RI- Warwick PD: Flier about sex offender at school is wrong

These circumstances show one of the reasons why the "public registry" causes problems for those registered, and is typical of the many cases of mis-identification in crimes. How does this man remove the false accusation from every eye that viewed it? While the police are trying to help him, they know the stain will appear again.

9-18-2009 Rhode Island:

WARWICK, R.I. -- The police are working to debunk a flier that's circulating in the community suggesting a registered sex offender may have been photographing a child on a school playground Tuesday evening.

The police have determined that the man named on the flier was not at the school that night and was not doing what the flier suggests, Police Capt. Robert Nelson said Friday morning.

"We've investigated that. He was not there. We know where he was," Nelson said. "We know everything about him. He's provided alibis, and we've confirmed those. He wasn't there. It wasn't him."

According to Nelson, it all began at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday when a husband and wife saw a man who they thought was photographing a child on the jungle gym at Wyman Elementary School, located at 1 Columbia Ave.

After the couple apparently found a picture of a registered sex offender on an online database -- Nelson doesn't know which one -- and thought he could have been the man they saw, someone else began circulating fliers, according to the police.

The fliers wrongly accuse the man, Nelson said.

"The problem is that they kind of went off and did their own thing and were wrong," he said. " ... They jumped the gun but never got the actual facts."

Nelson said the police are troubled that the couple didn't contact them Tuesday when they grew suspicious of the man's behavior. The police did get a call from a neighbor in the area, but that was almost two hours after the incident, Nelson said.

In response to the incident, the police are urging people to contact the police rather than taking matters into their own hands. Because the couple did not call the police Tuesday night, officers could not be there right away to investigate, Nelson said.

The police did search for the man after the neighbor called, but two hours after the fact, they did not find him, Nelson said. Had officers located the man who was actually at the school, they might have been able to determine what he was doing with what the couple thought was either a cell phone or a small mechanical device, Nelson said.

"When you start identifying people and maligning them wrongly, they have civil liability," Nelson said. "So you open yourself up to -- particularly when you put them in flier form, it becomes a problem. Not withstanding the hysteria and concern you cause the neighbors for something that may or may not have happened or may not be legitimate."

The sex offender has been fully cooperative with the police and was appropriately registered, Nelson said.

An investigation into the incident continues, Nelson said. He would not name the couple or the person who distributed the fliers. No charges have been filed in connection with the incident, he said. ..Source.. by Kate Bramson