Paola ? Prosecutors were weighing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday after a ruling by the state’s high court led to the release of a man jailed for performing a sex act on an underage boy.

Miami County District Judge Richard Smith said in court that he could not set Matthew Limon free because he had not been able to find a governmental agency to supervise his release. That problem apparently was resolved after the hearing and the defendant was turned over to family living in western Kansas.

Limon was 18 and living at a home for the developmentally disabled in Paola when he was accused of sodomizing a 14-year-old resident. His attorneys argued the relationship was consensual, but Limon was convicted and sentenced to more than 17 years in prison, where he has been held since 2000.

Had Limon’s affair been with a 14-year-old girl, he would have been punished under the state’s Romeo and Juliet law and would not have faced more than 15 months in prison. That disparity roused the interest of gay rights groups and civil libertarians and led the state’s highest court to rule last month that illegal homosexual acts cannot be punished more harshly than illegal heterosexual ones.

Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline said last month after the Kansas Supreme Court issued its ruling that he wouldn’t appeal. But Miami County Atty. David Miller said it appeared Kline had changed his mind.

Whitney Watson, a spokesman for Kline, said no decision had been made on an appeal.

Besides the current case, prosecutors say Limon had been involved in two similar offenses, though details are sealed because he was a juvenile. Limon’s victim in this case has been described as mildly retarded; the defendant is said to function at a slightly higher level, though not on par with his age.

The defendant’s release includes restrictions on leaving the home where he is staying; he’s barred from having contact with minors, cannot use alcohol and drugs, and must undergo sex offender counseling.

Miller said he felt the high court wrongly interpreted the Romeo and Juliet law, which mandates lighter sentences for illegal sex when partners are 14 to 19 years old and less than four years apart.

“I think the Legislature’s intent was clear that it was to apply to members of the opposite sex,” he said.