Keeping track of sex offenders

Cortez Journal ^ | April 21, 2005 | Kelsey Warner

[trussell]

April 21, 2005

Keeping track of sex offenders

By Kelsey Warner
Journal Staff Writer

It happens with alarming frequency - registered sex offenders going AWOL and being lost to law enforcement agencies.

Take Jeffrey Barrett for example, a convicted sex offender whose current whereabouts are unknown.

BARRETT

GODDARD

"He was originally registered with us (the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office), he moved to the city and we de-registered him and they registered him," Lt. Steve Harmon said. "One of their officers did a spot check and found out he had moved back to the county."

Barrett hasn't been found, but reports indicate he may be in Anacortes, Wash., Harmon said.

Another example is the case of Michael Goddard, a convicted sex offender living in Cortez. Roughly six months ago Goddard moved from the address he was registered under and into another home - still in Cortez. A phone call from Goddard's former neighbor informed police that he had moved. According to Lt. Darrell Hinton, Goddard failed to re-register after he moved, a failure that resulted in his April 12 arrest.

So how does this keep happening?

"It happens all the time around the country," Harmon said. "We can't keep a 24-hour watch on these guys."

Local law enforcement agencies monitor sex offenders by performing random spot checks.

According to Harmon, office protocol was changed this year when responsibility for making random checks on the county's 36 registered offenders was moved from the patrol department to detectives.

But, Harmon said, "We can't check on all of them. We move down the list every week."

Like the sheriff's office, Cortez Police has also recently changed the way in which they oversee sex offenders. Each officer has been assigned one or two of the 20 sex offenders in the city to randomly drop in on, Hinton said.

REGISTRY

According to the CBI Web site:

There are 579 current sex offenders in the state that have failed to register.

As of January 2005, 8,169 sex offenders were registered in Colorado - a 7 percent increase from January 2004.

Approximately 65 percent of convicted sex offenders are placed on probation each year.

Only 16 percent of sexual assaults are reported to police.

In the last year, approximately 1 in 150 women and 1 in 830 men have experienced a completed sexual assault.

Harmon wishes more could be done to oversee the offenders.

"We don't have the manpower to check up on them the way I'd like," Harmon said.

According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation Web site, "While sex offenders cannot be cured, it is believed that some can be managed. Colorado utilizes the Containment Approach to manage sex offenders in the community. Sex offenders are never managed by an individual person. Rather they are managed by community supervision teams."

Registration is a condition of release for most sex offenders. The details of the case determine when and how often a convicted sex offender must register. Some are required to register only when they move, others are required to re-register on their birthday, while still others are required to register every 90 days for the rest of their lives.

The current state statute governing registration requires that every person who wishes to see the sex offender registry demonstrate a need to know. For example, a library or recreation center - public facilities that are used commonly by unsupervised children - have a need to know the identity of registered sex offenders. At the same time if children routinely walk home from school or go to a family member's house, a parent has a need to know if a sex offender lives along that route.

Hinton would like see the development of a national registry and a loosening of restrictions on the availability of the local sex offender registry.

Reach Kelsey Warner here .

[duck duck goose]

Ay!!

[isthisnickcool]

I saw a woman yesterday who's 12 year old daughter was abducted and killed 8 years ago. Yesterday would have been her daughter's 21st birthday. Over the years I've seen her and her husband. Who both did an amazing thing and after the murder of their daughter started an organization to help other parents when their children are abducted. Which I find saintly because over and over they see other parents go through what they did.

They always look like they have just stopped crying. This poor woman (who has recently fought cancer) was wiping tears away yesterday when I bumped in to her at a public event. She smiled at me and huged me. I was one of many people that searched for her daughter. Seems like yesterday.

A devoid abducted their child and did things I won't describe here. And you know what? This type of thing has been going on for a very very long time. It's not new at all.

The devoids that prey on children cannot be fixed. They need to be locked up forever. Actually, they need to be simply shot in the back of the head. Exterminated because they are inhuman worthless slugs. They are not people, they just look like people.

Rest in Peace LAURA

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

We don't use ten codes so I'll just say, Okie dokie.

[montag813]

"We can't keep a 24-hour watch on these guys."

So kill them. In the station house if need be. Protect and serve means removing these vermin from society, by whatever means is neccessary.

[Clemenza]

Jeffrey Barret looks like half the men in the state of Washington, making him difficult to find.

[duck duck goose]

What happened to inmates taking care of business?? Usually these type of people dont even make it through their sentence.

[onedoug]

Agreed. They should never see the light of day again.

[BlackjackPershing]

Pikeville College has a lifetime sex offender on the football team, on a scholarship no less.

The college president, Hal Smith, and Athletics Director, Ron Damron, both defend their action at covering-up the fact this Roshod Jermaine Hampton is recruited after the fact, and they didn't tell the college or the community about it.

[trussell]

I read that article...I think that is terrible! No way should this man be allowed to live around female college students!

[trussell]

Let's tattoo "sexual deviant" on their foreheads!!!

All in favor?

AYE!!!!

[Jim Noble]

Why does this keep happening?? I am all for the criminal bracelets.

You don't understand.

This keeps happening because normal people think about things other than killing little girls, but these offenders reptilian brains are "on" 24/7/365 about their next victim and how to avoid detection.

The only way to "keep track of them" is to put them all in the same cemetery.

[isthisnickcool]

You don't understand.

Yea I sure do. I've helped look for missing kids and have friends who had a child murdered by one of these devoids. (I didn't post what you are responding too).

[isthisnickcool]

I didn't notice that you added the poster to what you were responding to. Sorry.

I do agree with you that these types just need to be exterminated.

[trussell]

isthisnickcool...it wasn't you or me that wrote this...the post should also been sent to duck duck goose.

...duck duck goose, please see post 51 for a response to your post in number 2.

[Jim Noble]

Thanks for the correct ping!

The reason that offender registries are worthless (after you remove the teenaged Romeos)is that "keeping an eye on them" is useless.

YOU have to sleep. YOU have to work. YOU have to smell the flowers.

THEY, OTOH, have nothing to do except find the next victim, plan the abduction, rape her (or him), and kill her (or him).

They are always ahead of us.

The only conceiveable utility of these registries would be for the government, or the parents in a community, to know who needs to be terminated.

Otherwise, they create a false sense of security and cost money.

As soon as a human predator is identified, he should be killed.

No exceptions.

[trussell]

I would have to say I agree with you. I am a survivor...my attacker is coming up for parole 2 days before christmas. He promised I would die if he went to prison, and then all his future victims would die too so they can't testify against him.

I've been trying to find his inmate info, but it looks like you have to pay to get that. He is in Texas (Abilene).

[duck duck goose]

Unfortunately I do understand. I have numerous people who are close to me who have either been raped or molested. So I do understand. I also believe there isnt any amount of rehabilitation that will make these horrible people any different. However, I am realistic. they fake their way through life until they are caught, they get sentenced and go through rehabilitation and are release into society. My point is this, if they are released, we need to know as a society where they are at all times. THEY HAVE NO RIGHTS. They have no privacy. I too wish they are not in society, but they are so why not know where they are 24/7?

[isthisnickcool]

Contact these folks.

[trussell]

Thank you...I bookmarked that link, will go back and check it out thoroughly.

[LKitty]

They ought to be shot, but here is how to write and CHANGE THE LAWS for level 3 sex offenders. Please follow the links - America's Most Wanted website, they have another link that will take you to your states representatives that you need to send the letters to, and a form letter you can copy, paste & print!!! Please Please Please get everyone you know to do this, and we CAN CHANGE THE LAWS!!!
http://www.amw.com/features/feature_story_detail.cfm?id=591 Also for A FREE REGISTERY on what sex offenders are near you - HERE IS ANOTHER LINK http://www.criminalcheck.com/ JUST DO IT!!!