MA- Sex offender's family opposes law on 'predator free' zones

Another politicam touting a "sounds-good" residency law which statistics proves protect no ones, short of the politican's votes.

7-13-2008 Massachusetts:

METHUEN — There's no buffer zone separating Charles and Claudia Bobb from a Level 3 sex offender.

In fact, the offender lives in their house. He is Charles Bobb's 64-year-old father.

Howard Bobb is a pedophile who was convicted of molesting four children over a span of 16 years. Now, as Methuen joins a nationwide debate over whether the government should tell sex offenders where they can and cannot go, Charles and Claudia Bobb are speaking out against a proposed law.

City Councilor Kenneth Willette wants to ban sex offenders from traveling within 1,000 feet of public schools, parks and the Nevins Memorial Library.

Charles and Claudia Bobb, both 43, say the law would violate the civil rights of sex offenders and make it tough for them even to bring the ailing Howard Bobb to the doctor.

"These guys come up with these rules and laws and initiatives, and they don't bother, I don't feel, to do their homework to learn how it's going to affect people or their families," Claudia Bobb said.

Willette is not concerned with a sex offender's right to enjoy a public park or visit the library.

"They forfeited their right to travel to these facilities," he said in a recent interview.

Willette wants to place fliers from the state Sex Offender Registry Board, showing the photographs and addresses of Level 3 offenders, in school offices, City Hall, the Quinn Building, on the city's Web site, and more prominently at Nevins Memorial Library. He also wants to hang signs declaring schools, parks and the library "predator free zones."

His proposal went before the City Council on Monday. It received initial approval and will require one more vote by the City Council to be enacted.

Charles and Claudia Bobb moved to Methuen from San Jose, Calif., in January 2007. They live at 18 Russ St. with their 16-year-old daughter. They brought Howard Bobb into their home in November, after discovering he was living in a crummy apartment in Akron, Ohio, with no food or clean clothes.

Howard Bobb was convicted of two counts of indecent assault and battery for molesting two children under age 14 in 1979. He spent 41/2 years in prison.

He was released from prison and re-offended, his son said. This time, in 1987, Howard Bobb was imprisoned for 18 months for one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.

He was released from prison and re-offended again in 1995. He was convicted of the same charge and spent another 18 months in prison.

"My father was wrong for what he did in the past," Charles Bobb said.

But, he said, the man "did his time" and never committed a crime in Massachusetts. His last conviction was 13 years ago.

Howard Bobb, a paranoid schizophrenic, is in a rehabilitation facility in Salem, Mass., suffering from an infection and paralyzed from the waist down. Charles and Claudia Bobb said it will be a few weeks before he's able to go home. When he does, they say, he will not go anywhere without one of them.

Charles Bobb said his father no longer notices children.

"He's not the same person he was back then," he said.

Willette pointed to Howard Bobb's repeated convictions and said, "No matter how you portray it, he's a high-risk offender."

Howard Bobb is one of five Level 3 offenders in Methuen. There are 39 Level 2 offenders in the city, according to the state Sex Offender Registry Board.

The board classifies sex offenders according to the degree of dangerousness they pose to the public and their likelihood for re-offense. Level 3 offenders are considered the most dangerous. Level 2 offenders are considered to have a "moderate" risk of re-offending. Level 1 offenders are determined to be a "low" risk, and their information is not made public.

In April, the Derry, N.H., Town Council dropped a proposed law that would have prevented sex offenders from living within a 2,000-foot radius of schools and day-care centers. The law also would have prohibited them from living within a 500-yard radius of playgrounds and facilities serving children.

The proposal came along with a public uproar in the town when convicted kidnapper and child murderer Douglas Simmons moved in two doors down from the Derry Montessori School in January.

Simmons, 47, moved to Derry after serving 22 years in prison for the kidnapping and murder of 6-year-old Michelle Spencer in Norwich, Conn. He strangled the girl with a phone cord and then sexually assaulted her body.

Simmons left Derry and later registered as a sex offender with Manchester, N.H., police, indicating he lives there.

Derry police Chief Ed Garone recommended against approving housing restrictions, based on studies in Iowa and Colorado — states that enacted such laws. These states found the laws caused sex offenders to stop registering and did not prevent re-offending.

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the city of Dover, N.H., saying its sex offender restrictions are unconstitutional. The city bars offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school or day-care center.

Twenty-nine states have laws restricting where sex offenders can live, according to The Council of State Governments. Massachusetts and New Hampshire are not on that list; however, several communities in both states have adopted their own laws governing where known child predators can live.

Chris Ott, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, has said laws like these could keep sex offenders from neighborhoods where they see a doctor for treatment.

Banishing offenders from certain areas, and in turn potentially cutting them off from family and friends and making it harder for them to get treatment, also makes them more likely to re-offend, Ott said.

Under existing law in Methuen, officials would treat a violation like trespassing, with a fine of $300. Willette hopes the state will eventually give the city the authority to arrest violators.

Willette said he's open to considering modifications to his proposal. He might reduce or drop the 1,000-foot rule, for instance, or amend the proposal to simply ban sex offenders from stepping onto school grounds.

He wishes the authorities would incarcerate repeat offenders like Howard Bobb for life.

"It also destroys entire families, it destroys children forever and these people should not have the freedom to walk our streets," Willette said.

Claudia Bobb argued that offenders earned their rights back when they were released from prison. And Charles Bobb said Willette's law would do little to protect people.

"It's not protecting any kids because it's not stopping them from going to places that kids are at — The Loop, McDonald's, Target, Wal-Mart," he said.

Willette disagrees.

"You've had Level 3 sex offenders travel into public libraries and attack children. You've had Level 3 sex offenders travel into public parks and attack children. It's well documented throughout the last year," the councilor said. "Because I'm a city councilor, I have jurisdiction over town-owned buildings and town-owned playgrounds."

School resource officers patrol schools and beat cops patrol parks, so officials would be able to enforce the law, Willette said.

Charles Bobb thinks it's unreasonable to have sex offenders' photographs, addresses and crimes be public information.

"They're not doing that to violent criminals that get out of jail; they're not doing it to gang members that are violent," he said.

Police officers showed up at the Bobbs' home in April and informed the family that Howard Bobb had to go to the station to register. Fliers soon were created, showing Howard Bobb's photograph and address, and labeling him a "Level 3 Sex Offender." They were distributed and aired every 15 minutes on public access television.

Charles and Claudia Bobb say they have been shunned since the public learned the elder Bobb is a convicted pedophile. Some people have mistaken the younger Bobb for the sex offender.

A man driving by the house honked his horn and flipped the middle finger at Charles Bobb, he said. A jogger cursed at him. Children looked at him and asked if "that was the guy."

"We know that we wouldn't have brought him here if there was any danger to anybody," Claudia Bobb said.

Charles Bobb's parents were divorced when he was 12, after his mother accused his father of molesting a child. His mother moved to California.

"My father was in prison and my mother was in California, so I basically lived on the streets until I joined the military," Charles Bobb said.

He joined the Navy at age 17. He didn't accept that his father was a child molester after the first two times he was accused, "because I couldn't believe he would do something like that."

After the third accusation, he came to grips with reality. But despite the past, Charles Bobb wants to take care of his father.

"He's my father. I just do what's right by him, even though he's done me wrong with his convictions and everything and leaving me abandoned," he said. ..News Source.. by J.J. Huggins, Staff writer