AR - Registered sex offenders - A sex offender speaks out

Original Article

02/19/2012

By Chad Miller

Offenders required to carry label even after serving sentence

Editor's note: The sex offender mentioned in this story agreed to speak to the Daily Press on the condition of anonymity. His name has been changed in the story to preserve his anonymity.

Meet Tom. Tom is a successful local business owner. He said he decided to go into business for himself because he had difficulty getting hired to work in several career fields because of one fact he was required to disclose to potential employers. Tom is a registered sex offender. He said he had been on the Arkansas Crime Information Center (ACIC) website as a sex offender for more than 10 years.

Tom said at the time he committed his offense, he was on "a large scholarship" to college and had dreams of furthering his education. However, he said that all changed when had "consensual sex" with a teenage girl.

"I had goals and dreams," Tom said. "But now I can't do anything. I would've liked to have gone to law school, but I can't do that. I actually considered becoming a realtor. But I can't get a real estate license. There's so many things you can't do [as a registered sex offender] to better your life."

Tom did not deny what he did was "wrong." He said he was in his early 20s at the time of his offense.

"For lack of better terms... I was a stupid, horny kid," Tom said. "When I was arrested, I told the police exactly what happened. I never denied anything. I'm not looking for sympathy saying I did no wrong. What I am looking for is somebody to step back and say 'Wait a minute. We've taken somebody's entire life away from them.'"

After the assessment process sex offenders are required to go through to determine their risk level, Tom was classified as a Level 2 (moderate risk) offender. He said the stigma associated with his classification was difficult to live with.

"I had people driving slowly by my house and looking at it [when I first moved to Paragould]," Tom said. "They would drive by my house and yell 'child molester,' or 'baby raper.' I don't have restrictions on where I can live. I'm allowed to go the park and do those things that Level 3 and 4 [sex offenders] are not."

He said he had to remain on the sex offender registry for a minimum of 15 years before he could possibly have his name removed. He said he felt the assessment process might need to be re-examined.

"People see the list [of registered sex offenders] and they don't break it down into levels or what happened," Tom said. "All they [think] is 'This guy is on the list. He's a child molester.' But there are people on the list who were canoeing down the river and they [urinate] off the canoe and somebody sees them. Well, now they're on the list because they exposed themselves to an underage person. It's ridiculous that something like that has now become an instant minimum 15-year sentence."

Tom said he served less than a year in prison for his crime. He said he had no criminal record before his crime or since. However, he said he felt being on the list was another punishment.

"They say that being on the list isn't a punishment," Tom said. "I'm sorry... being on the list is much worse than my punishment was. It [my crime] was a Class D felony, which is the lowest level felony you can get, and here I sit for 15 years."

Tom said normally Level 2 offenders were not listed on the ACIC website. However, he said the reason he was on the website was because the crime occurred in the victim's home, which made it an "aggravated" offense.

"People get an idea in their head of what a sex offender is — which is this greasy-haired [man] in a van with a bag of candy and a teddy bear," Tom said. "So, they push and push for stronger laws."

Paragould Police Capt. Greg Trout said state law required sex offenders to notify local law enforcement whenever they moved from one jurisdiction to another and even when they moved within that agency's jurisdiction. He said some sex offenders not only had to register their residence, but also where they worked or any other place they might "spend a significant amount of time."

"If they change their address, they must notify [local law enforcement] 10 days in advance," Trout said. "Some [offenders] are restricted from living in certain areas. Level 3 and Level 4 offenders are restricted from living within 2,000 feet of a daycare, park, school and things like that. Sometimes, we have to physically look at the house they live in and figure out if it's within 2,000 feet of one of those locations."

Second Judicial District deputy prosecutor Kimberly Dale said she felt some laws concerning sex offender registration needed to be changed. She said there was a difference between a young man dating a teenage girl and a sexual predator who looked for victims.

"One thing I always want to be careful of any time I have someone who's pleading to a sex-related crime, and may have to register as a sex offender, is I want to make sure that is someone I really believe the public needs to be aware of," Dale said. "The last thing I want is for someone to be a registered sex offender and them not really be a harm to society or somebody that society doesn't need to waste their time being concerned about."

"Let's say you've got 100 people who, by virtue of the law, have to be a registered sex offender," Dale added. "Well, if we sat down and looked at the initial offense they plead to, we might determine that really only 30 of them were people society needed to be aware of. I know legislators are always really quick to pass a new bill that has to do with a sex offender, but it might [affect] someone the public would not be concerned about. I think [the law] is not harsh enough to those that need it and sometimes, I think it's too harsh on those that we shouldn't be concerned about."

FL - Turchin's Take: No excuse for child porn (Drop them all off on some deserted island with a crap load of alligators)

Specialist?  Really?

Original Article

Where do the media outfits find these people?  I think most people in the world thinks child porn/sexual abuse is horrible, but calling for the murder and torture of human beings?

02/17/2012

By John Turchin (Facebook)

MIAMI - I’ve held my tongue long enough. There is no excuse for child pornographers. I don’t want to hear they had a bad childhood, or they grew up in a bad neighborhood, or they couldn't help themselves. All that may be true, but if it were your kid that was exploited or violated, I bet you wouldn’t be so understanding.

My tirade comes as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested a man on 144 counts of child pornography -- a man agents say left a trail of young victims throughout south Florida. [name withheld]. He’s 44 years old. You might recognize his name. If you do, call the cops and tell them why. If not, he is yet another example, another alleged example (don’t want to forget that), of sickos that prey on kids -- our kids -- your kids.

I have come to realize the treatment of children as sex objects has existed for decades -- as has the production of erotic materials involving children. What's more, it’s something that is probably not going to go away anytime soon.
- Have you been living under a rock your whole life?  Children have been used as sexual objects since the dawn of time.  Yes it's wrong, but let's be realistic here.

The advent of the Internet in the 1980s dramatically changed the scale and nature of the child pornography problem, and has required new approaches to investigation and control. Thankfully, many police departments have made it a priority. Sadly, it may not be enough. Law enforcement agencies need more funding, more investigators and examiners.

Sex offenders -- in any form -- are a growing and dangerous threat to our children. There are more than a half-million sex offenders listed on various state registries, but because of poor federal and state laws, at least 150,000 of them are missing.
- Well, apparently, like usual, you seem to think anyone wearing the "sex offender" scarlet letter is a child molesting, pedophile predator just hiding in the bushes waiting for someone to jump on and molest.  And the 150,000 missing?  Come on, you know that is a lie, and an article was done, several years ago, that shows the 100,000 missing (not sure why you inflated it even more) is a made up (goldilock) number that is not based on any real facts, just a guess.

On the positive side, the Adam Walsh Act is the most comprehensive piece of child protection legislation Congress has ever considered. That bill created, among other things, new state and federal regulations, community notification requirements, as well as new federal criminal penalties for sex offenders. It also gave law enforcement new resources.
- And yet it doesn't protect anybody or prevent any crimes!  It's just a "feel good" law passed because politicians do not have the balls to oppose it, or risk losing their careers, or to help them get brownie points by the media and sheeple to "look tough" on crime while actually doing nothing.

These people, those who "get off" looking at children, or are involved in trading, selling or taking pictures of kids naked or in sexually explicit positions, like agents suspect [name withheld] was, deserve to be thrown in a jail full of the most violent criminals.
- I can't speak for those who do make and trade child porn, but not all sex offenders do this, a vast majority do not, and like I said above, you seem to think all sex offenders are.  And it's people like you, who also crucified Jesus Christ.  I guess you'd be okay with public stoning, executions, etc?

People who are sexually attracted to children are bottom-feeders, the scum of the earth. I've long heard every other criminal can’t stand them. So, it is my hope that they will always get what they deserve.
- Everybody, even you, when they die, will get what they deserve, you can count on that.  God did say: "Vengeance is mine," (not yours) and I have no doubt he meant it.

I say drop them all off on some deserted island with a crap load of alligators. You can throw in the rapists and child abusers, too. This world has no room for any of them... my opinion, of course. Forget about cruel and unusual punishment considerations, too. Just let them suffer -- and direct our tax dollars towards taking care of the victims. After all, it’s our responsibility as parents, as a community, to protect those who can't always protect themselves... our children.
- Wow, HEIL HITLER!  Maybe you should go join the radical Islamic terrorists, I'm sure you'd fit right in.  And you are a "reporter" and from the graphic above, a "criminal investigator?"  Are you sure that is not a "criminal executioner?"

Talking To Children About Physical Or Sexual Abuse

Our comments on the video:
About 90% or more of all sexual crimes are committed by someone the victim knows, like a mother, father, brother, sister, cousin, etc. So what about those situations? By the way, this is all good advice, and I think educating kids, and parents, is REAL IMPORTANT to stopping and preventing sexual abuse. But like we said, most offenders are known by the person, not some stranger.

Video Link

IN - Motel home to city’s largest sex offender cluster

Original Article

And now, because of the vigilante media, I'm sure the mob will come out in force and force these people from their only home, which was probably the goal in the first place.

02/18/2012

By Alex Campbell

Sean James Haley knocks on the motel room door at a little past 11 o’clock on a Monday night.

“How we doing, guys?”

Then Haley steps inside and notices a stranger in the room. His tone quickly changes.

“What’s going on? What have you got in here? When did you come in? What is this?”

It might seem odd for a motel manager to knock on doors and pepper his guests with such questions. But the back building at the King’s Inn has its own set of rules, because the back building at the King’s Inn has its own set of guests. Guests who aren’t allowed in the front two buildings. Guests who can’t bring visitors to the back without Haley’s approval.

Sex offenders.

The King’s Inn, a $29-to-$39-a-night motel on the Eastside, serves as a last resort for sex offenders on parole who otherwise have nowhere else to go. Under a program called DOC Assist, the Department of Corrections pays rent for the offenders for a few weeks or months, theoretically until they can support themselves.

The result is that the King’s Inn is home to the largest concentration of sex offenders in Marion County — outside of the jail.

According to the county’s online registry — which an Indianapolis Star review has found to be out of date in a number of places — 61 registered sex offenders call the King’s Inn their home.

Haley says the actual number fluctuates, but is generally about 30.

The King’s Inn might be the largest concentration, but it’s far from the only one.

The Star’s analysis of the registry — based on records culled from a single day in January — found that there are at least 17 city blocks in Indianapolis where five or more sex offenders live. At least seven specific addresses have 10 or more offenders listed as living there.

Handfuls of offenders live in smaller apartment buildings, such as one two-story complex on the southeastside with a sign outside that reads “ADULTS ONLY.” But the more offenders that live in one spot, the likelier the address is to be a halfway house, cheap motel or downtown high-rise.

The address with the second-most listed offenders is a tall brick apartment building on 13th and North Meridian Street. The third most are listed at Brandon Hall, a 24-hour supervision work-release home at 611 N Capitol Ave.

“Clustering,” as it is called, is a national phenomenon that experts say is an “unintended consequence” of state laws that limit where offenders can live.
- This is what you get when politicians let emotions get in the way, they don't think, and people suffer for it.

Indiana’s version, Zachary’s Law, went into effect in 1994 and has been amended a number of times since. It prevents registered “offenders against children” from living within 1,000 feet of a school, youth program center or public park.
- I don't know the law in Indiana, but I'm sure it's not just "offenders against children," but all offenders.

Parole restrictions go much further, with blanket provisions for all parolees released from prison for a sex offense. The stipulations rule out any registered sex offender living within 1,000 feet of “public swimming pools, public beaches, theaters, or any other place where children can reasonably be expected to congregate” — regardless of whether the offender’s conviction had to do with children.

Read the rest of the article here

PA - Adam Skweres, Pittsburgh Police Officer, Allegedly Solicited Sex From Women In Legal Trouble

Adam Skweres

Original Article

02/17/2012

Law authorities in Pittsburgh are searching for more possible victims of a police officer arrested Thursday on allegations he offered to help a number of women and their acquaintances out of legal binds in exchange for sexual favors, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports.

Officer Adam Skweres, 34, remains in jail this morning on charges of bribery, coercion, official oppression, indecent assault and other crimes stemming from three alleged incidents, the earliest of which dates back to 2008. Skweres' bail has been set at $300,000.

According to the Post-Gazette, in exchange for sexual services, Skweres allegedly offered the women favors such as writing positive letters of recommendation to family services organizations, throwing out parking tickets, and failing to cite involvement in traffic accidents.

Shortly after his arrest Thursday, a fourth woman told federal investigators that Skweres sexually assaulted her, an accusation that has led prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against him.

Skweres, an officer of five years who earned $57,000 last year, remains on the force but has been suspended without pay, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.

In another criminal complaint, Sweres was quoted as telling the woman that "It doesn’t have to be sex. We can do other things," CBS Pittsburgh reported.

He added, "If you go to jail, you know what they are going to do to you there. It's not going to be as bad as what I do to you."

Authorities are continuing to investigate the case and urge any woman who may have been targeted by Skweres to call police or the Office of Municipal Investigations at 412-255-2804.

In addition, anyone with information about the case can Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Sex Assault Unit at (412) 323-7141 or the Office of Municipal Investigations.