7-8-2011 Massachusetts:
GRAFTON, Mass. - Nathan Nguyen, owner and manager of Grafton's King Jade II Restaurant, is having second thoughts about the delivery driver he recently hired.
Robert Victor Dumont, 67, of 234 Church Avenue, Northbridge, is a Level 3 sex offender recently hired by the King Jade II Chinese Restaurant at 78 Worcester Street, Grafton. The announcement of his registration with Grafton Police as the town of Grafton's fifth Level 3 sex offender caused a stir at the restaurant within hours.
Nguyen said he has already had so many complaints at his Grafton branch that he has decided not to allow Dumont to make deliveries in the town of Grafton, citing fear of a backlash from local residents and the potential loss of business as the reasons for his decision.
"He's just a driver, so we don't want to make a big deal out of it," Nguyen said on Wednesday. "But the town made a big deal out of it, so we need to do something."
Prior to working in Grafton, Dumont was making deliveries in Northbridge for Nguyen and fellow owner Wei Ming Dai's original business, the King Jade, at 1229 Providence Road, Whitinsville. Dumont had worked for the company under it's previous owner, Salina W. Chen, before Nguyen and Dai bought the business in 2004.
Dumont explained that he had worked for the company in the past when applying to return to the King Jade back in April of this year. Nguyen said he had no knowledge of Dumont's criminal past, nor did Dumont inform him of his record. Nguyen said he did not run a background check because the employee already had a history with the company.
The King Jade in Northbridge is currently under renovation, so Nguyen originally moved Dumont's employment to Grafton to keep him working while the Northbridge restaurant was inactive.
When Dumont registered with the town of Grafton, as required by law, Nguyen became aware of the conflict of interest in allowing a convicted sex offender to deliver food to Grafton homes.
Instead, Nguyen will no longer allow Dumont to make deliveries in either Grafton or Northbridge. Instead, Dumont will work the front desk in Northbridge, as it turns out Northbridge residents had also complained of his making deliveries as recently as two weeks ago.
"He's going to work [in Northbridge] now," Nguyen said. "He was trying to help us out over there [in Grafton], but right now there are so many complaints over there."
Dumont is no longer under parole and is free to work for any company willing to hire him, but after receiving as much negative feedback as has arrived in the past 24 hours, Nguyen is balking at keeping Dumont on staff at all.
"Maybe not," was Nguyen's only response.
Under state law, those convicted of a sex offense are classified by the state's Sex Offender Registry Board in three categories. Level 1 indicates a very low risk of re-offense. Level 2 indicates a moderate risk, and the names of these offenders are available by request through the local police department and the Sex Offender Registry Board. Level 3 is a high risk to re-offend, and their names are not only made public but their photographs, addresses and offenses are posted in public places -- in Grafton's case, in the Municipal Center, at the Police Department and on the Police Department's website.
And as far as his comfort level with having a Level 3 sex offender as part of his business...
"No, right now I'm not comfortable," said Nguyen. ..Source.. by Jeremy Rice
July 8, 2011
King Jade II owner regrets bringing sex offender to Grafton
October 24, 2008
VT- Teacher who spoke out on sex abuse loses job
Apparently Mr. Laramie works for the Vermont Achievement Center, his testimony must have been inconsistent with policy, see the description of programs for the Vermont Achievement Center is the following:
"COLLABORATION WITH HOWARD CENTER FOR CHILDREN & FAMILIES — 77 PARK STREET Beth Merrill, Director of Education
VAC collaborates with the Howard Center for Children and Families of Burlington on The Park Street Program, a comprehensive residential treatment and education program for adolescent males who have sexual offending behaviors between the ages of 12 and 17. A secure residence is located across from the main VAC campus. The Howard Center provides the residential and clinical components of the Park Street Program and VAC delivers the education through the Fay Honey Knopp Memorial School. A VAC nurse also provides health care management for the students. The Park Street Program began in 1992 to meet the needs of adolescent boys with sexual offending behaviors within Vermont, who at that time were sent out of state for treatment. The program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF)."
10-24-2008 Vermont:
MONTPELIER -- A Rutland alternative school teacher who worked with juvenile sex offenders for 16 years was removed from his job in September, weeks after testifying to a legislative committee about the likelihood that offenders will commit new crimes.
Chuck Laramie, 51, who taught English and history to teenage males at a residential school called the Park Street Program, was placed on leave Sept. 19, two days after its funding source, the Burlington-based Howard Center for Human Services, said he should be dismissed.
Laramie said he had been told he has a choice of taking a job at an affiliated agency paying $15,000 less than his current, $52,000-a-year position, or leaving. He said he is fighting for reinstatement to his prior job.
Some Vermont lawmakers are expressing concern that the treatment of Laramie will place a chilling effect on the willingness of others to testify to legislative committees.
"No Vermonter should be afraid of testifying before a committee," said Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The only way we can make good decisions in Montpelier is if people share their experiences and share their ideas without fear of retribution."
Laramie was emphatic that he was speaking for himself and not for his employer, refusing even to identify where he worked as he testified before the Judiciary Committee on Aug. 28.
In that testimony, he took a tough stand against sex offenders, saying they were likely to re-offend and that records of someone's offenses while a juvenile should be open for use by police and prosecutors if the offender later gets into the same sort of trouble as an adult.
Officials at the organizations of which the Park Street Program is part deny Laramie's charge that he was disciplined for speaking out. He said he was told June 19 that he was being placed on leave due to an incident in June when he and another teacher restrained a combative student.
He said he doubted this rationale for two reasons: the three month delay between the June incident and the September discipline, and the fact that the other teacher involved in the restraint was not disciplined.
Two days before Laramie was placed on leave, Catherine Simonson, director of Children, Youth and Family Services at the Howard Center, wrote a letter severely chiding Laramie's public comments. The Howard Center funds the Vermont Achievement Center, which administers the Park Street Program.
"It is our opinion that Charles Laramie's behavior ... would warrant immediate dismissal through our personnel policies," Simonson wrote. She added that if the Vermont Achievement Center "did not immediately remove" Laramie from his position, "... the Howard Center is left with no other choice but to explore alternative options that may be available to provide educational services to the clients of the Park Street Program."
Simonson did not immediately return a call Thursday seeking comment.
..News Source.. by AP
MA- Police supply store bankrupt
10-24-2008 Massachusetts:
Conviction of owner kills business
A former Dorchester police supply store that lost contracts because its owner was a convicted sex offender has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Boston Uniform Depot, located on Neponset Avenue, listed $500,000-plus in debt, which is mostly owed to police gear suppliers and banks.
Almost all of the company’s $52,300 in assets is its inventory of police uniforms and holsters and batons, according to court documents.
Owner David P. Shock was convicted in May 2007 of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 in Dedham District Court. He was sentenced to 14 days in the House of Correction and ordered to register as a sex offender, according to court records.
Eight days after his conviction, the Boston Police Department pulled Shock’s fireams license and seized the store’s weapons. It also decided against renewing contracts with Boston Uniform Depot, and other police departments followed suit.
Shock, then 36, was found guilty of molesting a 16-year-old high school student after getting into a minor traffic accident with her in 2005 and allegedly trying to extort money from the girl. The victim told police that Shock claimed to be a Boston cop and ordered her to hand over her purse, identification and credit cards, according to court records.
When the teenager later met Shock at a Dunkin’ Donuts to pay him for his car damages, he put his hands down her pants and grabbed her breasts, the records said.
Neither Shock nor his attorney could be reached for comment. ..News Source.. by Donna Goodison
June 24, 2008
OK- Sex offenders struggle to find jobs
7-10-2005 Oklahoma:
As many as 270 sex offenders head to work in Tulsa each day, most in low-paying jobs in busy retail and industrial areas of the city, an analysis of Department of Corrections data indicates.
They often take jobs as stockers, carpenters, janitors, cooks, truck drivers, handymen and temporary laborers.
And those are the lucky ones.
Many sex offenders find it difficult to get a job while on the registry.
"It limits the type of employment that you can secure," said Sandra Lewis, executive director of the Day Center for the Homeless. "Just because of the stigma that goes along with having to register."
Plotting where each of the 584 registered sex offender lives in Tulsa reveals a map with many living in or near downtown. Other concentrations of sex offenders can be found living near 61st Street and Peoria Avenue, near 11th Street and U.S. 169 and 31st Street and Garnett Road.
Plotting where sex offenders work reveals a map depicting concentrations of offenders again in the downtown area as well as areas near major highways such as Memorial Drive between the Broken Arrow Expressway and the Creek Turnpike.
About 15 sex offenders also listed work addresses along the busy industrial area near Mingo Road between 51st and 61st streets, according to DOC data.
Nearly 60 percent of employed registered sex offenders working in Tulsa listed occupations in the labor industry such as painters and mechanics. Another 21 percent work in service industry type positions such as sales, customer service and in one case as a hair stylist.
Twenty-one registered offenders, or about 8 percent of the total employed, worked in professional-type positions such as engineers, computer programers and accountants.
Many sex offenders either work in the service industry or are self-employed, said the Rev. Steve Whitaker, executive director at John 3:16 Mission homeless shelter.
"Construction, concrete, roofing -- those kinds of things are where those guys typically can make a good living," Whitaker said.
"Some of those guys are dangerous and they need to be watched for the rest of their life," Whitaker said. "But there are some of them, I think, we can restore back to our cities, our churches, as our neighbors."
One mother said she is not sure how much of an impact the sex offender registration requirements had on her son and his attempts to find a job.
The mother, who requested anonymity, said her son was a senior at Salina High School in 1999 when he was arrested for what she described, with much embarrassment, as a "high school thing." The mother said her son was walking to the high school restroom when he exposed himself to a group of freshman gym students.
Police were called and her son was led away in handcuffs from school to jail, where he stayed until his court date, she said.
Four months later, he pleaded guilty to indecent exposure. He received a five-year suspended sentence and was ordered to perform 120 hours of community service, court records reflect.
While her son avoided prison time, she said he couldn't escape the specter that followed him in the small Mayes County community.
"He had to leave this community," the mother said.
Her son dropped out of high school and moved to Tulsa. The mother said her son had a hard time landing a job and when he did, he had trouble keeping it.
"It seemed like after that happened, he didn't care," the mother said.
Her son was found shot to death in November 2000 in a wooded area near Lake Hudson in what officials ruled a suicide, state Medical Examiner records indicate. He was one month shy of his 20th birthday.
Looking back, the mother said she is not sure whether having to register contributed to her son's suicide.
"I'm not saying that's what did it," the mother said. She said some consideration should be given to sex offender registration requirements when the charge stems from a nonviolent act.
"He was a pretty normal kid," the mother said. The sex offender registration requirements "changed his life." ..News Source.. by CURTIS KILLMAN World Staff Writer
June 6, 2008
GA- Area challenge to sex offender law dropped
Best guess is, lawsuits are costly and here you have one person trying to fight his issues. Maybe The Southern Center for Human Rights will take up the issue, there is no doubt that lawmakers know that registrants cannot afford these types of actions, and they bet on that!
6-6-2008 Georgia:
Store owner pulls lawsuit
The Jefferson convenience store owner who sued to exempt himself from the Georgia law restricting where sex offenders live and work has dropped his case.
Narinder Chahal, who lives in Lawrenceville, filed suit against the Jackson County Sheriff's Office and the state Department of Corrections on May 20 in hopes of overturning the part of Georgia's Sex Offender Registry statute that bans sex offenders from working within 1,000 feet of a church. Chahal withdrew the suit last Friday, according to court documents filed in Fulton County Superior Court.
A man who answered the phone at Chahal's residence in Lawrenceville said the family had no comment about the reasons Chahal decided to drop the suit.
Chahal, who purchased the Chicken King convenience store and deli in April, has been prevented from working at the Lee Street shop because it is located across the street from Jefferson's First Christian Church.
In his lawsuit, Chahal said that the restriction regarding churches should not apply to him because Chicken King is closed Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings, when the church typically is most used. Preventing him from running the shop violated his constitutional right to own property because he was unable to make the shop profitable without working there himself, Chahal claimed.
Chahal's attorney David Wolfe, who teaches litigation at Georgia State University School of Law, did not return several telephone calls Thursday.
Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a revamped version of Georgia's sex offender statute May 13 to fix parts of the law that the state Supreme Court had deemed unconstitutional.
The new bill grandfathers in offenders who lived or worked within 1,000 feet of a school, church, day-care center or other places children gather prior to July 1, 2006. ..News Source.. by Merritt Melancon
April 2, 2008
MA- Mom gets free legal aid in McBooted perv’s lawsuit
4-2-2008 Massachusetts:
A Tewksbury mom being sued by a Level 3 sex offender tossed from his job flipping burgers will be defended by a nationally known activist attorney - for free.
“I’m embarrassed this is going on in Massachusetts,” said attorney Wendy Murphy (of Duke Case) of the lawsuit slapped on her client, Andrea Quinn, 44.
Quinn is being sued in Middlesex Superior Court by Scott Gagnon for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Gagnon served 27 years in prison for five hitchhiker rapes he committed in Essex County in the late 1970s, a fact Quinn pointed out to his employer.
“(Quinn) didn’t do anything to this guy. All she did was call attention to the fact that he is a dangerous man. She should be citizen of the year, not be sued,” said Murphy, a professor at New England School of Law and author of “And Justice for Some.”
As the Herald reported yesterday, Gagnon, 50, is suing both Quinn and the Napoli Group, which owns the Tewksbury McDonald’s, where he worked for six months.
After Quinn found Gagnon’s work address on the Sex Offender Registry Board’s Web site last month and called McDonald’s to complain, Gagnon was fired.
Peter Napoli, whose Napoli Group owns the McDonald’s where Gagnon worked, told the Herald it’s “company policy” not to hire sex offenders.
Gagnon’s attorney, William Korman, shot back yesterday saying, “There’s a big difference between public awareness and economic vigilantism.
“Shouldn’t Mr. Gagnon receive credit also for trying to do the right thing?” Korman added. “He didn’t want to be a burden to society again.”
That Gagnon paid his debt to society is of no interest to Murphy.
“O.J. (Simpson) was acquitted. I don’t care. I wouldn’t date the guy,” she said. ..more.. by Laurel J. Sweet
See earlier story: Convicted rapist sues after McDonald's fires him
April 1, 2008
MA- 'No clean slate'
That's the message sex offenders get when trying to find work after prison
4-1-2008 Massachusetts:
His convictions for indecent assault and rape of a child date back almost a decade.
Yet they come back to haunt Richard St. Gelais Jr. every time he fills out a job application.
"They say they'll call me back and then they don't bother," the 30-year-old Westford resident said. "No one really hires anyone like me, you know?"
The difficulties that sex offenders face when looking for employment are nothing new. But the debate about whether those obstacles are justified was fired up again this month, when Scott Gagnon was axed from his job at a Tewksbury McDonald's.
The 49-year-old said he was hired even though he indicated on his application that he is a Level 3 sex offender, only to be fired when complaints started pouring in.
"I think that was a rotten thing that they did to him," said a Lowell sex offender who asked to remain anonymous. "You have to give people a break somewhere or else they're going to go back to prison. If you ain't got a job, if you ain't got a place to live, what are you going to do? It's rough out there with the way they crucify you."
But that kind of argument does not sit well with Wendy Murphy, a New England School of Law professor and nationally known victim-rights advocate.
"Am I suggesting that once you are a sex offender, you have to be rendered homeless and not able to get a job? No," she said. "But I am very comfortable saying that you may have to work in coal mines for the rest of your life. That's what happens when you do really bad things to people. There's no such thing as a clean slate."
Murphy is currently representing the family of Alexandra Zapp, a woman who was murdered by a sex offender in a Burger King bathroom five years ago, in civil litigation. She argued that businesses should be held liable for their choice to hire a sex offender.
"They have to recognize the fact that when they invite the public into their facility, they have some responsibility," she said. "A person who has a history of stealing shouldn't be hired at a bank. Similarly, sex offenders should not be hired for a job where they would have access to defenseless children."
By the same token, Murphy noted, businesses should not hesitate to turn down sex offenders if they feel the job is inappropriate.
"It's absolutely reasonable for an owner to say, 'Thank you, but no thank you,'" she said. "It's not discrimination against convicted criminals. It's common sense."
Timothy App, who has worked with sex offenders for over two decades, agrees that there are some jobs that are simply not appropriate for them. But he said he is frustrated by the rejection that these offenders face across the board in the job market.
"If they are unemployed, they're more of a risk," he noted. "A sex offender can be treated and managed and can be moved to a stage of recovery, just as an alcoholic would be. But if they don't have the support network and things start falling apart, just as the alcoholic would grab a bottle, the sex offender could reoffend."
App, who was the first chairman of the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board and worked in the state's Department of Corrections for 30 years, said the resistance that sex offenders routinely face from employers is often rooted in senseless and deep-rooted fear.
"We, as the public, like to think that these guys jump from behind bushes," he said. "But the facts are that 80 percent of victims know their perpetrators and 70 percent of sexual assaults occur in the victim's house, the perpetrator's house or someone else's house. Some people also think that sex offenders can't be rehabilitated, but that's wrong."
The Counseling and Psychotherapy Center, a Needham-based agency for which App is the director of operations, offers management and treatment programs to about 2,000 sex offenders across the country.
The recidivism rate among the center's patients is just 1.6 percent, App noted.
"Yes, we need to be careful with this population," he said. "They need to be under a supervision system that can be ratcheted up and down. When sex offenders are managed and treated properly, they can even become an important part of a community. The problem is that most of them are not supervised unless they're on parole or probation."
Some states have tried to address that shortcoming, App said. Maine, for instance, has its released offenders supervised by sex-offender specific probation or parole officers and treatment providers. They also undergo regular polygraph tests.
"In Massachusetts, most offenders are supervised by parole and probation officers, and they receive some treatment," App said. "Of course, I would like to see smaller case loads and sex-offender specific probation officers. But it's all a money issue."
Murphy said she also believes that sentencing guidelines are often too lenient when it comes to sex offenders.
"The debt has often not been paid, not in any sense of the word justice," she said. "So I think that when you hurt someone, people have the right to judge you harshly. If you want a level of social respect, you have to earn it."
A good start would be to go after the right kind of job, Chelmsford resident Laurie Myers said.
"They need to realize that part of assimilating into a community is taking responsibility for their crime," said Myers, who founded the advocacy group Community VOICES. "People will be worried and skeptical -- and rightfully so. So they have to be smarter about where they're looking for work."
Andrea Quinn of Tewksbury, who led the charge against Gagnon working at a McDonald's in her hometown, agrees.
"Don't settle for the McDonald's, the Wal-Mart or the Walgreens, where kids will be roaming around," Quinn said. "There are warehouses, lumber yards, cemeteries, auto-body shops -- places where there are no urge (triggers)."
St. Gelais said he made a concerted effort to stay away from the "obvious" places -- supermarkets and fast-food restaurants -- when he applied for a dozen different jobs over the last three months. But he still has had no luck.
"As soon as I get my (construction) license, hopefully everything will work out a lot better," he said.
Lowell resident Randy Bouatick, who was convicted of rape and abuse of a child, said he, too, has been unable to find a job since being released from jail in 2006. The 27-year-old former security guard maintains that he was wrongly accused and hopes to eventually have the charge expunged.
"I have some friends who ... told me that they don't care about my charge," Bouatick, who is legally deaf, wrote during a recent interview. "They said, ''Forget about the past.' But it's very tough." ..more.. by Rob Mills and Jack Minch contributed to this report.
MA- Convicted rapist sues after McDonald's fires him
A reader comments this case is a waste of time and money, but is it? How much do folks understand about state labor laws? Can an employer fire a at-will employee for a perceived fault the employer knew about for some time and never mentioned it, giving the employee the perceived fault as the reason for firing him six months after hiring him? Labor laws protect even sex offenders, especially in California and New Jersey where they are specifically protected by law. The key to this case is the reason the employer gave, if he gave one, which can be contestable under certain circumstances and maybe that fact is what the article fails to mention. WIth that said, I would hope the lawyer would not file a frivilous lawsuit lest he chance being sanctioned for doing so. I vote to give the man his day in court and hopefully the media will follow the case for us.
UPDATE: Other sites are saying the woman committed a crime citing the disclaimer found on the state's registry as authority for their claim. That argument fails because there are no facts in the news article to show harassment by the woman, and one cannot assume they know why a person does something. Only after a proper court hearing with evidence presented can the court decide if notifying the employer was or was not harassment. Proving intent can be difficult.
Ex: If we accept that, notifying the employer of the RSO as being a RSO is a crime, then I guess we also must accept that every news article, or blog posting, that notifys the public that a RSO is a RSO, must also be a crime. True or Not True?
When reading news articles one cannot create facts, one must analyze based on the facts presented in the news article.
4-1-2008 Massachusetts:
BOSTON—A convicted rapist fired from his job at a McDonald's after a woman told management he was a registered sex offender is suing the restaurant's owner and the woman, claiming information about him on the state's Sex Offender Registry Board was misused.
Scott Gagnon, 50, of Tewksbury, claims in his suit filed Monday in Middlesex Superior Court that Andrea Quinn of Tewksbury violated language on the board's Web site that says information on sex offenders cannot be used "to commit a crime or to engage in illegal discrimination or harassments of an offender." Doing so could result in jail time or a fine.
Gagnon was released just over a year ago after spending 27 years in prison following his guilty plea to multiple counts of rape. He is suing Quinn for alleged emotional distress and invasion of privacy, and suing McDonald's for alleged breach of contract.
He is classified as a Level 3 sex offender, considered the most likely to re-offend.
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages.
"What Ms. Quinn did was completely contrary to the rules and regulations of the Sex Offender Registry Board, and in fact we assert that what she did was a crime," said Gagnon's lawyer, William Korman.
Quinn was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday, but she told the Boston Herald that she was concerned about her 13-year-old son, who visits the Tewksbury McDonald's. She said she did not mean for Gagnon to lose his job.
The company that owns the McDonald's, Napoli Group LLC of Windham, N.H., issued a statement Tuesday that said "The safety and well-being of our customers and employees is a top priority. We take these matters seriously."
Owner Peter Napoli told the Herald that company policy prohibits the hiring of sex offenders.
A spokesman for the Sex Offender Registry Board refused comment.
Gagnon received treatment for almost the entire time he was behind bars, Korman said.
He spent seven months after his release looking for a job and was hired by the Tewksbury McDonald's in September to work in the kitchen but not the counter, according to the suit.
"When he was hired he was completely up front with them," Korman said. "He told them about his history, he told them he was a sex offender and they hired him regardless."
There were never any complaints about his job performance and there were never any accusations of wrongdoing on the job, Korman said.
Gagnon was fired last week just days after Quinn brought his past to the attention of management.
"He's a shining example of someone doing everything he's supposed to do and still getting a raw deal at the end of the day," Korman said. ..more.. by Mark Pratt
McBooted perv sues
4-1-2008 Massachusetts:
A convicted serial rapist fired from his job flipping burgers at a Tewksbury McDonald’s is suing the Golden Arches and the mom who exposed him because she refused to clown around with her children’s safety.
Scott Gagnon, 50, who served 27 years behind bars after pleading guilty to picking up and raping five hitchhikers ages 15 to 25 in Essex County 30 years ago, said McDonald’s knew he was a registered Level 3 sex offender when Andrea Quinn found out where he was working from the Sex Offender Registry Board’s Web site and complained to his bosses.
“I never met her before in my life,” said Gagnon, who returned to the streets a year ago.
But Quinn told the Herald she’d do it again.
“I have a 13-year-old son who hangs around McDonald’s. That’s where my energy comes from,” Quinn said. “I’m not going to close my eyes to something so important. I’m not the bad guy here.”
In his civil action brought yesterday in Middlesex Superior Court, Gagnon accuses the family restaurant’s owners of wrongful termination and Quinn, 44, of Tewksbury of invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Specifically, the suit cites the registry board’s own online language stipulating that anyone researching Level 3 sex offenders cannot use the posted information “to commit a crime or to engage in illegal discrimination or harassments of an offender” without repercussion.
“This case is a shot across the bow to those who would utilize information from the SORB to illegally harass people like Mr. Gagnon,” said Gagnon’s attorney William Korman.
Registry board spokesman Charles MacDonald declined to comment yesterday.
Peter Napoli, whose New Hampshire-based Napoli Group owns the McDonald’s where Gagnon worked the grill on nights for just over six months and $8.50 per hour, would not respond when asked if managers knew Gagnon’s frightening past.
Napoli did say, “It’s a company policy that we do not hire anyone convicted of a sex offense. When we found out about it, we terminated him.”
Quinn said she didn’t ask that Gagnon be fired and she encourages him to seek work - just not around kids.
Said Gagnon, “I wish I could go back and change things - not just for me, but the victims. You can read people. They don’t think 27 years is enough. But if you can’t survive, what’s the point of it all?” ..more.. by Laurel J. Sweet
December 22, 2007
Sex offender fired from job as Salvation Army bell-ringer in Newburgh
12-21-2007 New York:
NEWBURGH — The Salvation Army has fired a Level 2 sex offender who was ringing a bell for the kettle drive at Wal-Mart in the town of Newburgh.
Capt. James Brennan said he fired the man Monday after learning the man was a sex offender.
"He admitted it and said he was sorry," said Maj. John Hodgson, who works in the Manhattan office.
The sex offender is John Jones, 46, who lives in the City of Newburgh, according to his profile on the state's sex offender web site.
Jones was convicted in December 1997 of first-degree sexual abuse of a Port Jervis woman. He was sentenced to 30 months to five years in state prison.
Brennan said Jones was hired the second week in November as a bell-ringer at $8 an hour.
The Salvation Army did not have a full background check done on Jones because bell-ringers are only employed for a short period of time. That might change. The hiring will start much earlier to allow time for lengthy background checks, Hodgson said.
Members of a sex abuse and sex offender watchdog group spotted Jones ringing the bell for the kettle drive outside the Wal-Mart on Route 300 and alerted Brennan. Jones saw the handwriting on the wall. He could not be reached for comment.
"He just left. He knew he was not going to continue working," Brennan said.
Up to that point, no one had complained about Jones. In fact, Brennan said, "We had received a couple of positive reports. He was actually bringing some Christmas cheer."
The Salvation Army does not hire sex offenders, but it does work with them, Hodgson said.
"This doesn't disqualify Mr. Jones from any services we offer," Brennan said. "We offer these to everyone." ..more.. by Paul Brooks, Times Herald-Record
