10-21-2008 New York:
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - A convicted sex offender and his four siblings have been charged with beating up a neighbor in a small-town apartment complex for posting fliers warning about his criminal past.
William Meacham, 30, his younger siblings Brandon, Justin, Stephanie and Angela, and family friend Marvin Snyder, attacked Adrian Porter in the village of Seneca Falls last month, leaving him severely injured with brain trauma, a broken nose and facial fractures, authorities said.
Porter, 35, was left unconscious in the complex's parking lot, spent weeks in a Rochester hospital and was recently transferred to a rehabilitation center.
"He's moving around" but he's suffering memory lapses and his ability to communicate is limited, Seneca Falls police Chief Frederick Capozzi said Tuesday.
Meacham spent nearly four years at Attica prison for raping a 15-year-old girl in the Binghamton area. He was released in 2006.
Porter was confronted the night of Sept. 26 after he posted the fliers near a laundry area showing New York state sex-offender registry photographs of Meacham and at least one other convicted sex offender who lives in the Hunter's Run complex, Capozzi said in a telephone interview.
The Meachams contend that Porter came at them with a machete, but the victim's family maintains Porter threw down the machete when he was challenged in front of a crowd of onlookers.
"There were a lot of people who were milling around and saw what happened" and were interviewed by investigators, Capozzi said. He said Meacham's siblings apparently do not live at the complex.
"I want justice in my brother's case, point blank," Porter's sister, Selena McKoy, told reporters after Monday's hearing. "No human being should ever have to go through something like that."
The six were charged with first-degree gang assault, a felony. If convicted, they could each be sentenced to a maximum of five to 15 years in prison.
They were returned to jail after a hearing Monday, when a judge imposed bail terms ranging from $15,000 cash for Meacham to as low as $2,500 for the others, Seneca County prosecutor Richard Swinehart said. None of them has yet been assigned a lawyer, the county clerk's office said. ..News Source.. by 9WSYR.com
October 21, 2008
NY- Police: NY sex offender, kin beat up wary neighbor
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2 comments:
I hate seeing this. However, we may hear about more cases like this in the future. When you push the pendulum so far, it eventually has to swing back in the other direction. That's just a fact of life.
Why did they confront the man putting up flyers? If he does not have the right to do that, and he well may, its a free country, they should ahve called the cops. I hope they get some decades in prison to think about what they have done.
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