The Associated Press – SANTA ANA, Calif.—A convicted pedophile who became the public face of Megan’s Law in the 1990s was denied his bid for release from a state mental facility on Thursday.An Orange County Superior Court jury determined Sid Landau, 69, was still a threat to society and should remain hospitalized in state custody, where he has been held for eight years.

Two previous juries deadlocked on whether Landau should be released.

Dressed in a blue-and-white checkered shirt, the gray-haired Landau looked down at the table, sighed and whispered to his lawyer, “I’m going to die in jail,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

Prosecutors pursued a petition under the state’s sexually violent predator statute, which allows offenders deemed a continual threat to remain hospitalized in state custody after their prison sentences are completed.

Landau claimed he is not a threat because of his age and poor health, including prostate cancer and heart surgery. But prosecutors argued he is incurable.

Landau was convicted of molesting two boys in the 1980s but has admitted to abusing 10. He served a combined 10 years in prison on those convictions.

He became one of Southern California’s most recognizable pedophiles in the 1990s when police, who were enforcing Megan’s Law for the first time, distributed fliers in his Placentia neighborhood identifying him as a convicted sex offender.

He was chased from a series of homes and motels by death threats and protesters until he was arrested on parole violations in 1997.

He was transferred to a state mental hospital in 2000 following his second probation violation.

Megan’s Law was enacted in 1996 and allows police to publicize the whereabouts of sex offenders.

Greene County Circuit Court Judge Tom Mountjoy sentenced Kansas City lawyer Carlos D. Romious to 120 days in jail last week because of Romious’ “rude and angry” demeanor toward the judge.

It’s unclear from court records what ultimately led Mountjoy to incarcerate Romious, but the judgment of contempt Mountjoy filed on July 24 outlines past outbursts by Romious in the judge’s courtroom.

Romious was representing Alton L. Vaughn, of St. Charles, in a jury trial for allegedly defrauding eight people from December 2003 to May 2005.

The judgment states that on July 16, Romious “loudly and rudely” asked Mountjoy “if the ‘proceeding was a joke’ and stated to the Court ‘you’re going to sit your ass up there.”‘

Romious also accused Mountjoy of “corrupting and stinking up the case” and “corrupting this system.” The next day, when Mountjoy ordered the attorney to appear in court at 8 a.m. on June 18, Romious said “don’t hold your breath,” the document states.
When Romious did show up on June 18, he at one point asked the judge, “Are you a pedophile?”

The judgment also references an instance where Romious wadded up papers and smashed them with his shoe after taking the documents from his opposing counsel.

Vaughn’s trial was scheduled to start on June 19, but Romious did not show up to court. Court records indicate Romious was scheduled to appear as a defendant in a Kansas federal court that day on a charge of assaulting a court security officer.

That charge stemmed from a May incident in which Romious allegedly assaulted a court security officer after he refused to pass through a metal detector in a courthouse in Kansas City, Kan.