Iowa determines convicted child molester who raped 14 kids and a 1 year old is no longer a threat due to sex change

The Iowa attorney general’s office is releasing a man convicted of multiple sex crimes, rather than committing him to a mental institution indefinitely as recommended by the state’s expert, because the man has undergone hormone therapy as part of a gender transition process.

Former Midwest Christian Services student Joseph Matthew Smith, 23, was convicted of molesting a fellow student in 2014 and is accused of molesting as many as 15 victims from ages one to 13, including the repeated molestation of a 7-year-old. Smith was molested repeatedly as a child around age seven as well.

Smith was sentenced to prison in 2015 and expressed a desire to begin the gender transition process in 2017, undergoing hormone therapy over the past two years at Newton Correctional Facility.

The attorney general’s office on January 9 dismissed the application to commit Smith, who now goes by the name Josie and was transferred this month to the Sioux City Residential Treatment Facility in anticipation of an eventual release.

“An offender’s hormone levels are an important part of substantiating an offender’s likelihood of recidivism,” a spokesman for the attorney general said. “We don’t believe we have evidence sufficient to prove Josie Smith has a significant chance of re-offending.”

Smith will still be registered as a sex offender, which requires that he continue to meet with a probation officer.

“Josie Smith will be subject to...

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