Sex offender evicted from Palm River mobile home park

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March 7, 2008 Florida:

Palm River, Florida – Pack up and move out!

Sex offenders at a mobile home in Palm River are being evicted. They have 24 hours, until Friday at midnight to get out.

And, parents across the street are celebrating. For now.

“I'm so thrilled. I just can't be more excited,” Carla Bowling said, as she smiled ear to ear and hugged a friend.

That friend, Elisha Grubb, chimed in with the same enthusiasm.

“I'm excited, I can't believe it. I think it's wonderful. I'm glad that people listened,” Elisha said.

Elisha and Carla live across the street from the mobile home park, where the Florida Justice Transitions program has set up shop for sex offenders. It's a rehab of sorts, where the men live among one another.

This eviction begs a bigger and possibly more dangerous question: Where will the men go now? Back on the street? For some, it may be the only choice.

Even parents who were elated with the news had a sobering moment when they thought about the outcome of banning offenders from the neighborhood.

“The only thing now is, where are they going to go,” Carla asked. “How are we going to know where they're at?”

The simple answer, parents may not know where the men are. Many will be homeless. Some will stay with relatives. Most of the men from the mobile home park are planning to meet with their probation officers first thing Friday morning at 7:00 to come up with alternative living arrangements.

One convicted sex offender, Jim Broderick, spoke firsthand with our news crew about the situation. He lives at a similar mobile home park called Pinellas Palace.

Jim says, “The men who live here that are labeled predators will most likely end up under a bridge, probably end up being rearrested, going back to jail, and the cycle begins all over again.”

Authorities say, the men broke the rules by violating an ordinance. It's a safety measure that says sex offenders can not be within 300 feet of a bus stop. The men are near children every day.

The manager who runs the mobile home park and wants to help these men get their lives back on track claims, the offenders want to be better people, and this eviction isn't helping.

Nancy Morais is disappointed by the decision. “Our goal is to stop them from hurting children, not to put them in a situation where other children will be hurt.” ..Source.. by Melanie Brooks

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Palm River Neighborhood Fights Sex Offender Housing

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March 5, 2008 Florida:

PALM RIVER - PALM RIVER - In the past, Elisha Grubbs periodically would check the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Web site to see whether any sex offenders had moved into her neighborhood.

Now there's really no reason for her to check. Grubbs can just look out the window of her home in J&L Mobile Home Park in Palm River, where she and her children live. From that vantage point, she can watch convicted sex offenders casually stroll by or gather for a quick smoke just a stone's throw from her front door, which Grubbs now has reinforced with a heavy-duty deadbolt.

Grubbs said she is frightened for the safety of her 13-year-old daughter, Irene, and enraged that a nonprofit organization is being permitted to house convicted sex offenders at a mobile home park at 5011 24th Ave. S., across the street from her neighborhood.

She and other equally angry residents gathered last week at First Baptist Church of Palm River to learn more about Florida Justice Transitions' plans and vowed to voice their concerns to Hillsborough County commissioners Thursday.

"How dare they do this without asking our permission," Grubbs said. "It's just greed. It's all about money. It has nothing to do with trying to help these offenders."

Tony Spino has two daughters, ages 4 and 2, and lives about a mile from the mobile home park. The day after the civic association meeting, he launched a petition drive to close the sex offender program.

"I can only imagine what these guys are talking about when they get together at night," Spino said. "When you put 20 builders together, they're going to build something. I don't even want to think about what happens when you put 20 sex offenders together."

Palm River Civic Association board member Dottie Tilden said the community wasn't aware the nonprofit group was establishing a transitional living program for sex offenders until victims' rights advocate Judy Cornett gave the group a heads-up.

Cornett, of Lutz, is executive director of Safety Zone Advocacy, an organization she formed after her son was sexually molested in 1992. The Tampa-based group disseminates information to help prevent sex crimes. Cornett contacted the civic association after offenders began moving into the mobile home park in January.

Now, residents of the largely low-income, tightly knit community on the eastern outskirts of Tampa are intent on doing whatever it takes to protect themselves and their children.

But Nancy Morais of St. Petersburg, founder of faith-based Florida Justice Transitions, is equally vehement about protecting the offenders' civil rights.

Her son, Marc Morais, 38, who lives in Riverview, was convicted of attempted sexual battery of a child younger than 12 in 1996, FDLE records show. He was jailed in the Florida Civil Commitment Center in Arcadia, where sex offenders are committed for treatment until they no longer are deemed a risk.

According to legislative records, Nancy Morais toured the center with state legislators in 2005 and protested that offenders there were treated inhumanely and did not receive the counseling they needed.

Morias did not return calls from The Tampa Tribune requesting comment, but on her Web site, she says problems only worsen upon sex offenders' release from the Florida Civil Commitment Center. County ordinances and courts can limit how close a sex offender may live to a school, church, playground, bus stop or child-care facility, and the distance specified in those ordinances can vary from county to county, so finding a place to live is difficult and complicated, Morais said.

In addition, there are no state-funded treatment programs for sex offenders, she notes. To help sex offenders and others released from prison transition back into society, Morais opened the Palace Mobile Home Park at 2500 54th Ave. N. in St. Petersburg.

Jim Broderick, a transitions director for Florida Justice Transitions, said 90 of the 200 residents of Palace Mobile Home Park are convicted sex offenders. Some have been released from the commitment center in Arcadia, others from traditional prisons, he said. In most cases, living at the transitional center for two years is a condition of probation.

Three or four residents share each mobile home and pay $400 a month to cover utilities and operating expenses. But Broderick said the nonprofit group is not getting rich.

"We're doing this to help these people, both men and women," he said. "We get zero funding from the state or federal government. In fact, we're losing money. They come here with nothing but the clothes on their backs. We buy stuff out of our own pockets for them."

Morais and other proponents of what's known as "clustering" sex offenders say doing so makes it easier for parole officers to monitor the offenders. She said probation officers and members of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Sexual Predator and Offender Tracking Unit visit Palace Park every day, and a sheriff's substation has been established there for the convenience of deputies and corrections officers.

"And our rules go beyond what the probation department requires," Broderick said. "We have never had a re-offender."

Supporters of sex offender clustering say that in addition to getting counseling and help with drug and alcohol addictions, residents of such programs also monitor one another and have turned in fellow offenders for violating the terms of their probation.

Cornett thinks that's the exception, not the rule.

Six sexual predators and three sex offenders live in 12 mobile homes and one permanent, single-family home at the Palm River mobile home park. Morais has announced plans to house at least 24 sex offenders there. In addition, 11 sexual predators and offenders live less than a mile from the mobile home park.

Sexual predators have been convicted of one first-degree felony sex crime or two second-degree felony sex crimes. The second-degree crimes must have been committed after 1997, when Florida statutes changed. Sex offenders have been convicted of less serious or fewer sex crimes.

While knocking on doors to alert families in Palm River about the transitional center, Cornett was stunned to see a school bus drop off children at 25th Avenue and 50th Street, she said.

"The kids walked right past that trailer park. That's scary," she said.

Detective Joseph Venero of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Sexual Predator Unit said Sheriff David Gee doesn't like the idea of sex offenders congregating in his county, especially since most at the mobile home park come from other counties. Only one is from Hillsborough.

Among the residents is Mitchell Westerheide, 34, who was released from state custody Jan. 7. The Volusia County man spent eight years at the Florida Civil Commitment Center after pleading guilty in 1994 to lewd and lascivious assault and other felonies involving the use of whips, knives and fishhooks and carving his initials into the chest of his 15-year-old girlfriend, according to court records.

"We're watching this closely, and we've voiced our concerns with the state attorney's office," Venero said. He thinks Hillsborough has a disproportionately high number of sex offenders because the county has less restrictive laws than other Florida counties. "We've got 1.3 sex offenders per square mile in this county. They're everywhere."

Cornett is working with state Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, to develop state legislation or a stricter county ordinance that would prohibit sex offender clustering and further restrict where they can live.

Hillsborough County code enforcement office supervisor Bill Langford said Morais' operation may be illegal for reasons that have nothing to do with sex offenders.

At the civic association's request, he did some research and discovered the property is zoned for industrial use, meaning residential uses are prohibited.

"Even if the trailer park has been there for years, it doesn't mean it's legal. It's an improper use," Langford said. "Plus, I saw some electrical and tie-down issues that I'm concerned about. The owner will have to come into compliance."

If the property owner does not address the code issues, Langford said, the matter will go to a hearing before county code enforcement officials in April and the county will begin charging fines.

"Then we could assess a lien on the property," Langford said.

Broderick said that's "nonsense."

"It's just not true. That trailer park has been there since the '60s or '70s, a very long time," he said. "If it was illegal, something would have been done about it before now." ..Source.. by D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE The Tampa Tribune

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FL- New law prohibits sex offenders from 'clustering'

In all the years that I have researched this topic I have never seen such a conglomeration of misinformation and misleading information in one place as is shown in this ordinance. This one takes the cake as they say. Someone or some persons have taken bits and pieces from dozens of places, out of context and without the remainder of what the sources say, and put it together to support the passage of this ordinance.

10-5-2008 Florida:

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- Hillsborough County leaders recently passed a new law that prohibits groups of sex offenders from clustering in one neighborhood.

County Commissioners passed a new law that prohibits sex offenders from living together or "clustering." And offenders can occupy no more than 10 percent of units in a mobile home park. Landlords will also be punished if they allow it.

The problem of too many sex offenders living in one spot that was too close to children surfaced in Palm River a few months ago.

Carla Bowling who lived near the sexual offenders made issue of the high numbers of sexual offenders living so close.

"We don't need them around a family park," Bowling said.

Community activist Michelle Williams pushed for changes so sex offenders aren't so closely concentrated, and county commissioners listened.

"We needed to do whatever we had to do on the county level on the legislative side of it to keep our community and children safe," said Commissioner Kevin White.

The new law applies to sexual offenders and predators.

"It should give the sheriff's office, government officials a better way of tracking and keeping tabs on their locations and keeping them away from our children," White said.

White says he would like to have sexual offenders housed in a designated commune-like facility in Hillsborough County. The facility would be gated, well marked and a good distance from churches and schools

"Along the perimeter of that facility you could have the postings and the markings that this is a certified sex offender location -- please keep children so many feet away and children beware," White said. ..News Source.. by BayNews9.com

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FL- Arrest In Fatal Stabbing At Sex Offender Park

3-8-2008 Florida:

ST. PETERSBURG Pinellas County sheriff's deputies arrested a transient early today in the fatal stabbing of a woman at a mobile home park for registered sex offenders.

Christopher Robertson, 41,((is not a registered sex offender nor is he part of that Park's RSO Program) was arrested at 12:15 a.m. while he was sitting in the carport of Lot 348 at the Palace Mobile Home Park, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. A witness had reported seeing him at the park, 2500 54th Ave. N., near Interstate 275.

Robertson is charged with second degree murder in the stabbing of 22-year-old Anna Marie Kasvicis about 1 p.m. Friday. Sheriff's detectives said Robertson admitted in an interview his involvement in the crime.

The investigation continues.

Deputies said Robertson knew Kasvicis and that they were arguing when the stabbing occurred in Lot 274. Deputies have not said what the argument was about. They said the pair was not dating.

Kasvicis was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Palace Mobile Home Park has Pinellas' highest concentration of sexual offenders and sexual predators, but Robertson isn't an offender or predator, sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha said.

A similar mobile home park in Palm River recently became controversial when nearby residents tried to force the sexual offenders living there to leave. ..more.. by TBO Staff Report

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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.

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.

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.

Neighbor Richard Reckert, 59, said Robertson had been hanging around the park lately, sometimes walking the dog of the residents at lot 274.

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 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.

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

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FL- Sex Predators Won't Be Booted From Palm River Park

It appears this earlier report by another news media is WRONG!
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

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FL- A pedophile's paradise? Parents protest a mobile home park.

2-28-2008 Florida:

Palm River, Florida – Parents call it a pedophile’s paradise.

And, it makes them sick.

A mobile home park in the Palm River area is becoming a haven for sex offenders. They use the park as a rehab of sorts. Currently, 8 offenders live there and more could be on the way. Families across the street have had enough.

“They walk the street all the time. Every day I see them, and there isn’t anything I can do about it. I’ve just got to leave it alone,” said Carla Bowling.

Carla’s opinion is suddenly changing.

She felt empowered after a meeting at First Baptist Church Thursday night where fellow parents spoke up, wanting sex offenders out.

“If they want to go out in the country and do something like this, where it’s not around children, I wouldn’t have much of a problem. If they want to go into a community, an all-adult community, I don’t like that either, but they have to go somewhere. But, don’t put them in the middle of a candy jar,” pleaded Judy Cornett, a mother who knows firsthand the pain a sex offender can cause.

Her son was molested when he was just a boy. And, he wasn’t the only one. Other children were also hurt. Since then, Judy has been on such shows as Oprah and Leeza Gibbons. She was at the meeting to educate parents on how to shut down this mobile home park.

The park is called the “Florida Justice Transition” program located at 5015 24th Avenue South. The manager, Patty Morais, works with offenders every day on their probation and watches them constantly.

She says, “We’re watching these guys. The probation officers are watching these guys. They’re going through their counseling. They’re doing everything they’re supposed to be doing.”

But, is what they’re doing legal? Should sex offenders have their own mobile home park?

Hillsborough County code enforcement says it may not be legal. They are investigating the case right now. They have not issued any citations, but they have started an active case. Case officers are going after the park for improper use of zoning.

So, who owns this park? Tampa Bay’s 10 News did some digging and found out that the park’s owner is traced back to Rooring Lake Gilbert, LLC. The owners did not return our phone calls.

Meanwhile, this predator colony, as some parents call it, is making money with rental charges. And, there’s 3 to 4 tenants per mobile home in some cases.

Carla Bowling worries every day about her 11-year-old daughter, Makayla, daughter who plays across the street. She calls the mere presence of these men near children, disgusting.

“I’m petrified. I’m scared, I’m really scared. It makes me mad. I don’t know how they can do it.”

Even her daughter says, “Sometimes they look at me. I’m worried about what to do if they come after me.”

A facility like this one already exists in St. Petersburg called the Palace Mobile Home Park. If parents in Palm River can help it, this new park in Tampa, only a month old, will be shut down as soon as possible. ..more.. by Melanie Brooks, Tampa Bay's 10 News

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