4-7-15 Florida:
At this year's Sundance Film Festival, a top prize went to Pervert Park, a foreign-made documentary about registered sex offenders living in a Pinellas County mobile home park.
Critics lauded the film as a nuanced, if disquieting look at child molesters and other offenders, many of whom have been helped to restart their lives by an organization called Florida Justice Transitions.
But now Transitions' president Jim Broderick and the Christian gospel musician who owns the park are locked in a dispute that, Broderick says, threatens programs that keep sex offenders from repeating their crimes.
Broderick failed to meet this week's court-ordered deadline to pay $16,000 in overdue lot rent on 14 trailers in which he houses offenders at the Palace Mobile Home Park.
He accused park owner Jeff Shadowens of stealing the trailers and jeopardizing the treatment and counseling available to residents.
"I was the one who brought in the AA, the NA meetings,'' Broderick said. "The sex offender counseling – that's my thumbprint. The program is gone, he (Shadowens) is just a landlord.''
Shadowens would not comment in detail, citing pending lawsuits against Broderick. But he said he would not evict any tenants.
"Nothing is going to change,'' he said. "I'm not going to put sex offenders on the street.''
The dispute has poisoned what was once a mutually advantageous relationship that also fulfilled a pressing need – housing for one of society's most stigmatized groups.
In Florida, sex offenders on probation for crimes involving underage victims may not live within 1,000 feet of a school, child care facility or other places where children congregate.
Among the few places in Tampa Bay that welcome offenders is the Palace, an aging park on 54th Avenue N overlooking the eight-laned traffic of I-275. It is home to 134 of Pinellas County's 1,628 registered sex offenders.
Once a notorious hang out for addicts and prostitutes, the park shifted focus about a decade ago while run by a manager whose son was an offender. She started Florida Justice Transitions, which acquired several trailers in the 80-lot park, and began accepting people convicted of sex crimes.
Among them was Broderick, an electrical contractor who spent 18 months in prison for using the Internet to try to solicit sex with a child (in reality, an undercover cop). In 2007, he took over Justice Transitions and, he says, greatly expanded its range of services.
Broderick also allowed in a pair of Scandinavian filmmakers who interviewed several of the park's residents last year. One had been raped by her father while still in the crib; She later seduced her own son, who in turn molested a 3-year-old boy.
"In providing room for such stories,'' a Variety critic wrote of Pervert Park, "the documentary broadens well beyond a portrait of this particular facility to address the underlying causes of these crimes and to question how society might more constructively deal with the issues.''
Praised for its "daring approach'' and the "courageous candor of its subjects,'' the film won a Special Jury Award for Impact at Utah's Sundance festival but has not been commercially released in the United States. (Trailers are available on YouTube.)
For a time, Broderick had an amicable arrangement with Shadowens, the park's owner. A founder of the Largo-based gospel music ministry Simple Faith, Shadowens is a singer and songwriter who has appeared on Christian television and radio.
Under their agreement, Broderick paid Shadowens $2,500 a month lot rental for the 14 trailers that Florida Justice Transitions owns. Shadowens paid Broderick a $50 a month "referral fee'' for every tenant brought in by Transitions but housed in a trailer Shadowens owned.
Thing began to sour in late 2012.
"He wanted the whole ball of wax,'' Broderick charges. He says Shadowens stopped paying the referral fees, hired Transitions' staff, removed him as manager and barred him from collecting rent from Transitions tenants in Shadowens' trailers.
Shadowens evicted Broderick from the park in January and sued him in February for failing to pay several months' lot rent.
In a counterclaim filed this week, Broderick says he is the one owed money – thousands of dollars in unpaid referral fees.
The dispute has left tenants wondering about their future, and also taking sides.
Some, who did not want to be named, much less photographed, said Broderick is overstating what he has done to help them. They say tenants largely run the park themselves, watching out for each other to make sure no one repeats. They say Shadowens welcomed offenders when few others would. They note that a therapist continues to hold counseling sessions at the park.
But Broderick has his supporters.
"Jim has given me hope,'' says Bruce Edmondson, a smooth-skinned man of 50 with dark, wavy hair curling around his shoulders.
Edmondson, a former 911 operator, spent 11 years in prison for molesting his daughter and wound up at the Palace because no halfway houses would take him. But he said he would have been evicted months ago if Broderick hadn't let him stay rent-free in one of Transitions' trailers.
Edmondson said Broderick also helped him apply for disability benefits, got him to doctor's appointments, even invited him for cookouts.
"Jim bought another guy a pair of shoes,'' he added. "Poor guy was walkin' around with no shoes. He's just like me, he ain't got nothin.'''
Broderick's own financial situation is unclear. He acknowledges that while he hasn't paid his lot fees, he continues to collect around $8,400 a month from his tenants. But he says that much of that goes for legal bills, loan payments on Transitions' trailers and rent on a house he moved into after being forced out as the Palace's live-in manager.
"I've never made any money at this,'' Broderick says. "That's not the case with other people.''
With the deadline looming to pay the delinquent lot fees, Broderick, 60, sought help from dozens of agencies and individuals including Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. His deputies monitor the park, which has a St. Petersburg address but is in an unincorporated area, and register offenders there.
Gualtieri declined Broderick's appeal – "it's not my role or responsibility'' – and said he does not know Broderick. The sheriff called the park itself a "double-edged sword.''
"One of the detriments of having it is that it attracts people who can't get housing in other areas to come here. The other side is that it also has people from here in Pinellas who otherwise couldn't get housing find a place, and in many respects it makes it easier for law enforcement because it centralizes that offender/predator population. We have some problems there but actually I'm surprised we don't have more problems than we do.''
Gualtieri said he has been in the park. His description is terse:
"It's not a nice place. It is what it is.'' ..Source.. by Susan Taylor Martin
April 7, 2015
Dispute brews at Pinellas' 'Pervert Park' as documentary gains praise
April 1, 2015
30 sex offenders could be left without a home in Pinellas County
A tenant-landlord dispute may leave 30 convicted sex offenders without a place to live in Pinellas County.
The Palace Mobile Home Park is home to 150 convicted sex offenders.
"I had molested my 8-year-old son. I was sentenced to 11 years in prison followed by 15 on probation,” said Tracy Hutchinson, one of the park’s residents.
Hutchinson and other residents of the park are trying to get back on their feet.
"There isn't anywhere else, unless I want to live in the woods somewhere,” she said.
Jim Broderick runs Florida Justice Transitions, a program to help sex offenders return to society. But a two-year legal battle with the mobile home land owner could mean 30 sex offenders living in 14 trailers could soon be out on the street.
"If I lose those units, come noon time on Monday, it's out of my hands,” Broderick said.
That possibility is leaving nearby homeowners concerned.
"I don't like it. I mean, I wouldn't want my kids to be in danger. I mean, they ride their bike up and down the street all the time,” one parent told ABC Action News.
Lou Ellis and his wife have lived in the neighborhood for close to 35 years and says the news is disturbing.
"I sit there with my door open so I can see outside, see what's going on,” Ellis said. “But I'll have to start locking it, I guess, if that's the case."
Broderick says he has until noon Monday to deposit $16,000 into the court registry or he loses the 14 mobile home units. ..Source.. by Gina Pitisci
Sex offenders could be ousted from mobile home park
St. Petersburg, Florida — Dozens of sex offenders living in a mobile home park could be evicted, putting neighbors on edge.
The program that provides housing to those 30 sex offenders is just days away from getting kicked off of the property.
Families worry what neighborhood they'll end up calling home if they're put out on the street.
"If they don't have a place to live, if they can't live where they're living, some of them may find some housing elsewhere, but it's gonna be very difficult," said Jim Broderick.
As a sex offender himself Broderick knows first hand how hard it is to live with that label.
He says that's why he runs Florida Justice Transitions.
"We bring sex offenders from incarceration and we transition them back into society," he said.
The program is based at the Palace Mobile Home Park, 2500 54th Ave. N., in St. Petersburg, but after a monthslong legal battle with the property owner, the company is in jeopardy.
Broderick says that Florida Justice Transitions has to put $16,000 into a court registry by Saturday, otherwise the 30 sex offenders living in the mobile home park might be kicked out, leaving many wondering where they'll go.
Registered sex offender Bruce Edmondson says he got out of prison a year ago after molesting his daughter. And the program?
"As a person, it's just helped me a lot. It's given me hope. And a lot of us don't have any hope," he said.
Edmondson says if he's evicted from his home at the mobile home park, "that means i'll probably be living out in the woods."
And the thought of 30 sex offenders looking for a place to stay doesn't sit well with neighbors who live less than a mile from the mobile home park.
"I'm scared. I don't like them living there, and i know everyone needs a place to live, but as the story goes, not in my backyard," neighbor Mary Muller said.
But park property owner Jeff Shadowens says even if Florida Justice Transitions is forced out, its tenants have nothing to fear.
"We have been renting and helping sex offenders for several years, and we intend to keep on doing that," he said.
December 1, 2008
FL- Filmmakers examine marginalized' lives of sex offenders
While I think it is a good idea to let the world know the harms done by sex offender laws, I totally disagree with the title of the film as it conflicts with the message of the film. So the question is, what are the filmmakers saying? A reader mentioned "irony" but in my opinion calling folks out of their name is not irony nor should it be.
12-1-2008 Florida:
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Palace Mobile Home Park has become a sort of modern-day leper colony. Tucked beside a liquor store off Interstate 275, the trailer park is a haven for sex offenders, with about 100 of its residents on the state's registry.
It is also the subject of a documentary film by a group of Central Florida filmmakers. Titled "Scum of the Earth," the film takes a generally sympathetic approach to its subjects, whose crimes involved children.
One subject molested his daughter, whom he's now not allowed to contact. Another claims she was sexually abused by family members and years later molested a 3-year-old girl she was baby-sitting.
The title, meant as irony, sums up society's view of sex offenders. The film explores how the Palace became a sanctuary for these outcasts.
Clustering of sex offenders is a natural outgrowth of restrictions on where they can live, said Jill Levenson, an assistant professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton who specializes in sex-offender issues. Communities throughout the state have restricted offenders from living too close to schools, day-care centers and bus stops.
"This public policy of fear and revenge is really making the problem worse," said filmmaker Phyllis Redman, who has a background in social work. "Yet it's continuing to be implemented primarily because of public fear."
Her husband, Eric Breitenbach, a fellow filmmaker, acknowledges that many people might find the subject matter tough to watch. When he has brought up his latest project in group settings, "you can hear a pin drop in the room ... You can tell people are immediately worried or turned off or apprehensive about watching or even considering watching a film like that."
Breitenbach and Redman, who live in Deltona, Fla., often focus on those Redman describes as "marginalized." Their critically acclaimed film "When Pigs Fly" chronicled a Flagler County, Fla., woman's battle to save domestic pigs from death. The production team also includes Gary Monroe, a DeLand, Fla., photographer.
When the group started its most recent project, a mental-health counselor at the Palace encouraged his clients to tell their stories on film. It would be cathartic for them, said therapist Don Sweeney, and educational for those who might choose to watch.
By opening up on camera, "I wanted people to see that I'm still a human being," said Robert Smith, who spent time in prison on charges of lewd or lascivious battery on a child. Smith said he molested a 10-year-old girl at his son's party. Smith said he doesn't remember the crime because "I got pretty blitzed" beforehand.
People credit — or blame, depending on their point of view — a woman named Nancy Morais for creating this haven for sex offenders. Morais, whose son is a convicted sex offender, began offering services at the Palace for sex offenders when she was managing the park. The group she founded, called Florida Justice Transitions, has its headquarters there. At the Palace, "I think they feel safe," said Sweeney, who runs group-therapy sessions there. "They don't have to worry about vigilantism, people hating them, putting them down."
Redman said their subjects suffer with shame, guilt and remorse. In the course of filming, one went back to jail for missing by one day a deadline to register as a sex offender. One attempted suicide. Another faces eviction from the park.
"All of these guys are really hanging in the balance," Redman said. "The tougher society makes it on them, the more likely they will not be successful, whatever that means: re-offend, return to addictions or commit suicide or become homeless."
The Palace has its share of problems, although law enforcement officials say it's rare for park residents to get rearrested for sex crimes. Sweeney said drugs and prostitutes are prevalent. Earlier this year, a transient visiting friends at the park murdered a pregnant woman whose fiance lived there, according to news reports. And there is occasionally tension between the sex-offender residents and their neighbors.
"It's hell here," said one woman who had complained to management that an offender in the park had harassed her.
Residents pay several hundred dollars a month to live — often with roommates — in tiny mobile homes packed tightly along narrow streets. Many of them are well-kept, landscaped and decorated with items such as pink flamingos. An American flag hangs in front of one home.
Harold Cooney's home has a ramp for his wife's electric scooter. The living room is decorated with angel figurines and filled with wooden and glass furniture that seems out of place in its cramped surroundings. A small sign over the door reminds him not to forget to wear his electronic monitoring device when he leaves the house.
Now 76 and battling leukemia, he served prison time in 2006 after police caught him masturbating on a Web camera, thinking a 14-year-old girl was watching him on the Internet. It was actually a law enforcement officer.
Cooney and his wife, Ruth, consider themselves parental figures to many of the men. She said her husband's arrest turned out to be a blessing in disguise because they have been able to help so many men at the park.
"If it wasn't for this place," she said, "I don't know where these people would go." ..News Source.. by Greenville Online.com
November 29, 2008
FL- Spotlight: clustered lives of sex offenders
11-29-2008 Florida:
ST. PETERSBURG - The Palace Mobile Home Park has become a sort of modern-day leper colony. Tucked beside a liquor store off Interstate 275, the trailer park is a haven for sex offenders, with about 100 of its residents on the state's registry.
It is also the subject of a documentary film by a group of Central Florida filmakers. Titled Scum of the Earth, the film takes a generally sympathetic approach to its subjects, whose crimes involved children.
One subject molested his daughter, whom he's now not allowed to contact. Another claims she was sexually abused by family members and years later molested a 3-year-old girl she was baby-sitting.
The title, meant as irony, sums up society's view of sex offenders. The film explores how the Palace became a sanctuary for these outcasts.
Clustering of sex offenders is a natural outgrowth of restrictions on where they can live, said Jill Levenson, an assistant professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton who specializes in sex-offender issues. Communities throughout the state have restricted offenders from living too close to schools, day-care centers and bus stops.
"This public policy of fear and revenge is really making the problem worse," said filmmaker Phyllis Redman, who has a background in social work. "Yet it's continuing to be implemented primarily because of public fear."
Her husband Eric Breitenbach, a fellow filmmaker, acknowledges that many people might find the subject matter tough to watch. When he has brought up his latest project in group settings, "you can hear a pin drop in the room . . . You can tell people are immediately worried or turned off or apprehensive about watching or even considering watching a film like that."
'Marginalized' lives
Breitenbach and Redman, who live in Deltona, often focus on those Redman describes as "marginalized." Their critically acclaimed film When Pigs Fly chronicled a Flagler County woman's battle to save domestic pigs from death. The production team also includes Gary Monroe, a DeLand photographer.
When the group started its most recent project, a mental-health counselor at the Palace encouraged his clients to tell their stories on film. It would be cathartic for them, said therapist Don Sweeney, and educational for those who might choose to watch.
By opening up on camera, "I wanted people to see that I'm still a human being," said Robert Smith, who spent time in prison on charges of lewd or lascivious battery on a child. Smith said he molested a 10-year-old girl at his son's party. Smith said he doesn't remember the crime because "I got pretty blitzed" beforehand.
People credit -- or blame, depending on their point of view -- a woman named Nancy Morais for creating this haven for sex offenders. Morais, whose son is a convicted sex offender, began offering services at the Palace for sex offenders when she was managing the park. The group she founded, called Florida Justice Transitions, has its headquarters there. At the Palace, "I think they feel safe," said Sweeney, who runs group-therapy sessions there. "They don't have to worry about vigilantism, people hating them, putting them down."
Redman said their subjects suffer with shame, guilt and remorse. In the course of filming, one went back to jail for missing by one day a deadline to register as a sex offender. One attempted suicide. Another faces eviction from the park.
"All of these guys are really hanging in the balance," Redman said. "The tougher society makes it on them, the more likely they will not be successful, whatever that means: re-offend, return to addictions or commit suicide or become homeless."
2nd arrests rare there
The Palace has its share of problems, although law-enforcement officials say it's rare for park residents to get rearrested for sex crimes. Sweeney said drugs and prostitutes are prevalent. Earlier this year, a transient visiting friends at the park murdered a pregnant woman whose fianc� lived there, according to news reports. And there is occasionally tension between the sex-offender residents and their neighbors.
"It's hell here," said one woman who had complained to management that an offender in the park had harassed her.
Residents pay several hundred dollars a month to live -- often with roommates -- in tiny mobile homes packed tightly along narrow streets. Many of them are well-kept, landscaped and decorated with items such as pink flamingos. An American flag hangs in front of one home.
Harold Cooney's home has a ramp for his wife's electric scooter. The living room is decorated with angel figurines and filled with wooden and glass furniture that seems out of place in its cramped surroundings. A small sign over the door reminds him not to forget to wear his electronic monitoring device when he leaves the house.
Now 76 and battling leukemia, he served prison time in 2006 after police caught him masturbating on a Web camera, thinking a 14-year-old girl was watching him on the Internet. It was actually a law-enforcement officer.
Cooney and his wife, Ruth, consider themselves parental figures to many of the men. She said her husband's arrest turned out to be a blessing in disguise because they have been able to help so many men at the park."If it wasn't for this place," she said, "I don't know where these people would go." ..News Source.. by Sandra Pedicini | Sentinel Staff Writer
November 11, 2008
FL- Florida Justice Transitions (A sex offender program needs help)
11-11-2008 Florida:
FLORIDA JUSTICE TRANSITIONS, Inc
Dear Friends:
Below is a Wish List of needs that our organization is in dire need of at this time. Each year we ask help from you to assist us in any way you can possibly help.
Some of you who can not help personally, have been great about getting us help fin the past from resources you may know of that will assist.
We understand that hard times are here for all, and wish each and everyone of you good health and fortune in 2009.
Please help us make a difference for those less fortunate than ourselves.
REMEMBER, all donations are tax deductible under our 501 c 3, and any monetary donations will receive a tax deductible certificate for your tax records.
Thank You so very much,
Sincerely Yours,
Nancy Morais, FJTC
11-10-2008
As you may well know, this time of the year is very difficult for our program. On top of being in a recession, many men and women coming out into our care are facing the cold months and Holidays which prove so depressing for most of our clients. Our prayer is that we can meet some of their needs in some small way.
Any of these would be greatly appreciated.
Blankets- (Twin-New or Good used ok) We are still short 32.. Please!
TV’s and Radio’s
Kitchen Appliances
Room Heaters
Toothbrushes
Tooth Paste, Mouthwash
Deodorant
Shampoo, Conditioner
Shaving Cream, Disposable Razors
Toilet paper
Shower gel, Bar soap
Socks - Ankle, Crew
T-Shirts-S, M, L, XL, XXL
Briefs-S, M, L, XL, XXL
Boxers- S,M,L,XL,XXL
Belts- S, M, L, XL, XXL (Good used ok)
Shirts-S, M, L, XL, XXL (Good used ok)
Pants-all sizes (Good used ok)
Kitchen Towels
Bath Towels-(Good used ok)
Face Cloths- (Good used ok)
Twin Sheet Sets- (Good used ok)
Pillow Cases- (Good used ok)
Food-non perishables: Can goods, pasta, rice, etc…
(Gift Certificates) Winn Dixie, Publix, Sweet Bay, Wal-Mart for perishable items such as eggs, milk, cheese, butter, and milk….
Food Gift Card- (.i.e. - Burger King, Wendy's, Arby’s etc..)
Please call our office if you have any questions or needs:
727- 289-7020
March 8, 2008
FL- Suspect sought in stabbing death at Lealman mobile home park
3-8-2008 Florida:
LEALMAN -- A petty argument turned deadly Friday for a pregnant mother of two, who was fatally stabbed at a mobile home park for sex offenders.
Pinellas County Sheriff's deputies are searching for Christopher Robertson, 41, who they said stabbed Anna Marie Kasvicis, 22, about 12:40 p.m.
Robert Piccolo, 20, said his fiancee was dropping off groceries at his lot at the Palace Mobile Home Park on her way to a job interview. He said she commented to Robertson, who had been staying there since he got out of jail, that he wasn't to touch the food.
Piccolo said that triggered a back-and-forth that ended when Robertson, 41, grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen and stabbed her in the chest. Piccolo witnessed the altercation.
"I wish he would have stabbed me," said Piccolo, who said he met Robertson in jail and was doing him a favor by taking him in. "She was a wonderful person."
Piccolo said Kasvicis was two months pregnant with his baby and leaves behind a girl and a boy, ages 7 and 4.
Robertson is described as a white man with short salt-and-pepper hair, about 6 feet tall and 170 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black shirt and blue jeans.
Neighbor Maribel Guzman, 44, said she saw Robertson running out of the park as she was on her way back from the store.
"She was a baby, a gorgeous young lady," said Guzman, who said she's known the victim for five years. "She didn't deserve this."
Kasvicis was taken by ambulance to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, where she was pronounced dead, said Cecilia Barreda, spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
The Palace Mobile Home Park houses nearly 100 sex offenders. They have found it a haven after manager Nancy Morais persuaded the owner to start admitting them a few years ago. The move was inspired by her son, himself a sex offender, who struggled to find a place to live.
Robertson has faced charges of aggravated battery and kidnapping and was released from the Pinellas County Jail last month, after which he started staying at the park.
Tucked in the southwest corner of 54th Avenue N and Interstate 275, the park was quiet Friday afternoon as deputies with cameras guarded three rows of mobile homes wrapped in caution tape.
But he is not a sex offender, and Palace manager Morais said the residents of lot 274, where the stabbing occurred, are not part of the sex offender program either. Neighbor Richard Reckert, 59, said Robertson had been hanging around the park lately, sometimes walking the dog of the residents at lot 274.
Morais said she has more trouble with the private owners in her park than with the sex offenders. Because offenders are on probation, they're easier to refer to police when they cause problems, she said.
He lamented the way the killing would appear to the public.
"This place is going to get buried," he said. "It's going to get blown up like some sex offender did it."
Morais spoke to reporters before driving to Hillsborough County, where she's involved with a similarly controversial park. Her nonprofit organization, Florida Justice Transitions, runs a Palm River mobile home park housing a small group of sex offenders.
On Friday, county officials determined they could not remove the offenders based on a county ordinance.
"I'm very proud of what the guys have done here, and I don't want this to come up against them," Morais said.
Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report. Stephanie Garry can be reached at sgarry@sptimes.com or (727) 892-2374. ..more.. by Stephanie Garry, Times Staff Writer
March 7, 2008
FL- Sex Predators Won't Be Booted From Palm River Park
3-7-2008 Florida:
Sexual predators will not be evicted from a Palm River mobile home park, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
"We have not received any complaints," spokeswoman Debbie Carter said. "We see no violations at this point. We have consulted and reviewed the ordinance with the state attorney's office."
According to the ordinance, Carter said, "They are within their legal rights of residing within their homes."
"We started getting phone calls, hearing that we were going to be arresting individuals at midnight," she said. "That is totally new to us."
The county attorney's office began investigating the situation after Palm River residents spoke during the public comment session at Thursday's commission meeting, protesting Florida Justice Transitions' plan to house sex offenders in Juli's Mobile Home Park.
At least eight sexual predators and two sexual offenders already live in the mobile homes, and the founder of the nonprofit group has announced plans to house up to 24 at the park, which sits across the street from families living at J&L Mobile Home Park.
The plans have enraged residents at J&L, including Michelle Williams.
Born and raised in the Palm River area, Williams extended an emotional plea to commissioners requesting they take action. She said she was sexually assaulted in 1984, and her attacker went on to victimize 17 more children.
"I'm a survivor. You never get over it. Make them go somewhere where there aren't any children. Yes, they've served their term, but what they've done to us is a lifetime thing," she said. "I can't allow this in my community, not now, not ever."
Faith-based Florida Justice Transitions operates a transitional program for sex offenders at a mobile home park in St. Petersburg, where offenders receive counseling and close monitoring by the sheriff's office and probation officers, according to founder Nancy Morais.
Veronica Moore, president of the Palm River Civic Association, who spoke to commissioners with her 18-month-old foster daughter, Dixie Lee, in her arms, said she doesn't think any amount of monitoring will keep children in the community safe.
Moore is organizing a community protest march at 1 p.m. March 15 that will begin at 78th Street and proceed along Causeway Boulevard to Palm River Road. The Palm River Civic Association will discuss the march at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the First Baptist Church of Palm River, 5415 Palm River Road.
Tony Spino, who has daughters ages 4 and 2, built a $400,000 home about a mile from the mobile home park and said he's worried not only about the safety of children but also declining property values. Spino has launched a petition drive to close the transitional program, so far gathering about 200 signatures.
County code enforcement supervisor Bill Langford said Thursday, and property records confirmed, the property the mobile home park is located on, at 5011 24th Ave. S., is owned by Rooring Lake Gilbert LLC.
After hearing residents speak Thursday morning, Commissioner Jim Norman asked the county attorney to immediately file an injunction to stop Florida Justice Transition's plans.
"The last thing we need to do is bring another predator into this community," he said. "We need to jump on this right away."
Commissioner Kevin White was especially disturbed to learn one of the sex offenders living at the Palm River mobile home park had been released after raping and carving his initials into the chest of a 15-year-old girlfriend.
"It sounds like our judicial system is failing," he said. "This needs to be a collaborative effort with all government agencies involved."
By late Thursday afternoon, the county attorney's office announced the county could legally force the eight sexual predators to move because of the 300-foot rule. The rule covers only sexual predators, who are categorized as having committed more serious crimes than sexual offenders. ..more.. by A Tribune staff report
