Registered sex offender, accused of re-offending in victim's neighborhood ordered committed under Chapter 51

MILWAUKEE COUNTY -- A 59-year-old registered sex offender, accused of returning to his victim's neighborhood decades after his conviction, and attacking another elderly woman has been committed to the Behavioral Health Department under Chapter 51.

John O'Brien

This, after a doctor's report was returned for O'Brien that found him not competent, and unlikely to regain competency.

In court on Wednesday, September 9th, the defense requested this case be dismissed, but the court denied that request.

The court then ordered criminal proceedings against O'Brien remain suspended, and he was remanded into the custody of the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department.

The court ordered O'Brien be transported to the Behavioral Health Department for proceedings under Chapter 51.

O'Brien is charged with with second degree sexual assault/use of force and burglary of a building or dwelling in this case.

Police say this alleged incident occurred 27 years after O'Brien's initial conviction.

It was late August 2014, and early afternoon when the 77-year-old woman was attacked in her usually quiet Greenfield neighborhood.

A criminal complaint filed against O’Brien says he followed the woman into her home, where he grabbed her, took off her clothes and tried to rape her.

“From what I understand, he has some mental health issues and he’s not taking his medications. According to family members and others monitoring him, he gets violent when he doesn’t take his medication. They were in the process of getting him committed, but that didn’t happen in time,” Sgt. Sean Licht with the Greenfield Police Department said.

The 77-year-old victim tells FOX6 News she tried everything to ward off the attack. She says she tried hitting O’Brien on the head — and even tried calling out a man’s name, in an attempt to fool O’Brien into thinking there was a man in the home.

O’Brien wasn’t buying it, and eventually suggested they take a bath. The woman agreed — saying she would grab some towels, and that’s when she was able to run out the door — to her neighbor’s house.

“She just walked in, which is uncharacteristic and she just told me she’s getting raped,” the woman’s neighbor told FOX6 News.

The woman’s neighbor called 911. Police raced to the scene, and the woman’s neighbor says he looked out his window and saw O’Brien.

“He came walking down Lindale. Not that they wouldn’t have seen him, but I said, ‘hey check that guy out,'” the woman’s neighbor said.

FOX6 News has learned O’Brien is a registered sex offender, who must register with the state’s Sex Offender Registry for life.

In 1987, he was convicted of doing the same thing he tried to do recently in Greenfield.

In that case, officials say O’Brien went to a home two blocks away from the 77-year-old Greenfield woman’s. He apparently crawled through a window and sexually assaulted a 72-year-old woman.

O’Brien then spent 10 months in a mental institution.

“That’s scary. Right in the middle of the daytime — for someone to walk in. That’s pretty scary,” the 77-year-old Greenfield woman’s neighbor said.