In a case with national significance, Chief Federal Judge Helen Gillmor has rejected a request by the Justice Department to commit to a mental institution a convicted sex offender who has completed his prison sentence and parole supervision.

Gillmor ruled that the government had not proved "by clear and convincing evidence" that Jay Abregana "is a sexually dangerous person who would have serious difficulty in refraining from acts of child molestation."

However, in a separate and lengthy ruling Gillmor rejected five challenges to the constitutionality of the new federal law that allows for civil commitment of sex offenders after they have completed their prison terms.

Gillmor ordered Abregana, 38, released from prison, but the U.S. attorney's office here filed a motion yesterday afternoon asking Gillmor for a seven-day delay until the U.S. solicitor general decides whether to file an appeal.

Abregana was convicted in March 2002 of transporting child pornography through the mail. He was sentenced to 44 months in prison and three years of supervised release, the federal form of parole.

On July 20, 2007, the day Abregana was scheduled to be released from the Federal Detention Center here after completing that sentence, the Bureau of Prisons invoked the new federal law, which allows the government to commit "sexually dangerous" felons to secure mental facilities for additional treatment and testing.

He has been in custody for more than a year pending Gillmor's ruling.

Abregana's lawyer, federal Public Defender Pamela Byrne, said late yesterday afternoon, "I'm just really thrilled with the ruling."

Asked about Abregana's reaction, Byrne said, "He doesn't even know yet. I was out at the Detention Center seeing another prisoner and just got back in the office."

Byrne said she opposes the government's request for another week's delay of Abregana's release.

"It's just been too long, more than a year, that he's had to serve beyond his sentence," she said. "I'll be filing an opposition to the (delay) on Monday."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Tong, who represented the government in both the criminal and civil proceedings against Abregana, could not be reached for comment.

Abregana was the first person in Hawai'i, and only the second in the country, to be tried under a 2006 law allowing for civil commitment of sex offenders after completion of incarceration and parole.

The law was added to an existing federal statute, the Adam Walsh Act, that imposed strict new penalties for individuals convicted of federal sex offenses involving minors.

The original law was named after the son of John Walsh, host of the "America's Most Wanted" television show. The new, civil commitment section was named after Jimmy Ryce, a 10-year-old Florida boy who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 1995.

Nineteen states have adopted civil commitment statutes, but there is no such law in Hawai'i.

In seeking mental commitment of Abregana, the federal government cited his criminal conviction as well as his behavior in prison and during brief releases from prison to label him a sexually dangerous offender.

Court records show that Abregana began serving his federal sentence in 2002 at Butner Federal Correctional Institute in North Carolina and briefly participated in a sex offender treatment program there.

He was expelled from the program because he performed oral sex acts on five other inmates in the treatment program, according to court records.

Abregana was then returned to Hawai'i to complete his sentence at the Federal Detention Center.

He began his three-year supervised release term in late November 2004, but that was revoked in mid-2005.

The revocation occurred after Abregana admitted having sex with a 17-year-old boy in a public restroom at Ala Moana Center. He also failed to report for drug testing and sex offender treatment.

Gillmor ordered Abregana back to prison for 20 additional months, and he was released in mid-November 2006.

In April 2007, Abregana was behind bars again because of a number of new violations, including use of a computer to make e-mail contact with three boys, ages 10, 12 and 14.

Abregana was forbidden to have contact with minor children, and he was not supposed to have access to a computer.

In her ruling yesterday, Gillmor said conflicting evidence and testimony "concerning the probability of Abregana's re-offending" did not meet the legal justification for civil commitment.

"These are difficult questions that require clearer and more convincing proof than is available in the circumstances before the court," Gillmor ruled.

The is the second time the federal government has tried and failed for civil commitment of a convicted sex offender.

The other case occurred earlier this year in Oklahoma.