9-4-2010 Florida:
Families out; sex offenders in
LANTANA, Fla. - Tara Whyte remembers the stress. "Every day it was a knock on the door. Have you found somewhere yet? Have you found somewhere yet? Have you found somewhere yet?"
The knocking came after a letter that Whyte and other families living in Pelican Lake Village near Pahokee received in December of 2008. It said anyone with children under the age of 18 had to be out of their homes by January 1st.
"I thought it was just nasty. It was over holidays. No Christmas for the kids. All of my belongings were packed in boxes," said Whyte.
Friday, the Fair Housing Center of the Palm Beaches filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of Whyte and five other families who lived in Pelican Lake Village.
"How many people are ready to move at a moments notice?" asked Vince Larkins with the Fair Housing Center.
"My husband, he had to work overtime so we could get the money to move," said Shirley Campbell.
After the families moved out, many of the units were rented to a ministry group called Matthew 25. It in turn, provided housing to registered sex offenders and predators, more than 60 at last count.
Attorneys say whether or not to give sex offenders a place to live without children nearby is beside the point.
Attorney Reed Colfax said, "It does not excuse the fact and certainly not permissible under the law to evict all the families with children because you decide you have a better use for your property."
At Alston Management in South Bay, the company named in the suit, no one inside could comment on the litigation which was filed within the two year statute of limitations. If the case does go to court, a trial date could be at least a year away. ..Source.. by Jon Shainman
September 4, 2010
Housing group files lawsuit against property owners who evicted families
July 29, 2010
Sexual offender is jailed after her eviction:Attorneys say woman has no other options for living arrangements
Who should be jailed? Seems to me that Probation has failed, it is their job to help their charges not give up, no matter how long it takes!7-29-2010 Ohio:
A registered sex offender who was evicted from her Shalersville home was sentenced to 18 months in prison because there is nowhere else for her to go, a judge ruled.
Shawna A. Conn, 20, was sentenced by Portage County Common Pleas Judge Laurie Pittman after the Portage County Adult Probation Department asked her to revoke probation because Conn failed to maintain a residence.
Conn, who already was a Tier I registered sex offender based on a conviction in Trumbull County, was living in Shalersville in June 2009 when she had sexual contact with an 11-year-old boy. After pleading guilty, she was sentenced in March by Pittman to time served and five years probation and was labeled a Tier II sex offender.
Conn has the mental capacity of a 10- or 11-year-old, her attorneys have said.
By court order, she is not allowed to have contact with her victim or allowed to reside with anyone under the age of 18. This has made finding housing difficult, Public Defender Dennis Lager and Assistant Prosecutor Eric Finnegan told Pittman.
“Based on lack of options, there is no alternative but to place her with” the Ohio Department of Corrections, Finnegan said. “We foresaw this may be a problem somewhere down the line, but we don’t see any other resolution.”
Pittman wished Conn luck, saying the defendant had cooperated with the court’s orders to the best of her ability.
“You’ve tried and you’ve cooperated with the court,” Pittman told Conn. “Best of luck to you.” ..Source.. by DAVE O’BRIEN | STAFF WRITER
April 15, 2009
PA- Borough tries to oust sex offenders
4-15-2009 Pennsylvania:
Group home now moved to Columbia
Columbia Borough is threatening to crack down on a former state representative operating a residence for convicted sex offenders.
Tom Armstrong's group home for offenders already has been chased out of Marietta Borough and Conestoga Township.
Now he's relocated his "program" for offenders to one of his properties in Columbia, where officials plan to use the same tactic as other municipalities to control or oust it.
On Monday, two borough residents complained to borough council about Armstrong locating the men in his Mill Street property in their neighborhood.
"I have children; everyone on that block has children," resident Bobbi Jo Torbert said. " … I'm trying to figure out what we need to do to get them out of there. We have people talking about wanting to move now. I'm afraid for my kids."
Torbert's comments echoed those from residents of Marietta and Conestoga, where Armstrong previously housed groups of men convicted of sexual offenses after they served their sentences and were legally permitted to seek housing and jobs in any community.
(eAdvocate Post)
This is the third community into which Armstrong has moved a group of men convicted of sex crimes without notifying municipal officials or neighbors. Although he is not obliged to notify municipal officials, residents and officials in both municipalities said they resented that Armstrong did not make his plans known.
Maria Reyes, who lives in the Columbia neighborhood where Armstrong's property now houses the offenders, said she was unaware that Armstrong had moved them in until she visited the state's Megan's Law Web site, which lists home and job addresses of sex offenders after they are convicted.
According to the state's Megan's Law Web site, four offenders are currently housed in Armstrong's Mill Street property.
"(Armstrong) knows the no-more-than-three rule, and it's just unfortunate that he chooses to ignore it," Meiskey said Monday.
Columbia mayor Leo S. Lutz said he had directed a borough police officer to check out the Megan's Law Web site to verify who is listed as living at the address and he had directed codes enforcement to move as quickly as possible to take legal action against Armstrong.
"By law, all we can do is stay on them," Meiskey told residents Monday. "No doubt, there are certainly individuals pushing this issue and possibly trying to profit from this issue, but right now we're bound by law."
Last summer, Conestoga residents angrily told Armstrong at a public meeting to move the men into his own home rather than their community. Conestoga Township then ousted the men using its own version of the same ordinance.
Armstrong actually did move the men into his own Marietta home after he said his wife and teenage daughter had temporarily moved out to care for an ailing relative. Parole regulations would not have permitted the men to live in the property with a minor girl.
When Marietta residents raged against Armstrong for bringing the men into their community, he said at public meetings that the housing arrangement was only temporary — until a Columbia property was ready to house the men.
In the meantime, Marietta officials used a similar ordinance to force Armstrong's hand to immediately relocate the men elsewhere. Armstrong filed a lawsuit against the borough in Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas, where the case is pending.
Armstrong has defended housing the men in a group setting as offering them a second chance in a more supportive setting than they would have living on their own.
And 22 sex offenders currently list Columbia Borough as their home or work address, so many are living among borough residents without the high profile Armstrong's living arrangement has brought his tenants.
When the controversy stirred in Conestoga and Marietta, one man living in Armstrong's property was Richard Owen, who served 20 years in an Illinois prison after being convicted of rape in 1981.
In both communities, Owen eloquently and publicly spoke about not expecting a second chance from residents, but hoping he could earn a second chance from them.
In January, Owen was accused of making lewd advances to at least five women in a store parking lot, but ultimately was found guilty of only one summary harassment count of "following in a public place," according to court documents. Owen denied the charges, and none of the women who accused him testified at his Feb. 24 hearing.
According to Pennsylvania's Megan's Law Web Site, Owen remains in Lancaster County Prison.
Two of the men who currently list Armstrong's Columbia property as their home address were convicted of indecent assault in 2003; a third was convicted of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse in 1986. The fourth resident was convicted in 2004 of aggravated indecent assault.
It is unclear whether any of their victims were minors. ..News Source.. by SUSAN E. LINDT, Staff Writer
January 9, 2009
CA- Sex Offenders Told To Leave Antelope Property
1-9-2009 California:
Law Allows One Registered Sex Offender Per House
SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. -- More than 30 registered sex offenders were being told Friday to leave two group homes on a piece of property in rural Antelope.
Last month, an audit found too many registered sex offenders were living at Second Chances in rural Sacramento County.
The halfway house works with the Department of Corrections and helps sex offenders just released from prison.
State law said only one registered sex offender is allowed to live at the same house unless they are related.
The district attorney's office in Sacramento said the sex offenders had to leave the complex by 5 p.m. Friday.
A lawyer is asking for rezoning so the sex offenders can stay at the property and a 90-day extension to stop the offenders from being forced out. ..News Source.. by My58.com
December 11, 2008
OH- Ohio Sheriff Refuses to Process “Heartless” Evictions
12-11-2008 Ohio:
Saying that evicting former owners and tenants during winter weather and a recession is “heartless,” Butler County, Ohio sheriff Richard Jones has become the third sheriff this year to refuse to process some eviction orders. Jones on Tuesday ordered his deputies to ensure that people have shelter before they’re forced out of their homes, according to a report by WLWT television in Hamilton, Ohio; otherwise, he said his department will refuse to honor all eviction orders.
Jones sent a letter to Ohio governor Ted Strickland, as well, asking for a state order to halt all evictions for the winter months, although its unclear what would constitute “winter months.” A call to Strickland’s office for comment very early Thursday morning had not yet been returned when this story was published.
“There has to be some attention drawn to somebody that’s going to be thrown out of their houses that doesn’t have anywhere else to go,” Jones told the television news station.
Jones is the third sheriff to refuse to process eviction orders, with Cook County, Illinois sheriff Tom Dart refusing to process eviction orders on tenant earlier this year; Dart’s quibble, however, was with the process of notifying tenants of a pending eviction, many of whom he said had no idea they were being thrown out while their landlord was skimming their rent. In contrast, Jones is refusing to evict on more general terms.
The order given to deputies in Butler County opens up the sheriff to legal action from servicers and investors, sources told HousingWire. “As sheriff, his job isn’t to make the law, but to enforce it,” said one source, an attorney in the field. “If he wants to be a legislator, he should run for that office, and quit being a sheriff.”
Other sources in the servicing business suggested that evictions usually take months to process, beyond the time associated with default and foreclosure, and said they focus on working with borrowers, former owners and tenants to find places to go — even delaying eviction actions when needed. “Jones is making for a good headline, but most people don’t know all of the time and effort that goes into managing a file before it reaches an actual lock-out date,” said one servicing manager, that asked not to be named. The manager said some people are ultimately forced into the street, but not because the servicer failed to try to find another solution.
“We’ll usually delay lock-outs if former owners let us know they’re looking for a place, within reason, and communicate with us,” said the manager. “Unfortunately, too few communicate, and still others lie about looking for somewhere else to go.” ..News Source.. by Paul Jackson
July 1, 2008
GA- Another challenge to Georgia sex offender laws
7-1-2008 Georgia:
ATLANTA (AP) Defense attorneys are trying to topple Georgia's tough sex offender law, saying it amounts to ``cruel and unusual punishment'' because it's by far the nation's toughest.
The critics asked the Georgia Supreme Court on Monday to declare the law's penalties unconstitutional, and they've targeted a measure that requires an automatic life prison sentence for sex offenders who twice fail to register.
Their argument focuses on the case of Cedric Bradshaw, a 25-year-old who was arrested for failing to register as an offender after he spent weeks trying to find a place that didn't violate the law's residential restrictions.
When Bradshaw was arrested in 2007, it was the second time he failed to register as a sex offender in Georgia. He was sentenced to the only punishment allowed by law: life in prison.
The measure is ``grossly disproportionate'' because Georgia is the only state in the nation that imposes a life prison sentence for failing to register, said Robert Persse, a public defender who is Bradshaw's attorney.
``In some cases, if he harmed someone or killed someone, he could receive a far lesser sentence,'' said Persse, who said that sentences for armed robbery range from 10 years to life.
Prosecutors say they were following the letter of the law. And that law was the will of state legislators, said Scott Brannen, an assistant district attorney in Statesboro.
He downplayed the life sentence, noting that Bradshaw could still be eligible for parole in seven years. And he said Bradshaw deserved to be punished for his crimes.
``He knew the consequences, and nonetheless he goes out and deceives the state again,'' he said.
It's the latest clash over Georgia's sex offender law, which sponsors declared one of the toughest in the nation when it was adopted in 2006.
The measure bans sex offenders from living, working or loitering within 1,000 feet of just about anywhere children gather. That includes schools, churches, parks, gyms, swimming pools or one of the state's 150,000 school bus stops.
It also increased the maximum sentence for a second failure to register from a maximum of three years in prison to a mandatory life sentence. The change applies to all sex offenders, from child predators to those convicted of statutory rape.
Several pending challenges take aim at the law's residency restrictions, including separate lawsuits that target provisions that would evict offenders who live near churches and school bus stops. But the Bradshaw case is among a new breed that focuses on the one-size-fits-all nature of the law's criminal penalties.
Bradshaw was convicted of statutory rape in 2001. Five years later he was slapped with 10 years of probation because he didn't register his address with the state.
After he was released from prison on related charges in August 2007, Bradshaw moved twice because he was violating the law's residency requirements.
Bradshaw's next move put him squarely in the crosshairs of authorities: He registered at a family friend's address, but instead moved in with a girlfriend. He was arrested 12 days later and sentenced to life in prison.
To Persse, Bradshaw was a victim of the fear surrounding sex offenders that borders on ``hysteria.'' He asked the court to remember the words on Georgia's state seal: Wisdom, Justice and Moderation.
``This penalty is not wise,'' he said, ``it's not just and it's anything but moderate.'' ..News Source.. by WGST
