Posted on 04/22/2005 9:42:50 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
Residents in a Ocala neighborhood could face charges after a convicted sex offender apparently committed suicide in despair over signs labeling him a "child rapist" posted in his neighborhood, according to Local 6 News.
Clovis Ivan Claxton, 38, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a child in Washington in 1991, had lived at 3230 SE. 45 Street in Ocala for about two years.
Tuesday, Claxton noticed bright yellow, laminated signs displaying his picture, date of birth, address and the words "child rapist" hanging on power poles in his neighborhood. A county commissioner proposed posting such information in the community but Sheriff Ed Dean rejected the idea.
After seeing the signs, Claxton called the sheriff's office and said that he felt "extremely scared and feels that people in the neighborhood are now out to possibly hurt him."
"Once he made these type statements our deputies took this man into custody under the Baker Act law and transported him to a local mental health facility for evaluation," Marion County Sheriff's Capt. Denis Strow said. "He was later released."
Tuesday morning, Claxton's parents found him dead of an apparent overdose with one of the child rapist flyers by his side.
Jane Claxton blames County Commissioner Randy Harris, who proposed the flyers, for her son's death, according to a report.
"Just don't get on the bandwagon," she said. "There's going to be other (deaths) if Randy Harris has his way. He hasn't been in trouble for 18 years, and he's branded for life."
Harris said sex offenders need to take responsibility for their actions.
"I don't blame his death to the signs," he said, adding he was undeterred in his quest to alert people to sex offenders living in their neighborhoods.
Dean said it is an example that police work should be left to authorities.
"We need to keep calm, do the right thing," Dean said. "Not go overboard with it. Protect our children. Use all of the resources we can but not stir a community up to a frenzy."
Claxton's death follows the high-profile arrests of sex offenders in the separate killings of two Florida girls less than seven weeks apart. State lawmakers have responded by passing a bill to require lifetime supervision of some child sex offenders.
State law allows for flyers to be printed and distributed, Local 6 News reported. But, altering the signs or flyers is against the law.
Claxton's address had been added to the top of the flyer along with the words "child rapist."
"It is a violation of the law," Strow said. "And should we find who perpretrated it, I'm sure it is a case that would be reviewed by the state's attorney office to see if they wish to pursue it."
The person responsible for the flyers faces up to 1 year in jail.
The sheriff's office is investigating and an autopsy was scheduled for Friday.
Marion County is located northwest of Orlando and has more than 600 registered sex offenders.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
my children are grown and are perfectly fine. well maybe not perfect but fine
The same as they are about homosexuality. I would suggest looking beyond secular eyes at this question.
How do you obtain confirmation of your "99% accurate" pervoradar? Do you have your super spies go to his or her home and search? Just curious.
If we keep them in prison for life then society gets penalized. Why should society have to pay to feed, house, clothe and care for them?
Sickening, isn't it?
Well I did say minimum ;) I know the death penalty should be the price for child rape, however, we have a long ways to go in simply getting a life sentence. I don't think they should be isolated from the general population either. If they do the crime then they should suffer the consequences.
When you get off on a "God is incompetent to do anything except judge [the way I want Him to]" jag, you can expect people to get in your Monkey Face.
Shoot them. Very nice. FR ... sinking to a whole new low by the minute.
Absolutely!
No. Then again they are hardly comparable. Child molesters are deviant, their brains & right/wrong functions are warped. One cannot generalize & say they are ALL that way, but they seem to not change. The evil is carved in their psyche.
Often, from what I've seen, the molester will go out to do what they have done before. Adultery, while wrong, can be fixed if the soul is fixed. It is difficult, but possible. Child molesters and that ilk are different.
You are describing Satan, not a human beings.
There are, I suppose, unredeemable souls. But God's history is filled with redemption of the unredeemable.
…they are hardly comparable.
I think we would like to think that our temptations and our sins are less than others.
I appreciate your reply..
Your average homosexual is not a threat to murder my children. Your average convicted child molester IS.
Don't be a fool.
True. A sin is a sin in God's eyes. To Him an adulterer is just as condemned to hell as a child molester.
We are not, however, speaking of the spiritual realm, we are speaking of earth. Sure, child molesters are redeemable in God's eyes, but that does not change the fact that they could walk among children daily. They have to deal with other humans who "don't get" that a soul can be changed.
It would not only be temptation they are dealing with, it would be changing an almost physical characteristic... Some molesters are like that. It would be best, no matter how clean & forgiven their hearts, for them to not be free to live outside prison walls.
There is redemption & then there is justice. Sometimes a wrongdoer must live with the justice even after being redeemed.
I'm talking about prognostications. There is an enormous blind spot in the secular psychiatric world. I have seen what secular psychiatrists say to "counsel" sexual perversions and it's basically "get whatever buzz you want so long as it isn't illegal or harmful to someone else." This is hogwash. The patient needs to conquer the demon, not try to channel it "safely." And conquest can come only through one who is stronger than the demon, namely God.
When I say redeemed, I mean they have changed, repented, been transformed. Like you or I when we turn away from what previously tempted us.
it would be changing an almost physical characteristic... Some molesters are like that.
I think some adulterers are like that too. Some armed and violent robbers… some murderers. I'm not getting the specific distinction and category for "sex offenders".
Sometimes a wrongdoer must live with the justice even after being redeemed.
Most definitely we have to live with the consequences of our actions. What I am saying is that those consequences do not include being forever unredeemable, incapable of repentance, and obscured from the grace of God.
I think some adulterers are like that too. Some armed and violent robbers… some murderers. I'm not getting the specific distinction and category for "sex offenders".
Agreed. Some cannot be transformed.
Most definitely we have to live with the consequences of our actions. What I am saying is that those consequences do not include being forever unredeemable, incapable of repentance, and obscured from the grace of God.
Agreed.
What I am saying is that if they were redeemed & could walk right out into the pastures of Heaven then fine, let them walk out the prison door into God's Kingdom. They don't walk into that pasture. They must walk the earth with humans, temptations & a sin-warped brain that, although, cleansed by the Grace of God, still has the drive to do evil.
Then again, that goes for ALL of us. Sometimes the prison has walls, sometimes it doesn't.
Well said, mabelkitty.
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