CO- Police crush sex offender's car; warn of more

I wonder what they will CRUSH when a police officer -from headquarters- does the same as this fellow did?

10-28-2009 Colorado:

DENVER - Officials in the police department wanted to figure out the most eye-catching way to make a statement about pursuing sex offenders. They came up with the idea of a press conference, with the main event being the smashing of a 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse.

"It would be important for us to actually make a public point here," Captain Judith Will said while standing in front of the car that was painted red with one white stripe going down the center.

That car used to belong to 37-year-old Balazs Toth. In June, he pleaded guilty to criminal attempt to commit sexual assault on a child. Police arrested Toth in December of 2008 after he tried to meet up with a 14-year-old girl with whom he'd been chatting online.

He drove his car to the parking lot of a fast food restaurant, planning to have sex with the girl.

The meeting was actually an undercover sting by Denver Police.

"Because of the severity and type of crime, we felt it would be more important to crush the car and make sure the car is never used in a criminal offense again," Detective John Brown, who handled the case as part of Denver's Public Nuisance Abatement Unit, said.

The unit filed civil charges against the car. It regularly files charges against inanimate objects.

The unit was created by an ordinance in 1994 and targets things described as: "Any parcel of real property, personal property, or motor vehicle on or in which any of the following illegal activity occurs, or which is used to commit, conduct, promote, facilitate, or aid the commission of or flight from any of the following activities."

Those activities include 22 offenses, which range from drug or weapons possession, to repeat traffic offenders and sex offenders. Anyone charged with those crimes could have their cars crushed or property seized, as part of the law.

Sometimes the seized property is a building or a business.

Not all cars are crushed as part of the ordinance. Some cars are returned to lien holders or owners if a settlement is reached. Some of the vehicles are auctioned off.

"From a standpoint, financially, for the city and county of Denver, it makes sense to try to sell these vehicles at auction and get those financial benefits to help the general fund," Will said.

The captain added that Toth's car was not one that the city wanted to auction off. Instead, officials chose to crush it.

"We want to get the message out there. We're not going to tolerate this, and we're going to come after you," she said.

Sex offenders were added to the nuisance abatement unit's list five years ago. Investigators think this is the first time that police have crushed a car belonging to a sex offender.

There could be more to come.

"We are going to take these kinds of actions in the future for this kind of criminal activity," Brown said.

Police say their ultimate mission is to help children.

"Many of us are parents," Division Chief David Fisher said. "All of us are concerned. And everyone in our community is concerned about the most vulnerable people in our society, our children."

Toth, a former Catholic school teacher, was sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years of probation. ..Source.. by Dan Boniface TaRhonda Thomas