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MARYSVILLE — A former Grass Valley man who said he would not have been convicted of child molestation if his trial had been held in San Francisco rather than Yuba County has lost his legal challenge contending that the state Sexually Violent Predator law was misapplied to him.
“If we were in San Francisco, I would have probably walked,” Thomas Daniel Hovanski, 46, told a psychologist about his trial in Marysville. “I'm not saying the jury is stupid, but it would have been different.”
Hovanski was sentenced to 16 years in prison after his Yuba County Superior Court conviction in 1995 for molesting a girl. Hovanski, who was born in Grass Valley, had lived in Marysville and Yuba City.
He had argued that the child's mother, who was from Europe, had different morals that led the woman to encourage him to shower and bathe with her daughters.
“It blew my mind,” Hovanski said.
San Francisco jurors, he said, would have understood that.
“They know more about Europe there,” Hovanski said, according to a psychologist's 2006 report that is among Yuba County Superior Court documents.
The woman disputed Hovanski's account of her actions. Her daughter had said at Hovanski's sentencing that, “I am very scared he will come back and try to kill my mom and that he will try to hurt me.”
Hovanski was first paroled in 2002 but had to return to prison three years ago for violating his parole. A woman said Hovanski pushed her down on to a sofa during an argument in a trailer, according to court documents.
Two psychologists who Hovanski while he was in prison determined he met the criteria for a sexually violent predator, and the Yuba County District Attorney filed a petition in 2007 to commit him under that classification.
Hovanski contended his continued confinement was a retroactive increase in his prison sentence and unconstitutional.
But the state appellate court concluded a sexually violent predator evaluation is permitted in his circumstances. The predator law is aimed at protecting society from that “small but extremely dangerous group of sexually violent predators,” the state court said.
“If we were in San Francisco, I would have probably walked,” Thomas Daniel Hovanski, 46, told a psychologist about his trial in Marysville. “I'm not saying the jury is stupid, but it would have been different.”
Hovanski was sentenced to 16 years in prison after his Yuba County Superior Court conviction in 1995 for molesting a girl. Hovanski, who was born in Grass Valley, had lived in Marysville and Yuba City.
He had argued that the child's mother, who was from Europe, had different morals that led the woman to encourage him to shower and bathe with her daughters.
“It blew my mind,” Hovanski said.
San Francisco jurors, he said, would have understood that.
“They know more about Europe there,” Hovanski said, according to a psychologist's 2006 report that is among Yuba County Superior Court documents.
The woman disputed Hovanski's account of her actions. Her daughter had said at Hovanski's sentencing that, “I am very scared he will come back and try to kill my mom and that he will try to hurt me.”
Hovanski was first paroled in 2002 but had to return to prison three years ago for violating his parole. A woman said Hovanski pushed her down on to a sofa during an argument in a trailer, according to court documents.
Two psychologists who Hovanski while he was in prison determined he met the criteria for a sexually violent predator, and the Yuba County District Attorney filed a petition in 2007 to commit him under that classification.
Hovanski contended his continued confinement was a retroactive increase in his prison sentence and unconstitutional.
But the state appellate court concluded a sexually violent predator evaluation is permitted in his circumstances. The predator law is aimed at protecting society from that “small but extremely dangerous group of sexually violent predators,” the state court said.
Ryan McCarthy is a reporter for the Marysville Appeal-Democrat. He can be reached at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com.
