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A Southern California child molestation request to be released from the state’s mental hospital and return to the community was rejected by the ju judge.
Sid Landau, 85, is a twice-contested child molestation who sexually abused at least 20 young boys in the 1960s and 1980s, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
All victims were between 8 and 12 years old and usually had blonde hair.
Landau met the victim while volunteering as a scorekeeper at children’s basketball games, public parks and construction company offices, court documents say.
He often targeted children from broken homes. In one incident, he preys on a boy whose father is dying from cancer.
“He groomed the victims by giving gifts and gaining trust to manipulate their parents and abuse the boy,” the prosecutor said.
In 1982, Landau was found guilty of abusing a 10-year-old boy. He was sentenced to three years in prison and was deemed a “sex offender with a mental disorder” before being transferred to a state hospital.
In 1984 he was released from prison. Four years later, in 1988, he was convicted of 18 counts of indecent conduct with a 9-year-old boy and sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Seven years later, in 1996, he was released on parole. He violated three parole sessions between 1996 and 2000, and committed crimes that included assault and battery, tampering with GPS surveillance devices and unauthorized contact with a child, the DA’s office said.
Landau was the first person to be subject to Megan’s law in California to require the release of public information related to sex offenders.
Sid Nathaniel Landau can be seen in undated booking photos. (KTLA)
In 2000, the DA’s office petitioned to classify Landau as a predator of sexual violence that it affirmed in 2006 after two previous hanging ju apprentices. Landau was committed indefinitely.
Although locked up in a state hospital, he refused treatment, repeatedly violated rules of conduct, and ignored the facility’s policies.
In 2013 he petitioned for unconditional release from a mental hospital, but was denied by the ju judge.
In 2025 he again petitioned for release, and after an hour of deliberation on April 9, the ju judge determined that Landau was still recognized as a sexually violent predator and was not suitable for release.
OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer said: “Twenty little boys destroyed their lives by this merciless monster before they grew up. We will absolutely do what we can to prevent this child’s molestation from preying another child.
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