A Southern California child molester’s request to be released from a state mental hospital and back into the community was denied by a jury.
Sid Landau, 85, is a twice-convicted child molester who sexually abused at least 20 young boys from the 1960s to 1980s, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The victims were all between 8 and 12 years old and usually had blonde hair.
Landau met his victims while volunteering as a scorekeeper at children’s basketball games, at public parks and at job sites for his construction company, court documents said.
He often targeted children who were from broken homes. In one incident, he preyed on a boy whose father was dying from cancer.
“He groomed his victims by giving them gifts and manipulating their parents to gain trust in order to molest the boys,” prosecutors said.
In 1982, Landau was convicted of molesting a 10-year-old boy. He was sentenced to three years in prison and was deemed a “mentally disordered sex offender” before being transferred to a state hospital.
In 1984, he was released from prison. Four years later in 1988, he was convicted on 18 counts of lewd acts with a 9-year-old boy and sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Seven years later in 1996, he was paroled. He violated parole three times between 1996 and 2000 and committed crimes including assault and battery, tampering with his GPS monitoring device, and having unauthorized contact with children, the DA’s office said.
Landau was the first person to be subject to California’s Megan’s Law which requires the release of public information related to sex offenders.
In 2000, the DA’s office petitioned to classify Landau as a sexually violent predator which a jury affirmed in 2006 after two prior hung juries. Landau was committed indefinitely.
While confined to a state hospital, he refused treatment, repeatedly violated behavioral rules and ignored facility policies.
In 2013, he petitioned for unconditional release from the mental hospital but was denied by a jury.
In 2025, he petitioned for release again and on April 9, after deliberating for one hour, the jury determined Landau still qualified as a sexually violent predator and was unfit for release.
“We have been fighting for decades to keep this sadistic predator behind bars because of the incredible danger he poses to children everywhere if he were to be released,” said O.C. District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “Twenty little boys had their entire lives destroyed by this merciless monster before they even had a chance to grow up. We will do absolutely everything we can do to prevent one more child from being preyed on by this child molester, and that means making sure he never sets a foot outside of a state mental hospital until the day he dies.”
