PA- Borough tries to oust sex offenders

4-15-2009 Pennsylvania:

Group home now moved to Columbia

Columbia Borough is threatening to crack down on a former state representative operating a residence for convicted sex offenders.

Tom Armstrong's group home for offenders already has been chased out of Marietta Borough and Conestoga Township.

Now he's relocated his "program" for offenders to one of his properties in Columbia, where officials plan to use the same tactic as other municipalities to control or oust it.

On Monday, two borough residents complained to borough council about Armstrong locating the men in his Mill Street property in their neighborhood.

"I have children; everyone on that block has children," resident Bobbi Jo Torbert said. " … I'm trying to figure out what we need to do to get them out of there. We have people talking about wanting to move now. I'm afraid for my kids."

Torbert's comments echoed those from residents of Marietta and Conestoga, where Armstrong previously housed groups of men convicted of sexual offenses after they served their sentences and were legally permitted to seek housing and jobs in any community.

(eAdvocate Post)

This is the third community into which Armstrong has moved a group of men convicted of sex crimes without notifying municipal officials or neighbors. Although he is not obliged to notify municipal officials, residents and officials in both municipalities said they resented that Armstrong did not make his plans known.

Maria Reyes, who lives in the Columbia neighborhood where Armstrong's property now houses the offenders, said she was unaware that Armstrong had moved them in until she visited the state's Megan's Law Web site, which lists home and job addresses of sex offenders after they are convicted.

According to the state's Megan's Law Web site, four offenders are currently housed in Armstrong's Mill Street property.

"(Armstrong) knows the no-more-than-three rule, and it's just unfortunate that he chooses to ignore it," Meiskey said Monday.

Columbia mayor Leo S. Lutz said he had directed a borough police officer to check out the Megan's Law Web site to verify who is listed as living at the address and he had directed codes enforcement to move as quickly as possible to take legal action against Armstrong.

"By law, all we can do is stay on them," Meiskey told residents Monday. "No doubt, there are certainly individuals pushing this issue and possibly trying to profit from this issue, but right now we're bound by law."

Last summer, Conestoga residents angrily told Armstrong at a public meeting to move the men into his own home rather than their community. Conestoga Township then ousted the men using its own version of the same ordinance.

Armstrong actually did move the men into his own Marietta home after he said his wife and teenage daughter had temporarily moved out to care for an ailing relative. Parole regulations would not have permitted the men to live in the property with a minor girl.

When Marietta residents raged against Armstrong for bringing the men into their community, he said at public meetings that the housing arrangement was only temporary — until a Columbia property was ready to house the men.

In the meantime, Marietta officials used a similar ordinance to force Armstrong's hand to immediately relocate the men elsewhere. Armstrong filed a lawsuit against the borough in Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas, where the case is pending.

Armstrong has defended housing the men in a group setting as offering them a second chance in a more supportive setting than they would have living on their own.

And 22 sex offenders currently list Columbia Borough as their home or work address, so many are living among borough residents without the high profile Armstrong's living arrangement has brought his tenants.

When the controversy stirred in Conestoga and Marietta, one man living in Armstrong's property was Richard Owen, who served 20 years in an Illinois prison after being convicted of rape in 1981.

In both communities, Owen eloquently and publicly spoke about not expecting a second chance from residents, but hoping he could earn a second chance from them.

In January, Owen was accused of making lewd advances to at least five women in a store parking lot, but ultimately was found guilty of only one summary harassment count of "following in a public place," according to court documents. Owen denied the charges, and none of the women who accused him testified at his Feb. 24 hearing.

According to Pennsylvania's Megan's Law Web Site, Owen remains in Lancaster County Prison.

Two of the men who currently list Armstrong's Columbia property as their home address were convicted of indecent assault in 2003; a third was convicted of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse in 1986. The fourth resident was convicted in 2004 of aggravated indecent assault.

It is unclear whether any of their victims were minors. ..News Source.. by SUSAN E. LINDT, Staff Writer