11-7-2009 Kentucky:
Editorial by Messenger-Inquirer
Last month, the Kentucky Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional an overzealous attempt by the Kentucky General Assembly to restrict where convicted sex offenders can live.
The court made the right decision, and Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway should have let the issue rest. Instead, Conway is pushing on to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to uphold a law he should know is unjust.
The 2006 law prohibited convicted sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, playground or day care facility. The law applied to all convicted sex offenders, including those convicted before the law was passed, and regardless of whether a child was the victim of their offense.
That's where lawmakers ran into trouble -- by retroactively applying the restrictions to those who had been convicted prior to the law's passage in violation of the Constitution, according to the court.
The Kentucky Supreme Court's ruling should have been the end of the matter. But instead, the state Department of Corrections instructed its probation and parole officers to ignore the ruling, and Conway is pursuing another opinion in Washington. On Thursday, Conway asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the residency restrictions to remain in effect while it determines whether to hear the case.
In announcing his intention to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court, Conway said he was driven by "serious concerns" about how the state court's ruling would affect public safety and that he was acting "in the interest of protecting Kentucky families." Conway noted in a press release this week that "there are public safety implications for families in keeping sex offenders away from where children congregate."
The issue here is not whether imposing residency restrictions on convicted sex offenders is constitutional. The debate isn't over whether these restrictions are effective, though there are legitimate questions about whether dictating where a sex offender can live lessens the chance of re-offending.
What's at issue here is the legal question of whether it is right and just to impose a punishment retroactively.
Imagine serving time for a committing a crime and being released from prison only to be slapped with additional penalties and punishments years later at the whimsy of legislators. The trend in recent years has been to increase prison sentences for certain felony crimes -- should those convicted of those crimes years or even decades ago be ordered to return to prison and serve additional time even though the original sentence was completed?
Heading in this direction would make a criminal's punishment only be as final as the latest session of the legislature since lawmakers could always come back and punish an offender further.
And it doesn't take the most skeptical person to note that Conway is also campaigning to be Kentucky's next U.S. senator, and appearing tough on crime never hurts at the polls.
But in pursuing his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Conway seeks to establish a dangerous precedent that would undermine the standard of fairness in the criminal justice system. As the Kentucky Supreme Court noted in its ruling, "the residency restrictions are so punitive in effect as to negate any intention to deem them civil."
That's not justice, and the Constitution recognizes that. Attorney General Conway should, too. ..Source..
Saturday, November 7, 2009
KY- EDITORIAL: Ruling on sex offender law should stand
Cruel life in prison
11-7-2009 National:
Editorial by LA Times
Juvenile offenders should not receive a sentence that offers no hope for eventual release.
The U.S. Supreme Court recognized in 2005 that it is unconstitutionally cruel to execute people for crimes committed before they were 18, because youths lack the sense of responsibility that society requires of adults. Their personalities are not yet fixed; they are more susceptible to the negative influences of other people or events. Society's understandable demand for retribution is necessarily blunted when the perpetrator of a crime is a juvenile. Likewise, the threat of a stiff penalty cannot have the same deterrent effect on a youth as it does on an adult; young people have too little experience to fully grasp the consequences of their actions.
The court on Monday will hear arguments in the cases of two Floridians sentenced, in effect, to eventually die in prison because they lack even the slightest chance of release on parole. The same reasoning that bars execution for crimes committed in youth should also block such sentences of life without hope for young people, at the very least for those whose crimes fall short of murder.
Terrance Jamar Graham was 16 when he joined two others in a failed attempt to rob a restaurant; a year later, he was on probation when he participated in a home invasion robbery. His crimes were brutal; he was a repeat offender; and he deserved to be punished, to be imprisoned, and even, perhaps, to be sentenced to life. But not without a chance, in the future, for a court or parole board to review his growth and development and consider another chance at parole.
There are, to be sure, youths who mature earlier than others, just as there are adults who never fully mature. But there must be a line, and age 18 is the point at which society determines people are ready to sign contracts, marry without parental consent, serve on juries and be drafted into the military.
Society can and should countenance a hopeless existence in prison for adult perpetrators. But not for juveniles. The U.S. is, for now, the only nation that has not banned life in prison without parole for juvenile offenders, and more than 2,000 are serving such terms behind bars.
But there are, fortunately, few in the position of Joe Sullivan, sentenced in Florida to life without parole for a crime he committed when he was only 13. That kind of sentence for a crime committed at such an early age shocks the conscience and cannot be seen as anything but unconstitutionally unusual -- as well as cruel. ..Source..
CA- Questioning of Dugard, Garrido detailed
11-7-2009 California:
John Simerman, Contra Costa Times
Jaycee Dugard hid her identity, lied, refused to answer questions and asked for a lawyer as a parole agent probed her relationship with Phillip Garrido during the Aug. 26 meeting in Concord that prompted the arrests of Garrido and his wife.
Ultimately it was Garrido, questioned separately, who admitted he had raped and kidnapped Dugard and that he was the girls' father. Only later did the woman who went by "Alyssa" reveal herself, according to a report this week by the state Inspector General's Office.
The report, a lashing review of mistakes and missed chances by state parole agents over the past 11 years, sheds new light on how Garrido's parole agent and Concord police discovered an 18-year mystery, tipped off by two UC Berkeley officials.
The UC officials, including a campus police officer, grew wary when Garrido showed up Aug. 25 with two girls, seeking an event permit and spewing religious ramblings. The officer ran a background check, found Garrido was a registered sex offender and tracked down his parole agent.
Later that day, two parole agents drove to Garrido's home near Antioch, handcuffed him and searched the house, the report says. They found only Garrido's wife, Nancy, and his elderly mother. On a drive to the parole office, Garrido said the two girls "were the daughters of a relative and that he had permission from their parents to take them to the university."
A month earlier, parole officials had attached a new condition to Garrido's lifetime parole from his Nevada conviction for the 1976 rape of a woman he kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, the report says. He was now barred from being around minors. But the parole agent and his supervisor looked past the new condition, drove him home and ordered him to report back to the office the next day, the report says.
His parole agent was on the phone with the UC officer when the Garridos showed up the next day with Dugard and the two girls in tow. The UC officer said the girls called him "daddy." The parole agent believed Garrido had no young children. He separated Garrido from the women and girls.
Alyssa said she was their mother.
"The parole agent believed that Alyssa looked too young to be the mother and asked her age. Alyssa said that she was 29 years old, laughingly explaining that she often gets that comment and that people believe she is the girls' sister," the report says.
She and Nancy Garrido became "agitated" under questioning. Alyssa said she knew Garrido had taken the girls to the Berkeley campus and also knew he was a paroled sex offender who had kidnapped and raped a woman.
"She added that Garrido was a changed man and a great person who was good to her kids," the report says. "Alyssa subsequently stated that she didn't want to provide any additional information and that she might need a lawyer."
No personal data
Separately, Garrido told a parole agent that the girls were his nieces, all of them daughters of his brother in Oakley. "Garrido stated that the parents were divorced, the girls were living with them and other people, and he did not know his brother's address or phone number."
The parole agent insisted on identification from Alyssa. She told him she "had learned a long time ago not to carry or give any personal information to anyone." She also said she needed a lawyer.
The parole agent called in Concord police.
"As they waited for the officer to arrive, Alyssa said she was sorry that she had lied. She explained that she was from Minnesota and had been hiding for five years from an abusive husband," the report says. "She was terrified of being found, she said, and that was the reason she could not give the parole agent any information."
Garrido finally admitted to a Concord officer that he had kidnapped and raped Alyssa, the report says. Dugard revealed her identity and "confirmed that she had been kidnapped and raped by Garrido."
'Survival skill'
Concord police Lt. Jim Lardieri declined to comment on the report. McGregor Scott, a former U.S. attorney who represents Dugard, did not return a call Thursday. Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, told People magazine that the two girls, now 11 and 15, thought Dugard was their sister.
There is no evidence to suggest Dugard ever tried to escape the Walnut Avenue house where she and her two girls lived in a hidden backyard lair of tents, sheds and outbuildings, authorities say.
Her attempts to hide her true identity come as no surprise, said Katherine van Wormer, a social work professor at the University of Northern Iowa who has written about Dugard and other kidnap victims.
"After so many years of psyching themselves up, it's sort of like a denial. It's a survival skill. It becomes second nature," she said. "You shut off the part of your mind that would cause you to think in a disloyal way. And you go along.
"I call it 'traumatic bonding.' They really love these people," van Wormer added. "Maybe there is some element of protectiveness there, and a lack of judgment. It's just not rational, but she kept on doing it." ..Source..
FL- Paid promotion deal raises questions about Mark Lunsford's finances
11-7-2009 Florida:
by Susan Taylor Martin, Times Senior Correspondent
HOMOSASSA — Since his daughter Jessica was raped and murdered in 2005, Mark Lunsford has become one of America's best-known child advocates. With the help of donations to his nonprofit foundation, Lunsford has lobbied nationwide for tougher laws against criminals who prey on children.
But unknown to most, Lunsford has had another source of income for the past two years — a Boca Raton company that could profit from the very child-protection measures Lunsford has sought to enact.
It is the latest revelation about a man who has been hailed as a hero but whose handling of the foundation's finances has also raised questions about the line between advocacy and personal enrichment.
In an affidavit filed in a paternity case, Lunsford disclosed he is paid $4,000 every other week — more than $100,000 a year — by Technology Investors and its multimillionaire founder, Hank Asher.
Asher, who created databases used to track sexual predators and other criminals, is developing new technology to help in the fight against child molesters.
Asked what he does for Asher's company, Lunsford says: "It's not what I do for them, it's what they do for me." The steady pay, he says, enabled him to dissolve his foundation last year and concentrate on what he likes best — lobbying for Jessica's laws, not raising money.
"Mr. Asher wanted to help me because he knew what passion I have," Lunsford says. When the two first met in 2007, Asher "got real teary-eyed and said, 'You have the heart of a fighter.' "
It was Asher, Lunsford says, who persuaded him to drop plans to sue the Citrus County Sheriff's Office over its alleged bungling of the investigation into Jessica's murder. News of the intended suit triggered criticism that Lunsford, 46, was trying to profit from his daughter's tragic end.
"Hank said, 'I understand your anger and I know you want results, but the best thing is to close your nonprofit and focus on legislation.' "
Thus the Jessica Marie Lunsford Foundation quietly disbanded after just three years. But questions remain about how nearly $400,000 in donations was spent.
'Rock star status'
On Feb. 24, 2005, convicted sex offender John Couey slipped into the Homosassa trailer where Jessica, 9, lived with her father and grandparents. Couey took her to his nearby trailer, raped her and buried her alive.
Immediately after Couey's March 18 arrest and the discovery of Jessica's body, almost $50,000 in donations poured into a trust set up for the Lunsfords at a local bank.
"They wrote to help with our bills or to use however you wish," says Lunsford, who bought a used truck.
Lunsford says some of the money went into the nonprofit foundation he set up that spring with the help of Joe Boles, a nephew who briefly served as a foundation director.
While in Sarasota for a 2005 fundraiser, Boles and a girlfriend got into a drunken, violent fight at a Hyatt hotel. "Blood was literally on all of the walls, furniture and bedding," police said.
The $4,789 in damages were billed to a foundation credit card; Boles disappeared and never repaid the money.
That incident went unnoticed at the time as attention focused on Lunsford's metamorphosis from trucker with a high-school eduction to impassioned child advocate. He helped win quick passage in Florida of the nation's first Jessica's Law, which imposed tougher penalties on child molesters and required many of those released from prison to wear tracking devices for the rest of their lives.
Lunsford moved on, persuading legislators in more than 40 states to pass their own Jessica's Laws. There were fundraising bike rallies, appearances with Oprah and Bill O'Reilly, talk of book and movie deals. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist called Lunsford "a great man" and donated $63,812 from his inaugural to the foundation.
"It was rock star status," says Cheryl Sanders, a cousin of Lunsford who served as foundation treasurer.
"He liked that lifestyle. He'd never seen so much money in his life."
In the three years of the foundation's existence, Lunsford drew salaries totalling $118,800 and was reimbursed for travel costs, either by the foundation or by organizations that invited him to speak. Sanders wondered about some of the expenses charged to a foundation credit card — $1,435 for furniture from Kane's, $73 for drinks at Outback after Couey was sentenced to death (the restaurant "comped" the rest of the meal, she says) and gas for travel not related to the foundation.
Sanders says Lunsford also demanded reimbursement for nearly $1,000 in clothing.
"I said, 'Mark, the IRS is going to come on you; you can't do that,' '' she recalls.
"He said, 'F--- the IRS, I'm Mark Lunsford.' That's the day I was finished," says Sanders, who says she resigned as treasurer in October 2007.
Lunsford says he doesn't recall the incident, but denies using foundation money for personal expenses. He says he fired Sanders and paid a Jacksonville firm to "straighten out" what he says was her poor record-keeping.
"I don't know about book-keeping, that's why I hired people," he says.
IRS agents went to Lunsford's house last year, shortly after the dispute over his plans to sue the Sheriff's Office: "They looked over a bunch of stuff," he says, "and asked me to send copies of stuff.'
He says hasn't heard from the agency since it acknowledged receipt of the material. The agency would not comment on whether it is investigating.
Paid to promote
In 2006, Lunsford had a brief agreement with a New York company, AdZone Research, to promote its Online Predator Profiling Service for monitoring Internet chat rooms.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, AdZone said it would give the foundation $2,500 a month, 50,000 shares of stock and 1 percent of gross proceeds from the sale of the profiling service.
Lunsford plugged the service on MSNBC and says AdZone made one $2,500 donation. But the deal fell apart after the SEC questioned AdZone's claims to shareholders; the company appears to be out of business.
Lunsford says he rebuffed "plenty" of other for-profit companies before meeting Asher, a board member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
As a pilot in the '80s, Asher acknowledged flying several cocaine-smuggling flights, but he was never prosecuted. He went on to develop two databases, AutoTrak and Accurint, that provide addresses and other information, making them invaluable tools for police and others that need to track people quickly.
Asher made his databases available to the missing children's center at no charge. He reportedly received $260 million when he sold his company to LexisNexis in 2004 and started Technology Investors.
In a lawsuit last year, LexisNexis claimed Asher was violating a noncompete agreement by developing "revolutionary" tracking technology that he intended to eventually sell. Asher countersued, alleging LexisNexis wanted to keep its monopoly on database searching. Both cases were settled in April.
Asher did not respond to calls seeking comment. Lunsford, who rode in Asher's Mercedes during a media tour of company headquarters in December, says he sees nothing wrong with their arrangement. (It surfaced in a paternity case filed by a Homosassa woman who gave birth to Lunsford's son Roger Davis in 2007.)
Asher and his company "make it possible for me to go to other states, to be able to fly up to D.C. They gave me insurance and a salary and said, 'Fight the fight, Mark, and don't stop.' "
Where did money go?
After dissolving the foundation, Lunsford gave the Citrus County Child Advocacy Center a $17,200 motorcycle trailer that had been donated by a Sarasota woman.
The foundation's other assets included a tour bus once used by actor Sylvester Stallone. Donated in 2006, its value was never determined for tax purposes and the bus was never listed on IRS forms the foundation was required to file.
Lunsford says he sold the bus and banked the money, which he says will be given to charity. However, he says he doesn't remember who bought the bus or what was paid.
Nor does he remember the specifics of some of the foundation's expenditures, including $12,461 in 2006 for "entertainment," $23,700 in 2007 for "machinery and equipment" and $17,887 last year for "office supplies."
"That's all part of the reason for getting out of (the foundation). I just threw up my hands and said, 'Screw it.' "
Lunsford is one of several parents of murdered children who have started charities, only to see them struggle to survive as new tragedies hit the headlines.
Contributions to Florida's Jimmy Ryce Center, which has donated 300 bloodhounds to police agencies since 1996, dropped to $11,000 last year. The late Claudine Ryce took a small salary to run the center, but she and husband Don shunned offers from for-profit companies.
"You just really have to be careful because an organization can end up with a mess and it reflects on the child that the organization was named after," Ryce says.
Marc Klaas, whose daughter Polly was murdered in California in 1993, says he has never been paid by a for-profit company. But he doesn't criticize Lunsford's decision.
"Mark really did a lot of work in his organization by himself and never really had a huge support system. So if Hank Asher is Mark's support system, I could almost understand why he would accept that support and not ask a lot of questions. I think the legacy of his daughter is pretty strong because of the work he's done." ..Source..
SD- Parole Supervision In South Dakota
11-7-2009 South Dakota:
A team of nearly 40 South Dakota parole officers keep an eye on convicted felons when they're released from prison.
The work of parole officers across the country went under the microscope this week when the California Inspector General criticized parole officers in that state for missing several chances to stop a crime in its tracks.
Phillip Garrido is the man accused of kidnapping Jaycee Dugard when she was 11 years old and holding her captive for nearly two decades. California officials say parole officers missed hundreds chances to end the kidnapping that started when the convicted rapist was labeled a low risk offender.
In South Dakota there are 23 hundred recently released inmates being supervised by parole officers right now, but the agents say checking up on convicted felons on parole is just part of their job.
"Our main goal with parole would be to protect the public," Sioux Falls Parole Services Director Doug Clark said.
The protection starts with an assessment of the parolee, figuring out how much they should be supervised. Supervision ranges from intensive supervision to indirect. Every former inmate is placed in one of five categories, but that supervision isn't just based on the crimes that they've committed in the past.
"We look at things like employment and housing and attempt to stabilize those things because we know those things are very important," Clark said.
Having a stable job and a secure place to live will lower the chances of a convicted felon finding their way back to prison.
"That's going to make or break their parole, whether or not they can be employed, whether or not they can find stable housing and those types of things," Clark said.
That's why parole officers not only supervise but also assist in finding jobs for the offenders, because they know protecting the community takes more than just a few visits every month.
"The goal being to reduce the risk, their criminagenic risk and needs, to a point where their behavior changes and there is no returning to prison or returning to crime," Clark said.
Clark says parole officers do have different monitoring techniques for sex offenders. Every sex offender who is released from prison in South Dakota takes a polygraph test three months after their release, and then every six months after that. The goal is to check up on their behavior and make sure they aren't a risk to the public. ..Source.. by Ben Dunsmoor
OH- Neighbors: Suspected serial killer seemed harmless
11-7-2009 Ohio:
CLEVELAND — The man who lived in the house of rotting corpses never gave people a reason to wonder what he was really doing behind closed doors.
Anthony Sowell was the guy who liked to sit on his front steps drinking King Cobra Malt Liquor for $1.50 a bottle, sometimes in the company of a woman. He was the guy who hung around the corner convenience store bumming change off his neighbors. He was the guy who scrounged around sidewalks and backyards for empty cans and scrap metal to sell.
The suspected serial killer seemed so harmless that when he invited neighbors over for a barbecue in his driveway, they came. So benign that when he beckoned women inside his house that smelled of death, they apparently went willingly.
"If it's up to the people in the neighborhood, he probably never would have got caught," said 52-year-old LaBaron Simpson. "Because he didn't cause no problems around here."
The house where the authorities say 50-year-old Sowell lived among the reeking corpses of 10 women and the paper-wrapped skull of another was silent on Friday, and investigators say they have no plans to resume searching for additional remains. The ex-Marine, who served 15 years in prison for attempted rape, is being held without bail on five aggravated murder charges.
So far only four victims have been identified, including 43-year-old Nancy Cobbs, of Cleveland, whose name was released Friday. Others already identified are Tonia Carmichael, 52, of Warrensville Heights; Telacia Fortson, 31, of Cleveland; and Tishana Culver, 31, also of Cleveland. The city coroner's office is combing through DNA samples from the families of missing women to identify more remains.
Unbeknownst to most neighbors, Sowell was a registered sex offender who checked in with authorities from time to time and fooled people into believing he was just another guy trying to scrape out a living.
The only distinguishing physical characteristic about Sowell, who is about 5-foot-11 and weighed 160 pounds, is a scar under his left eye.
He smelled pretty bad, but then a lot of hard-up folks in this rough Cleveland neighborhood smell less than clean, people say. And even when a terrible, rotting stench wafted down the street and past his house, people didn't think Sowell was the source. Instead, they pointed fingers at the sausage shop next door.
"Nobody could imagine that this man was capable of doing what he was doing," said Fawcett Bess, owner of Bess Chicken & Pizza, a restaurant across the street from Sowell's house. "He always showed respect to you — 'good morning' and 'good evening' and that kind of thing."
The portrait of Sowell's early years is hazy, and no record of his birth could be found.
Court papers show he claims he fathered a child in 1978 with a woman who was not identified. He also said he was married in 1981 and divorced in 1985, but did not name his ex-wife.
In January 1978, when he was 19, Sowell joined the Marines, where he became a rifle sharpshooter and won two good conduct medals during stints in Cherry Point, N.C., Okinawa, Japan, and Camp Pendleton, Calif. In 1985, having risen to the rank of corporal, Sowell left the service.
A few years later, back home in Cleveland, he committed his first known attack.
Records of that 1989 assault show Sowell took a 21-year-old woman to his Page Avenue home, pushed her down on the bed and started to choke her. When she tried to scream, he said: "You can scream all you want, nobody is home."
He sexually assaulted the woman twice, gagged her, threatened to kill her and tied her up with a necktie, the report said.
Because of the viciousness of the crime, the parole board repeatedly denied him early release. In a parole hearing, he owned up to a drinking problem and said he'd been drinking the day of the assault.
The prison system gave Sowell excellent grades, however, for his attitude, initiative and dependability at his kitchen job. "Works well w/all staff & where ever needed," according to a July 22, 2003, inmate evaluation report sent to the parole board.
Upon his release in 2005, Sowell moved into the Imperial Avenue home owned by his father Thomas — who had died two years earlier — and Thomas' wife, Segerna.
Neighbors say Segerna Sowell was often sick, and some believe she moved into a nursing home. Though others had wondered if she was among the dead, police Lt. Tom Stacho confirmed Friday that Segerna Sowell "is alive and well in Cleveland."
Despite Sowell's quiet presence in the neighborhood, he was known to behave strangely at times.
We'd catch him talking to himself," said Martin Lloyd, who hired Sowell off the street to help rehabilitate houses, but fired him six months later for stealing tools. "Sometimes he'd just yell out loud."
The city's public defender says Sowell was laid off two years ago, but it was unclear what kind of work he had been doing. For a while, he was collecting unemployment checks.
Sometimes, neighbors say, they saw Sowell dragging garbage bags down the street.
Although his home was in a crowded neighborhood, his backyard — a burial site for five victims — was obscured by trees and a fence. Alongside the fence stood a trash bin that would start to smell about once a month, said neighbor Robby Adams.
"It would get really, really bad," he says, "and it would go away after they emptied the Dumpster." ..Source.. by MEGHAN BARR and JOHN SEEWER
CA- Authorities: Many Sex Offenders Lie About Where They Live
11-7-2009 California:
SAN DIEGO -- Hundreds of sex offenders in San Diego County are registered as homeless and deceiving authorities about where they really live, 10News reported.
Michael Eugene Lane, a sex offender convicted of lewd acts with a child, was detained in Rancho Bernardo last week, authorities told 10News.
For the last two years, he has been registered as a transient, but last week a tip led authorities to a home near the Oaks North Golf Course in Rancho Bernardo. The home is located not far from a school and a park.
Darryl Heintz, Interim Director of the S.A.F.E. Task Force, said, "The resident of the home confirmed he had been residing there for three months. In our investigation, we learned he was living at another friend's home previous to that -- also in Rancho Bernardo."
Lane is back in custody and faces more than five years in prison for the alleged deception, but authorities said many sex offenders have lied before.
In San Diego, there are about 1,400 registered sex offenders, with 225 registered as homeless amid a tough economy and more laws restricting where sex offenders can live. However, investigators said many are hiding where they live.
San Diego has 1,400 RSOs and 225 are REGISTERED as homeless, 16% are homeless. Many (NOT SUPPORTED by any FACTS) are hiding AND assumed to be lying about being homeless. Tough economy and restrictive laws, could that be the cause, or the police harassment of the homeowner where a RSO lives, as well as his neighbors at all hours of the day or night. Is it any wonder why SOME may lie to get some peace.
Start treating them like any other person in the community and you may get different results. After all, how many murderers, robbers, and other types of former criminals also live in the community which the police DO NOT bother and place the community at greater risk than do former sex offenders.
Heintz said, "Based on the surveillance I've done and the arrests I've made, I'd estimate between 25 to 35 percent are actually not homeless."
Prosecutors said sex offenders typically claim they don't want the addresses of family, friends and roommates on the Megan's Law Web site, and they don't want the harassment.
GPS monitoring covers some of the homeless -- those on parole. Those who are not covered could be anywhere, authorities said.
Phyllis Schess, Deputy District Attorney and Director of the Sex Offender Management Division, said, "When we don't know where people are, we can't watch what they're doing. They could be grooming children or stalking other potential victims."
Schess said the reality is law provides for sex offenders to register as homeless.
Some are campaigning for a new law to require GPS monitoring for all sex offenders, but opponents said it would be far too costly. ..Source.. by 10News.com
OH- I-Team: Sowell's Sexual Predator Report
It is important to note that, this report is really a "psychiatric report" used by the Ohio court when it classified Sowell in 2005 (prior to AWA), when he was paroled from prison. The report is not a "Sexual Predator" report, it seems that term was added based on someone's current feelings. More unbiased comments found in the report are found in UPI's "Sowell was considered low-risk" article.
11-7-2009 Ohio:
CLEVELAND -- A psychiatric report on Anthony Sowell raises almost as many questions as it answers about why Sowell allegedly became a serial killer of women.
Fox 8 I-Team Reporter Bill Sheil has obtained a copy of the "Sexual Predator Evaluation." It was done in 2005 - after Sowell finished serving a 15-year prison sentence for a brutal attack on a woman in 1989.
The report says Sowell is one of a two children born to a couple that later divorced. He grew up in Cleveland. His father was a construction worker who died in 2002. His mother worked at a dry cleaners. Despite the break-up, Sowers described "both of his parents in positive terms." Though his father left when Sowell was an infant, he reported staying in touch with his dad throughout his life.
Sowell indicates he was "teased and bullied" growing up, but "said that he had many friends...."
The report says that, in general, Sowell "described his childhood as good."
So how could he grow into the man who allegedly committed so many brutal crimes? The report suggests that alcohol was a major problem - and may have played a role in his attacks. The report says Sowell "had significant problems with drinking" and that he acknowledged "increased aggressiveness with drinking."
Sowell allegedly served malt liquor to at least some of his victims before he attacked.
He attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings while in prison, but said in the 2005 report that he had not been to any meetings since his release.
In a chilling sentence, the report states "the defendant reports having no deviant sexual preferences and there is no documentation of such." Sowell admitted to looking at pornography and said he had more than fifty sexual partners in his lifetime.
Sowell was in the Marines for seven years, and married a fellow Marine. The two later divroced, but not before having a daughter who today would be 31 years-old.
The fact that Sowell is older, 46 at the time of the evaluation and 50 now, and the fact that he had a daughter, were two factors plugged into a formula to try and estimate if he was likely to commit another sexual crime.
The formula concluded that Sowell only had a six percent of offending in the next five years, and a seven percent chance in the next ten or fifteen years.
The report cautions that the numbers are only an "estimate." If what police believe about Sowell repeatedly killing women is true, the estimate was dead wrong. ..Source.. by Bill Sheil Fox 8 I-Team Reporter
Friday, November 6, 2009
MI- Are sex-offender laws in need of reform?
11-6-2009 Michigan:
Advocates of reforms to America's sex-offender laws no doubt will cheer a Muskegon-area man's successful effort to get his name off the state's registry.
A state appeals court ruled unanimously this week that keeping the man's name on the list constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
When he was 18, Robert Dipiazza engaged in a consensual sexual relationship with his 14-year-old girlfriend (whom he eventually married). A teacher who found a provocative photograph of the couple contacted authorities.
As a first-time offender, Dipiazza was not convicted of a sex crime, but he was listed on the state's sex-offender registry. He said he has struggled to find and keep jobs since.
In what his attorney called "a victory for common sense," the court, in effect, acknowledged the question of whether teenagers who engage in consensual sex belong on the same list as, say, child molesters or sexual predators. Many argue there should be a "Romeo and Juliet" exemption for young lovers.
Well, should there? Sex below the age of consent (16 in Michigan) is still illegal, but does the offense warrant inclusion on a list that notoriously stigmatizes those on it and is vague about the crime committed?
A scathing report in the Economist over the summer makes the case for reform. Since the magazine's Web site requires a subscription, I'll summarize.
It leads with the story of Wendy Whitaker, a Georgia resident who at age 17 performed oral sex on a 15-year-old classmate. She was convicted of sodomy -- which according to Georgia law at the time included oral sex -- and given five years of probation. She failed to meet certain terms of the probation and was thrown in jail for more than a year.
In her late 20s, she struggles to find employment and housing and is socially ostracized because her name remains on the state's sex-offender registry. Sound familiar?
The report goes on:"Every American state keeps a register of sex offenders. California has had one since 1947, but most states started theirs in the 1990s. Many people assume that anyone listed on a sex-offender registry must be a rapist or a child molester. But most states spread the net much more widely. A report by Sarah Tofte of Human Rights Watch, a pressure group, found that at least five states required men to register if they were caught visiting prostitutes. At least 13 required it for urinating in public (in two of which, only if a child was present). No fewer than 29 states required registration for teenagers who had consensual sex with another teenager. And 32 states registered flashers and streakers.
"Because so many offences require registration, the number of registered sex offenders in America has exploded. As of December last year, there were 674,000 of them, according to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. If they were all crammed into a single state, it would be more populous than Wyoming, Vermont or North Dakota. As a share of its population, America registers more than four times as many people as Britain, which is unusually harsh on sex offenders. America's registers keep swelling, not least because in 17 states, registration is for life."
Earlier in the decade, a judge declared Michigan's sex-offender registry unconstitutional because there was no way for offenders to challenge their placement on the list, thereby violating their rights to due process.
The registry temporarily was shut down, but it was reactivated upon reversal of the ruling. Expect this week's court decision to revive debate. ..Source.. by Troy Reimink | The Grand Rapids
Citizens for Second Chances has a new home on the web
11-6-2009 National:
A quick note to let folks know that "Citizens for Second Chances" has a new home on the Internet.
They are A Michigan Based Support Group For Families of Individuals Convicted of -or- Charged With A Sex Offense.
Their old site was on Yahoo's Geocities, and Yahoo closed down hosting of ALL Geocities websites on October 26, 2009.
So stop over and see their new site, and don't forget to bookmark it as well.
Have a great day and a better tomorrow,
eAdvocate
TX- Female Sex Offenders Increasing
11-6-2009 Texas:
More Victims Reporting Women To Police
SAN ANTONIO -- They could be anyone you know -- sisters, aunts, cousins and teachers. But their sexual crimes are far from harmless and now the number of female sex offenders in Bexar County is growing.
"There is a sense to downplay a bit, not seeing it as being serious," said Cynthia Gentry, an associate professor who specializes in criminology. at Trinity University
According to Gentry, when it comes to young victims of a female predator, society is shocked and outraged, but when it's a teenager being sexually abused, society tends to look the other way.
"In their particular circle, in this culture, it might be considered a plus," Gentry said.
Sex abuse cases by women are rarely reported and when they are, cases like Mary Letourneau, an elementary school teacher caught having sex with a twelve year old boy, the attention is almost celebrity status.
But according to Dr. Gentry, a victim is a victim.
On the state's registered sex offender Web site, you would think all predators are men, but there are also plenty of female sex offenders on the list and according to authorities, that number is on the rise.
Based on numbers provided by the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, there are 4,700 registered female sex offenders in the county and according to authorities, the number has doubled, maybe even tripled what it was just a few years ago.
"That's the reaction I get, 'Never knew they had female offenders,'" said Deputy Armando Diaz of the Bexar County Sheriff's Sex Offender Registration Unit.
Diaz has been with the sheriff's sex offender office for nearly 10 years.
Diaz has noticed a jump in the number of registered female sex offenders in Bexar County from a few names on the list to a couple of pages full of women who are registered sex offenders.
Earlier in the month, 67 sex offenders were rounded up by various law enforcement agencies. Among those picked up was Irene Tejerina, a sex offender who failed to properly registered with the state.
Diaz believes tips have everything to do with the rise in the number of cases.
"Families are contacting the authorities to report the abuse, not the youngsters," Diaz said.
Gentry said victims of a sex crime are just that. A victim and female predators, most times, are very troubled.
"People tell me, 'Females do it.' I didn't think so, but now I know," said Mary, a young woman who was sexually attacked by a female.
"I was paralyzed down, paralyzed from my legs. It changed everything, it changed my life," Mary said.
Mary is still undergoing therapy and continues to use a cane to help her walk, but she hopes more victims will come forward to report the sexual abuse.
"It's a serious crime and that needs serious attention," she said. ..Source.. by Rosenda Rios, KSAT 12 News Reporter
VA- Victim of child porn seeks damages from viewers
11-6-2009 Virginia:
Misty is all grown up now.
She goes by Amy these days, but even that's not her real name. So fearful of being outed as the "star" of the Misty child pornography series, she keeps her true identity a closely guarded secret.
The Misty series is one of the most popular and readily available kiddie porn videos on the Internet. It's considered a collector's item among pedophiles. Downloading it is a felony.
Amy, now 20, remains traumatized by the crimes but became devastated upon learning they have been distributed worldwide. Officials have identified 750 individuals who possess the Misty series, but they believe tens of thousands of copies are out there.
In a novel approach to getting help, she and an attorney have begun petitioning federal courts for restitution against anyone convicted of possessing the Misty series.
Raymond Highsmith, a former Shriner from Virginia Beach convicted of downloading the videos, is one such defendant.
The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 includes a section requiring restitution for victims of sex crimes. Whether that extends to defendants convicted of downloading and viewing child pornography remains a hotly contested question across the country. Some judges have awarded Amy millions; others have given her nothing.
Amy, who lives in the Northeast, seeks restitution for physical, psychiatric and psychological care, occupational therapy, transportation, housing, child care, lost income, attorneys' fees and other losses that might result from the crimes that have occurred.
She has described her horror in a letter to courts where she is seeking restitution.
A trusted uncle who was left to watch Amy began raping her when she was 8. He told her she was special, that he loved her and that they had their own special secrets.
He would buy her favorite snack, beef jerky, and give her rides on his motorcycle. Today, she can't eat beef jerky without feeling panic, guilt and humiliation, and she'll never ride a motorcycle again.
For more than a year, the uncle videotaped varied sex acts. He forced the girl to perform sex telephone calls and Internet chats with other men, and he even took her to a secluded wooded area to meet with other pedophiles.
When her parents discovered what was happening, the uncle was arrested and Amy was put in therapy. She had repeated nightmares, waking up crying and in cold sweats. She would dream her uncle was getting out of jail and coming to get her.
Amy seemed to respond well to the therapy, but as she grew into a teenager, she hid an "underlying fragility" with feelings of mistrust, anger and guilt under a "seemingly strong facade," Joyanna Silberg, her adult psychologist, wrote in a detailed report on Amy's condition.
At 16, Amy began drinking heavily and that grew worse when, at 17, she learned that the "Misty" images had been sent around the world over the Internet. She sought help, got herself under control and headed off to college.
But she had trouble paying attention and making it to class. She had a breakdown after seeing a movie on abused children in a psychology class and dropped out of school.
Today, she suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. Victims of child sexual abuse are more resistant to treatment than victims of other types of PTSD, Silberg wrote. Amy is trapped in feelings of being dirty and shamed.
"Amy faces a long and difficult course of treatment," Silberg wrote in her report.
"Feelings of shame and humiliation are multiplied exponentially for victims of Internet child pornography," she continued. And knowing the images are out there "interferes significantly with the therapeutic resolution of these problems."
She lives in fear that if one of her friends "Googles" her name, the pictures might pop up. She knows that those abusive images will always be on the Internet.
"I don't want to be there, but I have to be there and it's never going away, and that's a scary thought," she said in a letter filed with several courts where she sought restitution.
"It is hard to describe what it feels like to know that at any moment, anywhere, someone is looking at pictures of me as a little girl being abused by my uncle and is getting some kind of sick enjoyment from it," she wrote.
"It's like I am being abused over and over and over again."
Even though the restitution law has been on the books for 15 years, no one tried to collect from defendants who downloaded and viewed the videos until this year. Those who produced the videos, such as Amy's uncle, have long been held accountable for payments to the victims.
Only recently has the Department of Justice begun notifying victims such as Amy by letter that they could be entitled to restitution. More than 2,600 child victims have been positively identified.
Amy and another victim who was brutalized on film, in what's known as the "Vicky" series, began filing requests for restitution earlier this year.
In 20 cases, they have had mixed results. A federal judge in Florida ordered a defendant to pay Amy $3.2 million, nearly the full amount she sought based on estimates for lost wages and mental health treatment for the rest of her life, but that case is on appeal. Even if she wins, the defendant, James Freeman, is serving a 50-year prison term and has few assets.
Some child pornography defendants, such as Freeman and Norfolk's Shon Walter, who is serving 23 years in federal prison for looking at kiddie porn, are serving more time than Amy's uncle. The uncle, convicted of repeatedly raping Amy, filming the attacks and selling the videos, is eligible for parole in 2011 after serving a minimum of 12 years.
Another judge in Florida awarded Amy her full $3.6 million request, but that case is also on appeal. Most judges awarded Amy and Vicky minimal damages of between $1,000 and $3,000.
Federal judges in Oregon, California, Hawaii and Arkansas and in the Alexandria federal court denied restitution awards for Amy and the Vicky series victim. The Arkansas judge found that there was no reasonable way to assess a restitution amount, that the victim was not identifiable and that there was no proof of a "causal link" between viewing the images and specific injury to Amy.
The government has appealed that case, which could set up a showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court over the conflicting rulings.
In the Highsmith case in Norfolk, Amy is awaiting a ruling on restitution by U.S. District Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr. The judge heard arguments on Sept. 22 at Highsmith's sentencing, but appeared skeptical. He has until Dec. 21 to rule.
"I don't have any testimony. I don't have any documents. How can the court determine how much?" the judge asked.
"I cannot stand here and vouch for these numbers," Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Stoker admitted.
Stoker submitted to the judge details from other cases and a lengthy position paper arguing for restitution, but he did not provide the court with the letter from Amy or the report from her psychologist, both of which were provided in other cases.
Stoker also acknowledged that even Amy's uncle was ordered to pay restitution of only $6,000, of which she was to receive $1,125.
Amy has received payment from only one defendant, but that didn't stem from a judge's order. Amy settled out of court with that defendant, in Connecticut, for $130,000 in a civil action that voided the need for restitution in the criminal case.
Amy did not testify in any of the cases. The victim in the Vicky series has, in a case out of Fresno, Calif., but even then she was awarded only $1,000. Her mother testified, too.
"The memories and trauma of her abuse still haunt her and our family, but now there is a new abuser," the mother said, according to a court transcript. "The new abusers are the sick individuals who download her pictures and enjoy watching her being sexually assaulted as a child. This sickens me."
Amy's attorney, James R. Marsh of New York, has been fighting the restitution battle for her. Amy, he said, remains in a very fragile state. She just had a baby and is in a troubled relationship.
"She is completely devastated by this," he said. "She basically doesn't have any joy in her life. This is just an awful situation."
Amy wrote in her victim impact statement that she feels unworthy of anything and a complete failure.
"What happened to me hasn't gone away," she said. "It will never go away." ..Source.. by Tim McGlone, The Virginian-Pilot
IN- Should convicted drug dealers be ordered to register like sex offenders?
Sure drug crimes should, and so should murderers, robbers, car thieves, domestic violence, and any other crime; each should have its own registry. Now, as to the remaining folks, they must be made to swear under oath, they have never committed a crime since birth, anyone refusing, well thats another registry! All those registries should keep the police so busy they don't have time to fight crime, thats keeps everyone employed; a stimulus program.
11-6-2009 Indiana:
Bob B. of Valparaiso claims he lives next door to a convicted drug dealer who is allegedly dealing and using again, but there's nothing he can do, he says.
"We are afraid. And we have been instructed by the local police to report anything the least bit suspicious," Bob said. "Yet legally, there is nothing we can do."
Bob and his wife have lived in their home for 22 years, and they're tempted to move.
"However, we like our house and have put in a lot of work over the years. Morally, how do you sell a house to someone knowing what kind of neighbors they would have? I have decided to stay and improve the neighborhood rather than flee. Do I have any assurances that my new neighbors would be better?"
He's also concerned for his neighbors.
"Next door to us is a couple with a 4-1/2 year old and a 15-month-old. Across the street is a widow, and beside her is a couple with five kids who enjoy playing outdoors. A popular park for very young children, Tower Park, is less than a block away and others in the neighborhood walk young ones by their house everyday," Bob told me.
The problem (and possible solution), he points out, is that convicted drug dealers do not have to register publicly as sex offenders do. Instead, he noted, "they are allowed to cut a deal, testify against others, and then return to the community... where innocent people live."
Bob's advice to others: "Ask everyone in their neighborhood if they know of a convicted drug dealer living in the area. Ask where you walk, jog, etc. We all need to know and we all need to keep our eyes wide open. Ask for their own safety."
"We have done nothing wrong, but are serving a sentence." ..Source.. by Jerry Davich
CA- Jaycee Lee Dugard showed signs of Stockholm syndrome
11-6-2009 California:
Jaycee Lee Dugard showed signs of Stockholm syndrome when she was found after 18 years in captivity, according to an official report by California's inspector general.
When first interviewed by parole officers who were suspicious of her alleged abductor Phillip Garrido she did not reveal her identity.
Instead, she told investigators she was a battered wife from Minnesota who was hiding from her abusive husband, and described Garrido as a "great person" who was "good with her kids".
Miss Dugard, who called herself "Alyssa", told interviewers she was aware Garrido was a convicted sex offender but that he was a "changed man". Only after Garrido admitted he had kidnapped and raped her did she identify herself as Jaycee Dugard, the report said.
Since her release and being reunited with her family Miss Dugard has indicated she will testify against Garrido and his wife Nancy who are charged with her abduction and rape.
McGregor Scott, a lawyer hired by her family, said: "Miss Dugard is fully committed to working with law enforcement to ensure Mr Garrido is held accountable for his crimes."
The report by inspector general David Shaw also listed a catalogue of mistakes by parole officers assigned to monitor Garrido which prolonged Miss Dugard's imprisonment.
Garrido is accused of kidnapping Miss Dugard in 1991, when she was 11. Three years earlier, he had been released from prison after serving only 11 years of a 50-year sentence for rape.
Mr Shaw said: "We determined that Garrido was only properly supervised 12 out of 123 months, a failure rate of 90 per cent." Parole officers failed to interview Garrido's neighbours in Antioch, California or to investigate utility wires running to a secret backyard compound where Miss Dugard, and the two daughters Garrido fathered by her, are believed to have lived.
Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response in which kidnap victims begin to show sympathy for their abductors. It was named after a robbery in Sweden in which hostages became emotionally attached to their captors. ..Source.. by Nick Allen in Los Angeles
CA- Sex Offender GPS: A Tool, Not a Solution
A vendor has sold the state a white elephant, GPS will NEVER PREVENT crimes. Notice the comment about how parole agents must VISUALLY review reports from GPS units to see if they SEE any violations, nothing is automated. That type of system is a complete waste of taxpayer money. Given Garrido was on that type of GSP, is it any wonder why Agents never had time to do more than "Hello and Good Bye" when visiting parolees?
11-6-2009 California:
SACRAMENTO, CA - All 6,782 sex offenders currently on parole in California are being monitored by GPS. But the case involving Phillip Garrido shows the system is far from foolproof.
"We've never claimed (GPS) is going to end all problems with tracking sex offenders," said Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Gordon Hinkle. "That's not how the department looks at its use."
Parole Agent Bryan Nakayama demonstrated how he tracks the 23 paroled sex offenders under his supervision. Every day he reviews a map of each parolee's daily travels, looking for suspicious activity and curfew violations. But he readily admits the technology has its limitations.
"The GPS will only show you where they're at. It doesn't show you what they're doing," Nakayama pointed out.
For example, GPS monitoring showed Garrido spent a good deal of time in the area behind his home. Only after his arrest was it revealed the backyard is where he kept 1991 kidnap victim Jaycee Lee Dugard and her two children that he fathered.
Parole Agent Mark McCarthy believes GPS mapping can't replace human interaction in the field. "You still have to rely on good, basic casework," he said.
Voters approved Jessica's Law in 2006, mandating that all sex offenders be tracked by GPS for life. So far, GPS tracking has only been implemented for sex offenders on active parole, and fewer than a third of them are monitored in near-real time.
Most paroled sex offenders are passively monitored with gaps in tracking and reports delayed by a day or longer. Garrido was among those on passive GPS monitoring.
CDCR spokesman Gordon Hinkle said the department would like to place all paroled sex offenders on near-real time monitoring, but lacks the money and manpower to do so. ..Source.. by George Warren
KY- AG asks Supreme Court to rule on sex offender law
11-6-2009 Kentucky:
FRANKFORT, KY (AP) — Attorney General Jack Conway is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to suspend the Kentucky Supreme Court's recent ruling which loosened restrictions on where convicted sex offenders may live.
Kentucky's high court recently denied Conway's request to suspend its own ruling while he appeals to the federal supreme court.
The state court ruled Oct. 1 that Kentucky's sex offender law, passed in 2006, was unconstitutional because it also applied to sex offenders who were convicted before the law was on the books. The law barred sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, daycare centers, playgrounds and other places where children congregate.
Conway has until Dec. 30 to file a motion seeking the federal court's review, a move he says he'll do. ..Source.. by WAVE3.com
OH- Accused serial killer previously stationed at Lejeune
11-6-2009 Ohio:
An accused serial killer arrested on Halloween after Cleveland police found at least 11 dead bodies in his home spent time as a Marine at Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point.
Anthony Sowell, 50, a registered sex offender in Ohio, is being held without bond on five counts of murder.
Sowell had duty stations as an electrician at Camp Lejeune from May 1978 to July 1978 and the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at Cherry Point from July 1978 to March 1980. After a year in California, Sowell returned to Cherry Point from April 1981 to December 1983. He was discharged in January 1985, all according to Maj. Shawn Haney, public affairs officer with Marine Manpower and Reserve Affairs at Quantico, Va.
Sowell’s awards include Good Conduct Medal, a Meritorious Mast certificate, Sea Service Deployment ribbon, Certificate of Commendation and two Letters of Appreciation.
Four years after his discharge, Sowell went to prison in Ohio for 15 years for a 1989 rape conviction. He was paroled in 2005 and moved into his family home on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland.
Ohio authorities went to Sowell’s home to serve a sexual assault arrest warrant and found two bodies in the three-story house Oct. 29. After a two-day manhunt, authorities arrested Sowell a few blocks from his home, according to Associated Press news reports.
Over the next several days investigators discovered nine more bodies, some inside, some buried in the backyard. On Tuesday, investigators found a skull in a bucket in the basement of the home, all according to police reports.
Local residents had complained of foul odors near the home for years, the Associated press reported.
Cleveland firefighters were tearing Sowell’s house apart Thursday, but police told reporters they did not know whether they would find more bodies.
Sowell could face the death penalty if convicted on the murder counts, according to the Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Drew Wilson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Lindell Kay at 910-219-8456. Read his blog at http://onslowcrime.encblogs.com.
An accused serial killer arrested last week after Cleveland police found at least 11 dead bodies in his home spent time at Camp Lejeune in the 1970s as a Marine.
Anthony Sowell, 50, a registered sex offender in Ohio, is being held without bond on five counts of murder.
Sowell joined the U.S. Marine Corps in January 1978. He was stationed at Camp Lejeune from May to July 1978 before being transferred to California. He also spent from April 1981 to December 1983 at Cherry Point, according to his military personnel file obtained by multiple media outlets. He was honorably discharged in 1985.
Ohio authorities went to Sowell’s home to serve a sexual assault arrest warrant and found the bodies of 10 women and a skull in his basement and backyard. The women had been strangled, according to police.
Cleveland firefighters were tearing Sowell’s house apart Thursday, but police told reporters they did not know whether they would find more bodies.
Sowell was released from prison in 2005 after serving 15 years on an attempted rape conviction. He could face the death penalty if convicted of the murder counts, according to the Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Neighborhood resident Gladys Wade told WKYC-TV that Sowell attacked her and dragged her into his house last year.
“It was like the devil, eyes glowing,” she said. “He was demonic or something. You could see the demons in him.”
She said she watched in horror last week as bodies were removed from the house she said she escaped.
“I was actually in that house with all those bodies and didn’t know it,” she said. “I could have actually been one of them. I’m the one that got away.” ..Source.. by LINDELL KAY
CA- County to pay $4 million to settle jail-beating lawsuit
11-6-2009 California:
Illegal immigrant, accused of molestation, was left brain-damaged after inmates attacked him, his lawyer says.
County officials have agreed to pay more than $4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was beaten by inmates while in custody at the Orange County jail, the man's attorney said Monday.
The settlement appears to be the largest ever paid by Orange County for an in-custody incident involving county sheriffs, according to county officials and the man's lawyer.
Fernando Ramirez, then 21, was left brain-damaged by inmates in Module A at the Orange County Central Jail in June 2006. He was jailed after a 6-year-old girl told her mother a stranger touched her over her clothes on her private parts at El Salvador Park in Santa Ana. Ramirez was charged with child molestation but eventually pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of non-sexual battery, said his attorney, Mark Eisenberg.
But Eisenberg said the jail's classification of his client contributed to the attack because other prisoners became aware of the sexual assault allegation. Deputies in charge of monitoring the jail that night were elsewhere in the jail when the attack occurred, Eisenberg said.
The ensuing beating left Ramirez with the intellect of a 4-year-old child. He is unable to walk unassisted and will need help for the rest of his life, said Eisenberg.
County officials declined comment on the settlement. However, a spokesman did confirm that the next highest pay out for an in-custody incident was a $650,000 settlement paid in 2002 to the family of a man who died in 1998 after scuffling with deputies in the jail.
County supervisors gave their lawyers authorization to settle the lawsuit earlier this month in a closed session.
Eisenberg said a final settlement was approved Apr. 17 and described the amount as $3.75 million for Ramirez's family along with nearly $900,000 to cover all outstanding medical liens for medical care rendered while in custody.
The attack occurred months before another highly publicized inmate jail beating which resulted in the death of John Derek Chamberlain, who had been jailed on suspicion of possessing child pornography.
After The Orange County Register published an investigation of deputies' role in that case, a criminal grand jury probed the Chamberlain beating.
The grand jury described a culture among deputies of lax oversight of prisoners as well as a culture of cover-up regarding deputy actions. Two assistant sheriffs and seven deputies resigned during the fallout from the grand jury investigation.
The disclosures from the Chamberlain grand jury, as well as the 2007 federal indictment of former Sheriff Mike Carona on unrelated corruption charges, presented challenges for the county during a jury trial.
"The county was vigorously fighting any effort by Ramirez and his counsel to have anything introduced from Chamberlain," Eisenberg said, adding that he reviewed such motions during trial preparations.
"I think the grand jury report was influential," he said. "I also think the criminal conviction of Sheriff Carona, albeit on the limited count of witness tampering, was also influential."
"It was a chapter in the county's history that needed to be closed. And these two factors, Chamberlain and Carona, played a role," Eisenberg said. "It certainly influenced the powers that be to conclude that this case was one that should be settled."
Eisenberg said his side also had challenges facing a conservative jury pool in Orange County, because of Ramirez's immigration status and the nature of his arrest.
"Both sides had problems," he said.
For example, Chamberlain's family accepted a settlement of $600,000 in large part because of the potential impact on jurors due to the sexual nature of the allegations against him.
Eisenberg called the settlement "fair" noting that it will take care of Ramirez's medical needs for the rest of his life. He credited county officials for "stepping up and doing the fair and responsible thing."
While County Supervisor John Moorlach would not comment on the details of the Ramirez settlement, he did say that Sheriff Sandra Hutchens has turned around a lax culture within the jails.
His chief of staff, Mario Mainero, recently took a tour of the jails and said the infrastructure, staff and inmates showed a very different attitude since his first jail tour in the wake of the Chamberlain death.
Moorlach also said several changes – such as cameras, more visible and mobile guards and a full shuffling of top managers – has helped to begin changing the culture that contributed to the Chamberlain and Ramirez beatings.
"We're seeing management get involved," Moorlach said. "And what I'm getting as feedback is that we're seeing dramatic change." ..Source.. by NORBERTO SANTANA JR. and TONY SAAVEDRA
Thursday, November 5, 2009
FL- Renters Say Ministry Converted Complex Into an 'Adult Community' of Sex Offenders
11-5-2009 Florida:
WEST PALM BEACH (CN) - A woman says she and her children were booted from an apartment complex so a local ministry could convert it to a colony of sex offenders. She says the ministry bought the property to house the felons, but "at no point was the true nature of the business arrangement ever revealed to the residents," who had to leave on short notice.
Equilla Dowell sued Matthew 25 Ministries and Calvin Alston, former manager of Pelican Lake Village, 52 duplexes in rural Pahokee.
Dowell says that in December 2008, Alston's management company sent a notice to Pelican Lake tenants telling them the complex was being sold and converted to an "adult-only community" called Miracle Park.
The notice stated that "any resident who had children under the age of 18 living with them had to move out before January 1": less than three weeks away. If families "refused to move or comply with the new owners," Alston threatened to "evict [them] immediately," according to the complaint in Palm Beach County Court.
Dowell says the notice was part of a concealed effort to make sure no children were around when the sex offenders began moving in.
"At no point was the true nature of the business arrangement ever revealed to the residents by any of the defendants," the complaint states. "At the time, [Dowell] had a newborn baby and was on maternity leave from work. She did not have money to move and did not want to leave Pelican Lake."
Matthew 25 Ministries kept its intentions under wraps, Dowell's attorney, Lisa Carmona, said in an interview. But the details eventually emerged, Carmona said, and Pelican Lake tenants who hadn't lined up alternative housing found themselves living among dozens of former inmates, some of whom were convicted child molesters and violent criminals. Surrounded by this reality, the previous residents scrambled to get out.
Rev. Richard Witherow, head of the ministry, is unapologetic about his efforts to reintegrate sex offenders into society.
"Those branded as sex offenders have the most difficult time in transitioning back into society following their release from prison," Witherow states on his Web site. "In Florida, they are not permitted to live within 1,000 feet of anywhere that children congregate, including school bus stops. This has resulted in many receiving a technical violation of their probation and being sent back to prison. We continue to look for locations where we can assist more who are worthy of our support."
Witherow, who has been a prison minister for almost 30 years, recently published a book called "The Modern Day Leper," which claims that sex offender recidivism rates are exaggerated by the media.
Several former tenants of Pelican Lake have sued the ministry in the past year. Even when they put aside the reverend's controversial stance, the tenants say the community's conversion wasn't handled correctly. Alston Management's offer to move them to a complex in Belle Glade offered little concession: they say their leases were abruptly broken under false pretenses just weeks before the holidays.
And Dowell says she still hasn't received her deposit back.
She seeks damages for fraud, negligence, breach of lease, deceptive trade, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Carmona joined Shane Weaver of the Legal Aid Society in representing her. ..Source.. by Court House News
OH- Lawyers fight law on sex offenders before Ohio Supreme Court
To hear and see the Oral Arguments, and access the briefs of those cases, CLICK HERE:
11-5-2009 Ohio:
housands of registered sex offenders would be subject to less-stringent reporting requirements if defense lawyers succeed in challenging parts of a 2007 state law intended to crack down on sexual criminals.
The attorneys told the Ohio Supreme Court yesterday that the get-tough law was applied illegally to more than 26,000 sex offenders who were sentenced before it took effect.
In addition, the lawyers said, the measure penalizes people who commit sex offenses before they turn 18 by requiring them to continue to register as sex offenders well into adulthood.
The state's highest court heard four cases yesterday challenging Senate Bill 10, which created a new system for classifying sex offenders based more on the severity of the crime than the likelihood of committing future offenses.
More than half of the offenders were placed in the most-serious category -- sexual predators -- who are required to register every 90 days for life.
Jeffrey M. Gamso, a Toledo lawyer who argued one of the cases, said the law had more to do with securing federal funding under the Adam Walsh Act than protecting Ohioans.
"Is the sheriff really keeping tabs on all those people?" Gamso asked in an interview. "We know that some people will re-offend, and we want to be able to target those people.
"You want to find the needle in the haystack, and what this does is build a bigger haystack."
State Sen. Timothy J. Grendell, R-Chesterland, said the law makes it easier for the public to monitor the whereabouts of registered sex offenders on the Internet and through mandatory notices to neighbors.
"The policy decision, from my perspective, was based on protecting public safety," Grendell said. "The timing was based on us being told we'd get an additional 10 percent (in Adam Walsh funding) if we did this by a certain time. We would not make public policy just to get money."
The four cases:
• Three adult sex offenders from Huron County who were classified as sexual predators under the 2007 law say it's unconstitutional to subject them to a "punitive" law that didn't exist when they were sentenced.
Gamso, who represented the men, said lawmakers can't step in and redo classifications for sex offenders that already were determined by judges.
David M. Lieberman, an assistant attorney general who represented the state, said lawmakers had no choice but to revise the state law to comply with the Adam Walsh Act.
• Roman Chojnacki, who was convicted of sex with a minor in Warren County in 2006, was reclassified from a low-risk sex offender under the old law to a medium-risk offender.
His attorney, Jason A. Macke, argued that Chojnacki and others who were reclassified should have had access to lawyers during that process.
Lieberman, who again represented the state, said defendants are entitled to legal representation only when they face the deprivation of liberty or fundamental rights such as privacy. That isn't the case here, he said.
• Darian J. Smith, who was convicted in Allen County of three counts of rape at age 14, contends that he shouldn't be subject to the same registration requirements as adult sex offenders.
Brooke M. Burns, his attorney, said studies have shown that there's a better chance of rehabilitating youthful sex offenders than adults.
Christina L. Steffan, the attorney for the Allen County prosecutor's office, said juvenile offenders are given adult legal protections -- such as the right to lawyers and a jury trial -- before their names are added to the sex-offender database.
• A juvenile sex offender known only as Adrian R. was classified as a sexual predator and must report to authorities into adulthood even though he has responded very well to treatment, said Burns, who also represented Adrian.
She said the rigid classifications "disincentivize children from doing well in treatment."
Assistant Licking County Prosecutor Alice L. Bond said the current sex-offender law allows people convicted as juveniles to petition a judge to be declassified as sex offenders in three years. ..Source.. by James Nash, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
CA- California Official Admits Failure in Jaycee Dugard Case
11-5-2009 California:
Parole Officers Ignored GPS Inconsistencies and Reports of Children on Phillip Garrido's Property
The corrections department official who was slammed in a California state report for failing to properly supervise Jaycee Dugard's accused kidnapper said today his parole agent's workload restricted him to spending only 45 minutes a week on each of his cases.
"Mistakes were made by the department and by this agent," Matthew Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told "Good Morning America" today. "Our focus, though, is to make sure each agent has more time in that 45 minutes to focus on GPS tracks."
The scathing report, released Wednesday by the California Office of the Inspector General, said Phillip Garrido's parole officers missed several chances to rescue the now 29-year-old Dugard and the two daughters fathered by the registered sex offender.
Garrido was outfitted with GPS monitoring, according to the report, but parole agents ignored 335 alerts that his device had lost its signal, which Cate blamed on the location of his house and poor reception. Other signals showed Garrido was spending a considerable amount of time in his backyard.
The report also noted that Garrido was paid 60 visits by parole agents in a 10-year period. Even where there were obvious clues that something was amiss in the Garrido household, there was no follow-up.
A neighbor in 1991 -- the year of the kidnapping -- reported seeing a young blond girl in the backyard who said her name was Jaycee. And in 2008 a parole office found a young girl in Garrido's house, a direct violation of his parole, but did nothing.
And Garrido, a man with a violent history of rape and kidnapping, was considered a minimum-level offender when authorities now say he should have been classified as a highly dangerous predator.
California Inspector General David Shaw said his department's review found that Garrido was properly supervised for 12 out of the 123 months he was under California's jurisdiction, a failure rate of 90 percent.
Dugard was found in August, 18 years after her 1991 kidnapping. She was rescued after Garrido, 58, took her two daughters to hand out religious material at the UC Berkeley campus, tipping off two police employees there.
A background check showed that Garrido was a registered sex offender and his nearly two-decades-old crime unraveled when he showed up at a meeting with his parole officer with Dugard and the two girls in tow.
Cate admitted today that if it hadn't been for the UC Berkeley employees, it is "very possible" that Dugard and her daughters would still be in the Garridos' backyard.
Dugard initially protected Garrido when confronted by authorities the day she was rescued, telling them that he was a good man and that she was from Minnesota, hiding from an abusive husband, according to the report.
Dugard and her family did not comment on the specifics of the report but issued a statement on the overall findings.
"The inspector general's report clearly sets out many missed opportunities to bring a much earlier end to the nightmares of Jaycee Dugard and her family," a family spokesperson, who asked not to be identified, told ABCNews.com today, reading from a statement. "We expect that the appropriate authorities will take the necessary action to ensure this never happens again. In addition, Jaycee is fully committed to holding Mr. Garrido accountable for the crimes he has committed."
Garrido and his wife, Nancy, have been charged on 28 counts, including rape and kidnapping. They have pleaded not guilty. Garrido's bond has been set at $30 million.
Report: Parole System Jeopardizes Public Safety
The report also noted several general shortcomings in the system that "transcend parolee Garrido's case and jeopardize public safety."
Among the department's shortcomings in the Garrido case: Failure to adequately classify Garrido, who had a history as a sexually violent predator, and supervise him accordingly.
Failure to obtain key information from federal parole authorities.
Failure to train parole agents to conduct parolee home visits.
Failure to talk to neighbors or local public safety agencies.
Failure to act on information clearly showing Garrido had violated parole terms.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation took charge of Garrido's supervision in 1999 after he was released from federal supervision. Garrido was convicted in the 1970s of raping and kidnapping a California woman.
Recommendations include more training on search techniques to look for clues for potential parole violations or criminal behavior and contacting neighbors for information on parolee behavior.
Shortly after Garrido was arrested in connection with Dugard's rape and kidnapping, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation official hailed the parole agents who had been assigned to Garrido's case, saying that Garrido had complied with his parole conditions and never received a violation.
But the report indicated that while Garrido had never been issued a formal violation from the state of California, he committed several violations in the past several years. The report did not list those specific violations.
The state began investigating the handling of Garrido's supervision "almost immediately" after Dugard was found, Shaw told ABCNews.com in September.
Shaw said it is believed that Garrido had five or six parole supervisors assigned by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in the past 10 years.
The investigation, he said in September, was to see if there had been any misconduct on the part of a state employee and to determine whether improvements could be made to prevent a similar situation from occurring again.
State parole officers and police are known to have paid Garrido and his wife, Nancy, visits to their Antioch, Calif., home. As recently as 2006, an officer with the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office was called to the house on a complaint from a neighbor that there were people living in the backyard.
The officer met with Garrido in his front yard, determined there was no threat and left.
At a press conference in August, Sheriff Warren Rupf took responsibility for the incident and noted that they were not aware of Garrido's sex offender status.
"He did not enter or request to enter the backyard. This is not an acceptable outcome. Organizationally, we should have been more inquisitive, more curious and turned over a rock or two," he said at the time. "I cannot change the course of events. But we are beating ourselves up over this and will continue to do so."
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Gordon Hinkle said the 2006 incident was cause in itself for review of communications between the state and local jurisdictions. Garrido's parole officer at the time was never notified of the complaint.
In the weeks after the Garridos' arrest, much of the blame seemed to rest on manpower: overwhelmed police officers and parole officers who have dozens or hundreds of felons to check on in a state that has been besieged by budget shortfalls.
Hinkle said parole officers are assigned to sex offenders on a 40 to 1 ratio statewide, unless the offender has been designated as a "sexually violent" predator, in which case the ratio shrinks to 20 to 1.
Garrido, he said, was not classified as a sexually violent predator.
In addition to the Garrido case, the supervision of sex offenders has come under fire in other states recently, most notably in the case of Cleveland predator Anthony Sowell, a registered sex offender who was charged with murder Saturday. Authorities have so far found 11 bodies hidden in his home.
Sex offenders were also at the forefront of the search for whoever kidnapped and murdered 7-year-old Somer Thompson in northern Florida last month. No arrests have been made in her death.
Jaycee Dugard Relishing Reunion With Family
Dugard, now 29, and her daughters, 11 and 15, have been living with her mother and half-sister in an undisclosed location in Northern California ever since they were reunited. A recent People magazine photo shoot portrayed the young woman, whose hair has darkened from blond to light brown, smiling with her family and happily riding horses.
Dugard was 11 years old when she was snatched off the street near her school bus stop in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Her stepfather, Carl Probyn, heard her screams and chased the car down the street on a bicycle to no avail.
A gray Ford later impounded from Garrido's property matched the description Probyn gave to authorities after Dugard was abducted.
Garrido has also been considered a potential suspect in the disappearances of 9-year-old Michaela Garecht in 1988 and 11-year-old Ilene Misheloff in 1989. Both girls vanished within close proximity of where Garrido was living at the time and in a similar fashion as the Dugard abduction. Michaela was taken in broad daylight in front of a friend.
Searches of the Garridos' property once the Dugard investigators moved out turned up several pieces of bone fragment, but tests later revealed they were too old to have been connected to the disappearance of either girl. ..Source.. by SARAH NETTER
