Convicted Hillside sex offender deemed ‘sexually violent’ by jury

A convicted sex offender from west suburban Hillside has been deemed a “sexually violent person” by a judge and will be committed to the Illinois Department of Human Services.

Lawrence Schauer, 63, has been ruled sexually violent and must remain in the custody of IDHS for treatment following a one-day trial in front DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Paul M. Fullerton, according to a statement from the Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.

“This offender has an alarming record of assaulting women,” Madigan said in the statement. “I commend the judge on his ruling that will not allow this offender to return to a community where he could sexually assault another woman.”

In 2000, Schauer was convicted of residential burglary and aggravated criminal sexual abuse after breaking into a woman’s apartment and assaulting her while she slept, prosecutors said. In 1993, he was convicted of unlawful restraint and aggravated battery for assaulting a woman who was jogging.

Under the Sexually Violent Persons Act, people who have been convicted of sexually violent offenses and suffer from a mental disorder can be committed to IDHS custody, the attorney general’s office said. Prosecutors must prove that such offenders are likely to commit future acts of sexual violence if they were released.

Following the judge’s verdict, Westbrook was returned to an IDHS treatment and detention facility in Rushville in western Illinois.