MI- Woman lives in fear of rapist's release from prison

Obviously the reporter tells this story to get an effect from readers; sensationalizing. It is clear that the woman is still living the horror of the crime and I wonder if she has had any therapy to help her with those feelings. Now, the reporter is at fault here because ONLY one side of a story is told, no interview with any Parole Board member to see why they would have paroled this man, obviously he met their criteria. Also, no interview with the man to see what his feelings are TODAY, it is possible his comment which has her so afraid, was said in anger BACK THEN and he may not feel that way TODAY, we do not know! Finally, Michigan has a sex offender therapy program and this article fails to tell us whether he participated. This article is a poor example of journalism as it is missing many facts necesary for one to make a reasonable decision about this man TODAY!

6-22-2009 Michigan:

Editor's note: The Daily Press & Argus is using the pseudonym Mary because the victim spoke on the condition of anonymity. Her location also is not being identified for her safety.

A woman — who was repeatedly raped by a male acquaintance who slid a knife over her body while threatening to kill her — said her rapist's expected release from prison is an example of parolees about to flood communities due to an early release plan aimed at reducing prison populations.

The woman doesn't agree with state officials who say that only nonviolent prisoners who are eligible for parole will be released. The woman, whom the Daily Press & Argus is calling Mary because she asked for anonymity, still recalls the letter her rapist wrote her 12 years ago.

"I'll see you in 15," it read, referring to what was expected to be a minimum sentence of 15 years for the violent attack.

"I fear for my safety and my life," Mary said quietly, her voice cracking as she twisted her shirt sleeve between her fingers while glancing around her home as if the devil himself sat next to her.

"I'm so angry with (the governor)," she added. "Why is she releasing violent ... rapists on the street to perpetuate crimes against women and children?"

Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman John Cordell said no inmate is being granted early release. Rather, he said, the parole board has been reviewing the estimated 12,000 inmates who have served time beyond their earliest release date. Among those, an estimated 3,500 could be granted release by the parole board.

Cordell acknowledged that the department is shrinking the prison population on a quicker timetable because of the budget crisis. He said only offenders posing the lowest risk are being paroled sooner than they might otherwise have been released.

Among those granted approval is Mary's rapist — Oakland County resident Charles R. Feuquay, who has served 12 years of his 15-year to 30-year sentence for two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

On a fall night in 1996, Feuquay jumped on Mary's chest while she was in bed, wrapped her head, mouth and nose in duct tape, tied her to a bed at her Oakland County home and repeatedly raped her for more than five hours.

"I had to claw the tape away from my nose in order to breathe," Mary said, demonstrating with her hands as she spoke, her watery eyes round with fear.

State: Safety No. 1
Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer Granholm, said the state is "not interested in releasing prisoners who pose a danger to the public." Its No. 1 priority, she said, is public safety.

"With that said, we are embarking on policies that will help us control what has become a huge budget problem for the state of Michigan," she noted.

Granholm's newly expanded parole board is releasing more inmates who have served beyond their minimum sentence.

The parole board is following recommendations from independent experts who found Michigan inmates stay in prison longer than the nationally average, despite the inmates receiving similar minimum sentences.

The prison population has fallen by 4,000 inmates since peaking at a record 51,454 in December 2006.

Officials credit the decline to more paroles and commutations, fewer felony convictions and prison intakes, more Global Positioning System monitoring, and an expanded program to keep parolees from committing new crimes.

The number of criminals entering prisons dropped 9 percent in 2008, officials said, and was down 4 percent through April of this year.

The experts are helping the state develop parole policies and recommendations on ways to control costs while maintaining public safety, Boyd said.

Mary said she thinks state officials are lying about the danger the parolees represent.

She still recalls how Feuquay bragged while raping her that he had harmed other women. She said Feuquay, whom she calls "evil," had a sleeping bag near her bed, which he said he was going to use to carry her in.

Mary said that less restrictive parole standards are "why we're seeing cases like Nevaeh (Buchanan)."

Buchanan, 5, disappeared in May from her apartment complex in Monroe. Two fishermen found her body in a hole along the River Raisin on June 4. No arrests have been made, although two "persons of interest" are convicted sex offenders who are being held in a Jackson prison pending parole revocation hearings for having associated with Nevaeh's mother, among other violations.



Parole granted
Feuquay was first eligible for parole in April and on June 8 the parole board granted him release with "no fixed date," meaning he can be released once he completes the parole placement process, which usually takes up to 30 days, Cordell said.

Feuquay is housed in a minimum-security prison — Hiawatha Correctional Facility in the Upper Peninsula town of Kincheloe, which is one of eight prisons slated to close. Feuquay had to be deemed low-risk according to a confidential psychological screening used by the department in order to be paroled, Cordell said.

Mary said she believes the 48-year-old Feuquay was granted parole earlier than usual due to Granholm's desire to reduce the prison population of 47,550 to below 45,000 by Oct. 1.

Paul Walton, deputy chief with the Oakland County prosecutor's office, could not say that the parole board's decision to release Feuquay was specifically due to budget cuts, but he did note that it is unusual for the board to grant release to a sex offender on the first try.

That view is supported by Michigan Department of Corrections statistics, which show that 74 percent of Michigan's prisoners are granted parole on the first try, while that number is significantly lower — 22 percent to 25 percent — for sex offenders.

The end result was a "significant" number of sex offenders remaining in prison, but that appears to be changing.

MDOC on new path
As a result of the higher number of sex offenders remaining in prison, the Michigan Department of Corrections has adopted alternate screening tools to evaluate sex offenders' risk to society.

Walton, who described Mary's ordeal as "a very brutal rape," said that recent policy change is a problem in the Feuquay case.

"In this case, that's one reason we are appealing — we feel his sexual assessment shows he's at risk," said Walton, who could not elaborate because the assessment is confidential. "We believe he should have been denied parole."



The Oakland County prosecutor's office is so passionate about its stance that Prosecutor Jessica Cooper will appeal the parole board's decision — a move the office hasn't made in 10 years, Walton noted.

The appeal is expected to be heard July 1 before Judge Michael Warren in 6th Circuit Court in Pontiac.

"From our perspective, it would be extremely upsetting seeing someone coming back into society with (Feuquay's) past," Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe agreed.

Local law enforcement said the state is simply dumping its problems on local governments, which will have to deal with those inmates who were released too early.

"They aren't closing eight prisons and keeping the same number (of inmates)," said Livingston County prosecutor David Morse. "They are letting ... the inmates out."

Morse said the number of parole notices from the state to his office has increased four-times to five-times from previous levels. An estimated half-dozen of those inmates returning to Livingston County are committing new crimes, he said.

Morse said the state needs to recognize that the more it relaxes its standards and releases inmates early, the more crimes that will be committed by the parolees.

"It will be people in our communities being the victims of those crimes," he said. "To take a risk when it's you running the risk is one thing, but when it's someone else's risk, that's quite something else."

"You'll see more crimes committed and less people going to prison," Sheriff Bob Bezotte said. ..Source.. by Lisa Roose-Church