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Date: April 9, 2025
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Orange County District Attorney’s Office Successfully Prevents
Sexually Violent Predator who Molested Young Boys for Decades
from Being Released Back into the Community
SANTA ANA, Calif. – The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has successfully kept a Sexually Violent Predator who spent decades molesting numerous young boys from being released from a state mental hospital. A jury spent an hour deliberating before rejecting 85-year-old convicted sex offender Sid Landau’s request to be released unconditionally back into the community without any supervision.
Throughout the 1960’s, 1970’s, and 1980’s, Landau sexually abused at least 20 young boys between the ages of eight and 12 years old, usually with blonde hair.
“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 Orange County 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.”
Landau met his victims while volunteering as a scorekeeper at children’s basketball games, at public parks, and even at job sites for his construction company, often targeting children who were from broken homes and in one instance 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.
In 1982, Landau had his first conviction for child molestation, an incident which involved a 10-year-old boy. He was sentenced to three years in state prison, deemed a “mentally disordered sex offender” and transferred to a state hospital.
He was released in 1984 and in 1988, he was convicted on 18 counts of lewd acts with a 9-year-old boy and sentenced to 17 years in state prison.
Landau was paroled just seven years later in 1996. He violated parole three times between 1996 and 2000 —including assault and battery, tampering with his GPS monitoring device, and unauthorized contact with children—remaining free for just 15 months during that span.
Landau was the first person to be subject to California’s Megan’s Law, landmark legislation which was joint-authored by then-Assemblymember now Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer and requires the release of public information related to sex offenders.
In 2000, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office petitioned to classify Landau as a sexually violent predator (SVP), a status a jury affirmed in 2006 after two prior hung juries. Landau was committed indefinitely.
While confined to a state hospital, Landau refused treatment, repeatedly violated behavioral rules, and disregarded facility policies.
In 2013, Landau petitioned for unconditional release from the state mental hospital, prompting a new jury trial which ended in the jury rejecting his petition for release.
On Monday, a jury deliberated for one hour to consider his renewed petition for release and determined that Landau still qualifies as a sexually violent predator, ruling him unfit for unconditional or conditional release.
Deputy District Attorney Jeremy Hudson of the Sexual Assault Unit prosecuted this case.
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