Offender to serve remainder of term

A convicted sex offender released on probation in 2004 is headed to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence after the Idaho Supreme Court ruled last week that the judge who freed him no longer had jurisdiction over the case.

Kim Brent Taylor, 50, Hayden Lake, was sentenced in October 2003 to serve 13 years in prison for the crime of sexual battery of a 16-year-old girl, but First District Judge John Mitchell opted to retain jurisdiction for a period of 180 days. Taylor was sent to the Idaho Department of Corrections boot camp in Cottonwood, Idaho.

Just a few days before the 180-day period of retained jurisdiction was set to expire, Mitchell held a hearing to evaluate Taylor’s progress at Cottonwood and determine whether Taylor would be placed on probation or would go to the state’s main prison to serve his sentence.

According to court records, Mitchell ordered a psychosexual evaluation of Taylor and continued the hearing until after the evaluation was complete. The hearing was continued to April 22, 2004 – nearly a month past the expiration of retained jurisdiction.

A week after the expiration date, Kootenai County deputy prosecuting attorney Lansing Haynes filed a motion to transfer Taylor to the state penitentiary, saying that Mitchell no longer had jurisdiction over the matter. The motion was denied by the district court, and Mitchell went on to suspend Taylor’s sentence and place him on probation for seven years.

The state appealed Mitchell’s ruling.

On Friday, the Idaho Supreme Court unanimously agreed with the state and ordered that Taylor go to prison to serve his sentence. The Idaho Department of Corrections said Tuesday that their records still showed Taylor as being on probation.

Haynes declined to comment on Tuesday but said it’s up to the court to determine when and how Taylor returns to the state’s custody.

According to the Supreme Court opinion, written by Justice Daniel T. Eismann, the law only allows a court to retain jurisdiction for 180 days. In 2005, the law was amended to allow a 30-day extension in certain circumstances, but Eismann said that exception wouldn’t have applied at the time Mitchell granted probation to Taylor.