He received a one-year prison sentence after being convicted in the Palm Beach County case and then was extradited to Massachusetts, where he spent the next three years behind bars for the 1979 offense.

After his release, he returned to Florida, where he was arrested yet again in February 1989 -- this time for performing oral sex on a 9-year-old girl.

He even took Polaroid pictures of the child while molesting her and later showed the photos to another young girl, according to police reports.

Police found the pictures under his mattress, and Mitchell received a 27-year prison sentence.

He served 11 years

EIGHT CONDITIONS
PROGRESS -- THEN BROKEN PROMISES

Before he left prison, Mitchell underwent a battery of psychological tests and interviews to see if he qualified for civil commitment under the Jimmy Ryce Act.

One of the psychologists who recommended Mitchell be detained was Shaw.

"Mr. Mitchell's deviant sexual interests . . . his past failure on parole . . . his history of dishonesty . . . and his documented predatory behavior combine to exacerbate his risk for reoffense," Shaw wrote.

Mitchell was diagnosed as a pedophile and detained at the Florida Civil Commitment Center in June 2000. He stayed there for nearly four years, participating in group therapy sessions, polygraph tests and other counseling. By 2004, Mitchell had made enough progress to convince Shaw, the judge and prosecutor in the case that he was ready to be released.

So, on March 15, 2004, he entered into a civil contract with Florida -- essentially a plea deal that allowed him to leave the treatment center in exchange for agreeing to eight conditions, including not leaving the state and participating in weekly therapy sessions.

It took Mitchell two weeks to break the contract, when he began downloading child pornography and shipping the photos to his buddies at the treatment center.

He violated the rest of the conditions in mid-May, the day he left the state for Tennessee to join the Cumberland Valley carnival.

"Quite a few of the men I've recommended for release have failed, and I've had to face that," Shaw said.