Excerpts from Patriot Ledger (Massachusetts) article 3/26/05
Patriot Ledger
SEX OFFENDERS FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS
By KAREN ESCHBACHER
The Patriot Ledger
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Could it happen here?
Police on the South Shore say they have their hands full keeping tabs on more than 400 registered sex offenders.
We wait for them to come in to us and formally register,'' Braintree Deputy Police Chief Russell Jenkins said. Once that's done, we don't continue to monitor their residency. If they do move to another location, we don't have any way of knowing that unless they tell us themselves.''
Charles McDonald, a spokesman for the Sex Offender Registry Board, agrees that it's a tall order.
It's a burden,'' McDonald said. Keeping this information current is a big job.''
As of this week, Massachusetts has 8,390 registered sex offenders. They are required to check in at least once a year and let officials know if they move or change jobs.
But 159 Level 3 sex offenders, considered the most dangerous and most likely to strike again, are in violation.
Another 4,155 sex offenders have never registered, though officials stress some of them are dead, in jail, out of state or on the list by mistake.
But even when AWOL sex offenders are caught, the punishment is often a slap on the wrist, records show.
In 2003 - the most recent year data is available - 643 sex offenders were arraigned in state courts for failing to register.
But only 38 were actually convicted of the charge during that same period, according to the Massachusetts Sentencing Commission. Of those, just 11 were ordered to serve any jail time, with an average sentence of 5½ months.
A Patriot Ledger review of South Shore cases found a similar trend.
In 26 failure-to-register cases in local district courts, only four defendants went to jail. Nine had their charges dismissed outright and the rest were given probation or their charges were dropped after they stayed out of trouble for a period of time.
Sen. Scott Brown of Wrentham, who has pushed to toughen the rules, said that with little threat of punishment, offenders have no incentive to register or keep their information current.
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As an extra precaution, the state plans to launch a program aimed at keeping better tabs on the most dangerous sex offenders. Under the program, Level 3 sex offenders on probation will be monitored around-the-clock using global positioning system technology.
Coria Holland, a spokeswoman for the commissioner of probation, said the program should be in place soon.
Meanwhile, State Police are continuing a push to track down sex offenders who either never registered to begin with, or who did but later disappeared.
A couple years ago, that list numbered around 11,000. Through a combination of old-fashioned and high-tech detective work, the list is less than half that now, and some 1,430 sex offenders have been registered, Detective Lt. Kevin Horton of the State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension unit said.
Just this week, Level 3 sex offender Robert F. Pecore, whose face was plastered on the State Police's most wanted sex offenders poster, was arrested in North Carolina.
With his arrest, 10 of the 13 most wanted sex offenders have now been tracked down, and a new list is being planned, Horton said.
I've never seen a stronger response than I've seen from our first most wanted sex offender list,'' he said. People pay attention to this and I think it's mainly because of the kids.''
Karen Eschbacher may be reached at
keschbacher@ledger.com.
Copyright 2005 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Saturday, March 26, 2005