MAY 3, 2023
Authorities began a search after convicted sex offender Jesse McFadden failed to appear at his long-delayed jury trial in Muskogee County on Monday.
www.cbsnews.com
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"Oklahoma failed to protect families. And because of that my children -- my daughter and my grandchildren -- are all gone," Mayo told The Associated Press. "I've lost my daughter and my grandchildren and I'm never going to get to see 'em, never going to get to hold them, and it's killing me."
Justin Webster, who said he allowed his 14-year-old Ivy Webster to join a sleepover at the McFadden home not knowing anything about the man's past, raised similar concerns about McFadden's release.
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"There needs to be repercussions and somebody needs to be held accountable. They let a monster out. They did this," Webster said.
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Prosecutors objected to any early release from prison, noting that he tied a 17-year-old's hands and feet to bedposts, cut her shirt off and raped her at knifepoint. At one point, he threatened to use the knife on her if she "did not shut up," the records show.
The circumstances have alarmed Republican state Rep. Justin Humphrey, who chairs his chamber's Criminal Judiciary Committee. He told The AP in a text that he's working with another lawmaker on legislation that would "stop tragedies of this nature from occurring again."
He said the effort also will involve trying to determine how a person could commit sex crimes in prison and be released on good behavior, and how McFadden was able to be in contact with minors while on sex offender supervision.
Court records show McFadden was charged with the new crimes in 2017 after the young woman's relative alerted authorities. Set free in October 2020, he was arrested the next month and then released on $25,000 bond pending the trial, which was repeatedly delayed, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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