Quinn, who told Patch he took a deep interest in the case not only for his constituents, but mainly because he also happens to know one of the victims. 

Quinn said the episode has spurred him to look into ways to strengthen the state's system. Hubbard, he said, needs help, but the fact that he might have gotten released so soon after his crimes points to a failure on the part of the system to fully scrutinize such cases from all sides.

"By all accounts," Hubbard was a "nice guy" before his MS and mental illness "dramatically changed his behavior," Quinn said. 

"But I think a change ought to be that the prosecutor, or the attorney general's office or the victims ought to be able to make arguments to the [mental health] panel in an open forum" [before a recommendation of release], he said. "Right now, it's just kind of the panel making its own independent evaluation. That's when professionals become advocates for the patient, as opposed to doing what necessarily ought to be done."

"I'm sure some psychiatrist just felt sorry for the guy, but he totally forgot that this guy molested six people," Quinn said.