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Aug 5, 2005 8:38:15 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 5, 2005 8:38:15 GMT -5
This comes out of Edmonton Alberta Canada
A father who molested his own son hundreds of times over a two-year period is looking at three years in a federal pen.
Last month, a man in his mid-40s entered guilty pleas on one count each of sexual exploitation and sexual interference against his biological son. A court order bans publication of any information that might identify the man or his victim.
ABUSE OF A CHILD
"The sexual abuse of a child by a parent is a crime like no other," provincial court Judge Shelagh Creagh wrote in her sentencing judgment.
Court heard the abuse began in 2001, when the victim was only 12 years old. His father took him to the basement for a "sex talk" and suggested the two of them masturbate together.
"Although this did not happen, at the end of the talk (the victim) began to cry," Creagh wrote.
"That was not the end of the matter... during the two years (of the) indictment, at least four times a week, the accused entered (the victim's) bedroom while (he) was getting ready for bed.
"The accused would masturbate (the victim's) thingy for a short period of time and then touch his testicles. The accused remained fully clothed throughout this. When the accused was finished, (the victim) would crawl under the blankets on his bed."
Twice over the indictment period, Creagh wrote, father and son went on camping trips by themselves, during which the father would suggest the two masturbate together.
"(The victim) did not do this, but the accused would masturbate himself."
The victim told court through his impact statement that his father's abuse caused him to cut himself and to think about suicide.
He wants nothing more to do with his father, Creagh wrote, and plans to change his last name when he turns 18.
Victim impact statements filed by the victim's mother and sister hammered home the fact that the abuse - which took place over roughly 650 separate occasions, according to the Crown - has ripped the family apart.
"Even discounting that number by 50%, this is still an extraordinary number of incidents," Creagh wrote.
PAIN AND STRESS
The judge pointed out that, while the accused saved his son considerable pain and stress by pleading guilty, he only did so when his son told his mother about the abuse.
Along with the three-year sentence, the accused was ordered to submit a DNA sample to the national databank and to be registered as a sex offender.
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Aug 6, 2005 5:45:39 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 6, 2005 5:45:39 GMT -5
Second-time sex offenders would be forced to wear an electronic tracking device for the rest of their lives if federal lawmakers pass a bill that would strengthen penalties against sexual predators.
Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) touted the House bill during a news conference at Brooklyn Women Services in Bay Ridge yesterday morning.
Fossella said it would give residents peace of mind throughout the country and on Staten Island, which is home to 221 registered sex offenders.
He is one of the original co-sponsors of the bill, called the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
Calling sex offenders "the worst of the worst," Fossella told a handful of reporters and women's rights advocates that federal laws targeting sex crimes are not strong enough. He said the bill, in part, is a reaction to every sexual abduction story that has grabbed national headlines over the past few years.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) visited the Island on Monday to urge the Senate to pass a similar bill.
However, the New York Civil Liberties Union questioned the efficacy and fairness of the bill. Bob Perry, legislative director of the state agency, called the Internet registers and the ankle bracelets that would monitor offenders "techno-gadgets."
"Most sex crimes are committed by perpetrators who are known to the victim. That means a GPS device or a zoning restriction will do little to prevent most sex crimes," Perry said. "Common sense says that we're looking in the wrong place."
Registered sex offenders in the United States number about 550,000 and law enforcement authorities do not know the whereabouts of 150,000 of them. There are 21,000 registered sex offenders in New York state, Fossella said.
As Fossella held up a 12-page list of Brooklyn's 345, Level 3 offenders -- those at high risk of repeating their crimes -- he emphasized the need to better identify the criminals through tracking devices, Web sites, regularly updated registration, Social Security numbers, photographs and fingerprints, and a federal DNA database.
The law also mandates a national registry so law enforcement officers can find offenders who cross state lines.
"This legislation will give the police and law enforcement the tools we need to more effectively monitor these offenders," Rhonnie Jaus, chief of sex crimes in the Brooklyn district attorney's office, said during the conference. "Every time you turn around there's a sex offender kidnapping a child and murdering a child."
Sally Goldenberg is a news reporter for the Advance. She may be reached at goldenberg@siadvance.com.
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Aug 6, 2005 5:47:57 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 6, 2005 5:47:57 GMT -5
DeBary on Wednesday became the latest Central Florida city to take a step toward increasing restrictions on where sex offenders may live.
The City Council unanimously passed on first reading an ordinance that sex offenders may not reside within 2,500 feet of schools, day-care centers, public parks, playgrounds, recreational open space, libraries and churches. It mirrors laws that have been passed or are being considered by other Central Florida cities.
Current state restrictions only require a 1,000-foot buffer.
In Volusia County, only Orange City has approved the stronger limitations.
While discussing the ordinance Wednesday night, several council members said they wanted to make sure they were not only protecting DeBary's children, but also the rights of the 18 sexual offenders and two sexual predators that a state Web site shows living in the area.
But council members said they thought such offenders should have some restrictions imposed on them.
"If we know these people are in the area, should they be treated any different?" asked Councilman Danny Tillis during a telephone interview before Wednesday's meeting. "The answer is yes, they are offenders. That does not mean they can't be good people. . . . These people are normal people like we are, with the exception that they've committed a crime and been convicted and we want to keep an eye on them."
He added, "They have a right to live here but they must live by our rules."
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Aug 6, 2005 5:50:11 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 6, 2005 5:50:11 GMT -5
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Aug 8, 2005 0:09:27 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 8, 2005 0:09:27 GMT -5
CONVICTED sex offenders are secretly overturning bans on working with children to pursue jobs as school bus drivers, teachers, sports coaches and even youth workers.
The Daily Telegraph has learned that 89 people formerly prohibited from child-related employment due to their crimes – often involving minors – have won exemptions since June 2003.
The exemptions, issued without public notification, allow the offenders to pass the Working With Children Check, a system that red flags high-risk persons to employers.
While many were middle aged and convicted of carnal knowledge offences decades earlier, others granted exemptions had sex offences that were more recent and serious, documents show.
NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People Gillian Calvert oversaw 59 of the exemptions. In one case she approved, the individual, aged 38, was cleared to get work as a sports coach despite committing assault with indecency just five years earlier.
Child protection and victim groups last night
expressed alarm at the process and that the community, especially parents, were kept in ignorance of the risks posed.
Victims of Crime Assistance League spokesman Howard Brown said the public deserved to know more about these secret approvals.
He said the community was operating under the "false assumption" that the Working with Children Check was there to protect them from people like sexual offenders.
"Is there such a shortage of people without sexual offence convictions that we must go out of our way to find people with convictions to working with our children?" he said.
Mr Brown said a single conviction was not always indicative of a one-off crime. Research showed that paedophiles typically assaulted up to 30 children before being caught once, he said.
Just four of the exemptions to the ban on child-related jobs involved any ongoing conditions.
The Child Protection (Prohibited Employment) Act 1998 makes it an offence for a person convicted of a serious sex offence to apply for, undertake or remain in child-related jobs. But a prohibited person can apply for an exemption to the Commission for Children and Young People, or less commonly, the Administrative Decisions Tribunal or the NSW Industrial Commission.
Following a request under the Freedom of Information Act to the Commission for Children and Young People, brief details were provided of cases where exemptions had been granted. No names or other identifying details were released.
Among other cases, a 48-year-old was cleared to become a teacher, despite being convicted of two sexual offences against one person six years earlier.
For the crime, described as "assault with act of indecency", the offender had been fined $3000 and placed on own recognisance for three years.
Commission for Children and Young People Director Virginia Neighbour said the exemptions issued are to applicants deemed by the commissioner to be no risk to children.
"Generally, those who make exemption applications to the commission have either very old or low-level sexual offences, such as carnal knowledge where there is a small age difference between offender and victim," she said.
She said the process for deciding whether to lift the child-related employment ban was an administrative one.
Advocates for the Survivors of Child Abuse spokeswoman Dr Cathy Kezelman said the secret exemptions "rang alarm bells". "What checks are there to ensure the community is not placed at risk here?" she said.
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Aug 8, 2005 0:11:19 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 8, 2005 0:11:19 GMT -5
Clipboard in hand, Glenn Mina headed off to his new job recently: visiting the homes of rapists and child molesters.
His duty for the Harford County Sheriff's Office is to make sure they live where they say they live.
He recounted knocking one recent morning on the door of a Joppatowne man who had served several years in prison for a sex offense and is on probation. His wife answered the door and became alarmed when she learned that the Sheriff's Office was looking for her husband, Mina said.
"Oh no," Mina recalled her saying. "Are there more accusations?"
He reassured her that there weren't, that he just needed to verify the address her husband gave to the state.
She said her husband would be back after work. Mina assured her that he would be back as well.
Mina, a former lieutenant and commander in the office's investigations unit, was hired out of retirement last month to verify the addresses of the approximately 80 child sex-offenders registered in Harford County.
Other jurisdictions conduct similar checks.
After Carl Preston Evans Jr., a convicted sex offender, was accused of killing his 13-year-old stepdaughter in Essex last month, Howard County police tried to track down all 76 of that county's registered offenders. They reported that six were unaccounted for as of yesterday evening.
On Friday, Baltimore County police captured Evans. Until the July 25 killing, authorities didn't have an accurate address for Evans, a convicted rapist who is listed on the state's registry. Evans was one of about 800 registered offenders in Maryland -- one in five -- for whom the state might not have an accurate address.
In Baltimore County, auxiliary police check the addresses of registered child sex offenders, confirming them at least once a year.
In counties such as Harford, the job of verifying sex-offender addresses becomes more laborious as the sex offender list expands. Because many sex offenders are required to register for life, the list rarely gets shorter. However, when these sex offenders finish the terms of their parole and probation, it is harder for authorities to keep track of them, state officials say.
In Harford, the number of child sex-offenders has expanded from about 30 in 2001 to 80, according to figures from the Harford sheriff's Web site.
Harford County Sheriff R. Thomas Golding said last month that he will create a position in his budget next year for the sole purpose of verifying sex-offender addresses. Mina, a part-time civilian employee, will cost the department $7,700 this year.
Harford police authorities say an updated list is critical to future investigations.
"If an incident occurs, we're able to quickly identify and locate potential suspects" on the sex-offender registry, said Lt. James Eyler, a Harford sheriff spokesman.
2 charged
In the past year, Harford authorities have charged at least two sex offenders with providing wrong addresses. The misdemeanor carries a maximum three years in prison or $5,000 fine, a Harford sheriff's spokesman said. Both men charged by Harford authorities are awaiting trial.
Mina, 55, spent many years on patrol and as a commander in the investigations unit.
In his new job, he wore khakis and a green polo shirt recently as he visited homes in a police cruiser, he said. Mina carried packets containing background information on each child sex offender, as well as a yellow notepad on which he checked off which addresses he had verified, he said. To verify an address, he must meet the sex offender at his or her home. He also asks for mail and a driver's license showing the address on the state register.
Of the 22 homes he visited recently, he verified that nine were correct. He plans to revisit the remaining 13.
'Under the spotlight'
Mina said many offenders he has visited are not overly bothered by the visit.
"They know they're under the spotlight," Mina said.
He added: "When he becomes a violator, the community comes before the offender's rights at that point."
David P. Wolinksi, the state official in charge of the Maryland Sex Offender Registry, said officials like Mina should operate on the assumption that some offenders provide the wrong address.
"There's a lot of incentive for an individual not to provide good information," Wolinski said. "It impacts their jobs, it impacts where they can live, it affects their friends and family."
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Aug 8, 2005 0:11:54 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 8, 2005 0:11:54 GMT -5
PEMBROKE PINES · Calling it "a start" in the battle to keep children safe from sexual predators, city officials on Wednesday adopted a code that makes it illegal for convicted offenders to live or rent anywhere in the city.
"This is a start to providing additional protection for our children," Vice Mayor Angelo Castillo said of the ordinance, which is based on a similar measure passed recently by Miami Beach.
Castillo said the finish to the battle would be for the state to help cities protect children.
"I'm hopeful the state Legislature will take this up," he said.
Cities throughout South Florida in May began considering measures to restrict convicted predators from living in their boundaries. Although it was apparent that the state would have to set a uniform standard, the Legislature was in the last days of its annual session at the time and didn't have a chance to act. It doesn't meet again until March.
Officials said the measure is sure to be challenged in court. They expect Miami Beach to be the test case, however.
Commissioners, after hearing an emotional plea from influential lobbyist Ron Book of Plantation, unanimously adopted the ordinance.
Book, who usually asks state legislators to pass laws on behalf of corporate clients, is lobbying cities as a distraught father. His housekeeper in 2002 was convicted of molesting his daughter from the age of 12 to 16.
The new ordinance basically prevents any person convicted of a sexual offense with a victim less than 16 years old from establishing a permanent residence within 2,500 feet of any school, school bus stop, day-care center, park, playground "or other place where children regularly congregate."
To include the entire city, the ordinance requires the distance to be measured from the outer boundary lines of property rather than the main entrance or front door. By measuring from property lines, the entire city is covered. For example, since high school students use the Century Village golf course, it can be considered a place where children congregate, so 2,500 feet will be measured from the property line of the golf course, city officials said.
Rather than include offenders only convicted in Florida, the commission, at Castillo's suggestion, made the ordinance apply to offenders convicted anywhere in the country.
The ordinance doesn't apply to offenders who lived in the city prior to July 1.
Offenders caught living in the city in violation of the code face a sentence of 60 days in the county jail and a $500 fine for the first offense and 12 months and $1,000 for the second and subsequent conviction.
The ordinance also makes it illegal for landlords to rent any building or trailer within 2,500 feet of places where children congregate to a convicted predator. Violators would face the city's special master for code enforcement, who must warn landlords. If they don't comply after the warning, the special master could order the landlords to pay a fine of $250 a day for each day until the problem is resolved.
Castillo said landlords can easily check on prospective tenants because information about sexual offenders is "readily available" at the police station and on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Web site. Most landlords already check the financial background of prospective tenants, so asking them to make sure they aren't sexual offenders isn't a big deal, he said.
Homeowner and condominium associations also should check to make sure prospective buyers aren't convicted offenders, he said.
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Aug 8, 2005 8:10:33 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 8, 2005 8:10:33 GMT -5
BOISE - The city of Boise shuts down one of its recreation centers for kids after police discover three convicted sex offenders living in the same building. No incidents are reported to have occurred, but because sex offenders are thought to be four times more likely to re-offend than other criminals, city officials have decided to close the center until they can find a new place for it.
The city closed the rec. center in June. It was within an affordable housing complex on Vista Avenue in a place that used to be a motel. About 15 kids a day would spend time at the center, and now officials are hoping to re-open it at a new location by the time school starts.
"They assured us that there would not be anyone there who had a record, so when we found out that these sex offenders were there, and one with a felony, yes we were very upset," said Vice President for the Vista Neighborhood Association Lorene Spencer.
The city operates two similar rec. centers and the Parks and Recreation Department is making sure no convicted sex offenders live near them, too.
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Aug 8, 2005 8:11:17 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 8, 2005 8:11:17 GMT -5
A grandfather appeared in court Tuesday, where he was officially charged in the rape of his 2-year-old granddaughter.
Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen says 49-year-old Robert Eismon has been charged with rape, gross sexual imposition and kidnapping. His bail was set at $2 million.
Investigators say it happened at a holiday cookout Sunday at Eismon's home. His daughter-in-law says she heard her daughter scream, and when she went to check on the little girl, she found her daughter with Eismon on top of her.
Chad Eismon, the girl's father, says, "He said, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry." And that's all he kept saying. I mean, it just tears me up inside to see my daughter really hurt right now. She's really shook up because of what he did to her."
The toddler’s parents called police and had them arrest Eismon. He is currently incarcerated at the Fairfield County Jail.
If convicted, Eismon could spend the rest of his life in prison
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Aug 8, 2005 15:09:21 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 8, 2005 15:09:21 GMT -5
NEW South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney today expressed concern that 89 convicted sex offenders had been granted permission to work with children.
Since 2003, NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People Gillian Calvert has granted 59 offenders leave to work with minors.
A further 30 exemptions were granted through the Administrative Decisions Tribunal or the Industrial Relations Commission.
Child protection groups have expressed alarm at the exemption process.
Mr Moroney today said he was worried by the exemptions, even though they were lawful.
"I am concerned about that," he said.
"In one sense people have to move on with their lives whether they are the victims of crime or offenders, but it does concern me, as a police officer, that any or all of those individuals are engaged in occupations or professions or come into contact with young people.
"I would believe that the legislation has been properly formed, properly enacted and was properly applied, and obviously each of these cases has to be looked at on an individual basis."
Today's Daily Telegraph reported that 89 people formerly prohibited from child-related employment due to their crimes - often involving minors - had won exemptions, issued without public notification, since June 2003.
Most of the 89 exemptions involved middle-aged men convicted of carnal knowledge committed decades ago.
Others were more recent, with one 38-year-old man permitted to work as a sports coach despite a conviction for assault with indecency five years earlier.
Ms Calvert today said she would never have approved the cases she signed off on if an individual was any danger to young people.
"I have not given an exemption to anybody who I think is a risk to children," she told ABC Radio.
"Serious sex offenders don't get through our system.
"It's only in rare circumstances that people are granted exemptions and that is where there is no risk to children."
Ms Calvert said each person who applied for an exemption was thoroughly assessed.
"We look at their entire work history, we look at their criminal history, we look at their personal circumstances (and) we'll often get a full psychiatric assessment of them as well," she said.
She said she had rejected several requests and opposed applications through the courts.
But there were cases where exemptions were appropriate, the commissioner said.
"If somebody has been convicted of carnal knowledge 30 years ago, but then went on to marry that person and have children and grandchildren, you would not want them to be captured by the scheme," Ms Calvert said.
"So you need a mechanism to exempt them."
She also said she approved of plans to adopt the child abduction alert system, Amber Alert, to help find missing children.
"I think we all feel very anxious when we hear stories about kids being abducted (and) it feels like there's not much you can do about it," she said.
"I think that's what's so good about this Amber Alert.
"It gives us something practical that everybody in the community can participate in to try and protect children."
Under the scheme, radio and television broadcasters, RTA roadside message boards and taxi and public transport dispatch systems will be required to relay, at 15-minute intervals, details of missing children.
Last night, child protection and victim groups expressed alarm at the work exemption process and that the community, especially parents, were kept in ignorance of the risks posed.
Victims of Crime Assistance League spokesman Howard Brown said the public deserved to know more about these secret approvals.
He said the community was operating under the "false assumption" that the Working with Children Check was there to protect them from people such as sexual offenders.
"Is there such a shortage of people without sexual offence convictions that we must go out of our way to find people with convictions to working with our children?" he said.
Mr Brown said a single conviction was not always indicative of a one-off crime. Research showed that pedophiles typically assaulted up to 30 children before being caught once, he said.
Just four of the exemptions to the ban on child-related jobs involved any ongoing conditions.
The Child Protection (Prohibited Employment) Act 1998 makes it an offence for a person convicted of a serious sex offence to apply for, undertake or remain in child-related jobs.
But a prohibited person can apply for an exemption to the Commission for Children and Young People, or less commonly, the Administrative Decisions Tribunal or the NSW Industrial Commission.
Commission for Children and Young People Director Virginia Neighbour said the exemptions issued were to applicants deemed by the commissioner to be no risk to children.
"Generally, those who make exemption applications to the commission have either very old or low-level sexual offences, such as carnal knowledge where there is a small age difference between offender and victim," she said.
She said the process for deciding whether to lift the child-related employment ban was an administrative one.
Advocates for the Survivors of Child Abuse spokeswoman Dr Cathy Kezelman said the secret exemptions "rang alarm bells". "What checks are there to ensure the community is not placed at risk here?" she said.
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Aug 9, 2005 3:04:12 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 9, 2005 3:04:12 GMT -5
3:35 p.m. - BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A sex offender who has criminal convictions for assaulting young girls escaped from North Dakota's state mental hospital, where he has been confined for treatment, authorities said.
David Johnson, 28, apparently cut through a security screen in a bathroom at the hospital between 1:05 a.m. and 1:25 a.m. on Monday, Highway Patrol Capt. Mark Bethke said.
More than 20 sex offenders are confined at a special unit of the Jamestown hospital for counseling and treatment. The process is called civil commitment, and it takes place when prosecutors, a judge and analysts consider the person sexually dangerous.
Someone may be committed without being convicted of a crime, although most offenders who are undergoing treatment have criminal records for sex crimes.
Court records say Johnson has convictions in Ransom and Sargent counties for sexual assault and gross sexual imposition.
Records say the December 1996 Ransom County sexual assault conviction resulted after Johnson was having sex with a 12-year-old girl, who resisted him when she found he wasn't wearing a condom.
Three years later, Johnson was convicted of gross sexual imposition in Sargent County for molesting three young girls who visited his home, records say.
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Aug 9, 2005 12:23:46 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 9, 2005 12:23:46 GMT -5
DOVER- The Dover police are putting the word out about a registered sex offender in the city. The police say convicted sex offender Roy E. Stevens, 27, is listed as "homeless" in the city of Dover. Stevens is listed on the Delaware Sex Offender Registry for the fourth degree rape of a child between the ages of 12 and 15. Stevens is listed on the registry as a "moderate risk" to the community. Because Stevens does not have a listed address and also is unemployed, the police want to put public on alert. www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=3699456
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Aug 9, 2005 12:24:16 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 9, 2005 12:24:16 GMT -5
USA - Secret Witness is offering a cash reward for information that leads to the arrest of a sexual predator that has fled Snohomish County and may be in Spokane or North Idaho.Timothy Addison McCamey, 25, is 5'11" tall, weighs 220 pounds and has blond hair and hazel eyes.He sometimes uses the alias Timothy Floyd Fitzgerald and has birthmarks on both of his forearms.
On July 27th, a felony warrant with nationwide extradition was issued for McCamey's arrest.He is a Level III, "high risk" sex offender who has significant offender history.He may be traveling through Spokane to Moscow, Idaho.
McCamey's prior activities include being found in the dormitory area of a high school volleyball camp.He had contacted several juveniles and asked for permission to enter their dormitory sleeping areas.When denied access, the suspect asked other camp participants for forego their basketball activities and to "hang out" with him.He eventually raised the suspicions of chaperones who called 9-1-1.
In addition to the Snohomish County felony warrant, Washington State Dept. of Corrections also holds a no-bail Escape warrant for the fugitive.
Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Timothy Addison McCamey is urged to call Secret Witness at 509.327.5111 with any information.
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Aug 10, 2005 2:38:24 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 10, 2005 2:38:24 GMT -5
Four arrested in multi-parish sex offender round-up
Citizen staff report
State Police, along with the Attorney General's Office and various area sheriff's departments, are cracking down on sex offenders who do not update their current information.
Operation Safe Neighborhoods, which officially kicked off Tuesday, is a concerted effort to bring sex offenders into compliance with the stipulations of their parole, according to State Police.
The focus of this multi-agency operation is aimed at Ascension Parish, East Baton Rouge Parish, West Baton Rouge Parish and Livingston Parish. The program seeks out convicted sex offenders that reside in those parishes that have not met their obligation to provide up-to-date information to the Louisiana Bureau of Criminal Identification and Information on an annual basis.
In 1999, the Louisiana Legislature changed the law from a misdemeanor to a felony for a sex offender on parole not registering with the Bureau. The offender has to register annually for 10 years from parole date with various state, parish, and municipal entities.
"Part of our mission is to ensure the safety and security of the people in the state. This joint effort demonstrates our commitment to provide an essential public safety service aimed at sexual offenders and sexual predators who fail to properly register or report changes in their domicile as required by law," said Col. Henry Whitehorn, Superintendent of Louisiana State Police.
More than 20 officers representing various agencies began serving warrants Tuesday. A total of 13 individuals were arrested in the first phase, 12 of which were arrested for a parole violation or probation violation that requires convicted sex offenders and sexual predators to provide current information on a yearly basis. Failure to register can result in a felony arrest that carries with it a fine up to $1,000 or one to five years in prison, or both.
Those arrested in Ascension Parish were: Derryl Clark, 12322 Dutchtown No. 38, Geismar; Milligan Solomon, 108 West Fourth Street, Donaldsonville; William Dammann, 17111 Marty Lowe Drive, Prairieville; and Jessie Jacobs, 453 Mayers Estate, Prairieville, who was arrested on a non-sexual offense.
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Aug 10, 2005 2:41:00 GMT -5
Post by Sher on Aug 10, 2005 2:41:00 GMT -5
August 9, 2005 - Where should registered sex offenders and predators go if they are evacuated during a hurricane? In Florida, a new policy calls for some of them to end up at jails to ride out a storm, but it does not include all sex offenders. Philip Schroth is a registered sexual offender living in Palm Beach Gardens. His son, Joseph, lives at the same house and is a registered sexual predator. Under state guidelines, Joseph would have to go to prison to ride out a storm, but his father, who's not on probation, could possibly show up at a hurricane shelter near you.
Detectives Jack Segreto wants to make sure volunteers at shelters in Palm Beach Gardens will be ready, "Those pictures of those offenders that are in this booklet are gonna be placed at the shelters. And it's gonna be up to the shelter staff to familiarize themselves with those photos."
The Palm Beach Gardens Police Department is one of the few agencies in the state that has a sex offender booklet. Beside a web site that links to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, it's another line of defense to try and keep people safe.
Detective Jack Segreto with Palm Beach Gardens Police explains, "We're very much a proactive organization and there's been a lot of the other smaller agencies that have looked to us and looked at our policies and adopted some of the things that we're doing."
While sexual predators would likely sit in meeting rooms and lobbies during a storm, it is not clear what shelter managers would do if a sexual offender show up here.
"It's going to be up to the school board cause usually that's their jurisdiction," says Segreto. In the end, police could end up segregating sexual offenders from the general population in a shelter.
But, Segreto says with the threat of a hurricane coming to South Florida, Palm Beach Gardens police would notify sexual offenders at home well in advance to find out where they plan to ride out the storm.
Detective Jack Segreto says, "Once they report to that area it's going to be up to them also to report to that agency that they have arrived. We in turn are then going to piggy back that by contacting that agency by telling them that there's a sex offender in your jurisdiction."
Police admit there are some gaps in the system and there is more work to be done, but they say one of the most effective tools is to talk with your children about sex offenders and the dangers they can pose.
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