Sex Offender Living Near School Spurs Neighborhood Controversy Before Heading Back to Jail

Since it is illegal to impose consequences on criminals retroactively (individuals must be tried under the laws that exist at any given time) there are some number of convicted sex offenders are still living near schools. This would not be permitted for individuals convicted after 2006. It is also a difficult situation for a principal to handle since doing the right thing will undoubtedly get one into trouble of one sort or another. (Some KSN&C readers may recall I was once reprimanded for exceeding my authority when I alerted Cassidy parents to a man who was cruising our playground. I really got into dutch when I told my boss, and his boss, that I would do it again.)

But after elementary parents in Louisville rousted a neighborhood perpetrator, and he was found by police violating his probation, it's back to jail for 90 days.

KSN&C heard from upset parents at Bloom Elementary School this week. They were upset because the school did not alert them to the perpetrator's presence, across the street from where their children play.

This from C-J:

He is a convicted sex offender living across the playground from Bloom Elementary School — and it is perfectly legal for him to do so.

David J. Southard is one of roughly 1,200 sex offenders convicted before Kentucky changed its law in 2006 to bar all offenders, rather than only those on probation and parole, from living nears schools, parks and daycare centers.

Last October, the state high court held that the new law couldn’t be applied retroactively to people whose offenses occurred before the law was changed. And on March 8, without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court said it wouldn’t hear an appeal from Kentucky attorney general’s office.

But some of Southard’s neighbors who have children at Bloom have demanded that he move by April 1, threatening to sue him and publicize his crimes if he doesn’t, his family says.

The controversy has divided Bloom parents and posed a dilemma for principal Janice Bobo, who says Louisville Metro Police advised her while she could refer parents to the Kentucky State Police sex offender’s Web site, posting or distributing fliers with his picture might be considered harassment...

...Jane Walsh, a member of Bloom’s site-based decision-making council, said she realizes there are “shades of gray” in the sex-offender law — that not all offenders’ victims are children and that such statutes have made it nearly impossible for some offenders to find a place to live.

But she said of Southard: “I don’t think this is much gray here. I think it is pretty straightforward. As a parent, you worry about him living next to a school.”

Some other parents, including Mary Beth Rother and Teresa Dowell Inman, said they think they should have received more explicit notice from the school.

Principal Bobo said she learned last fall that Southard was living across from the school’s playground and called Louisville police, who told her he was living there legally.

Bobo said a couple of parents who are attorneys contacted Southard and asked if he would move. She said she distributed a copy of Southard’s picture to teachers and staff, and has informally told parents who inquired to look at the sex-offender Web site...

According to court records, Southard and two roommates were charged with sodomizing a 5-year-old boy in 1998. He served 10 years behind bars before being released in July 2008. That's when he moved in with his father near Greathouse/Shyrock Traditional Elementary School where he was arrested one month later for allegedly stalking a boy and for living within 1,000 feet of a school. He pleaded guilty of grabbing his crotch and beckoning to the boy, and was given a 365-day jail sentence that was suspended for two years. Southard's no-alcohol, no-pornography probation went awry when police found beer and a "Boys Will Be Boys" video tape in his apartment. The County Attorney sought and obtained a revocation of his probation.

This from C-J:

David J. Southard, a registered sex offender who lives legally across from Bloom Elementary School, was ordered Thursday to serve 90 days in jail for violating the terms of his probation on a stalking conviction.

The county attorney’s office sought to revoke his probation after he was found to have beer and an adult pornographic video in his apartment. District Judge Mason Trenaman instead ordered to him serve 90 days in jail, after which he will be placed back on probation. Southard’s family said he had had agreed to move voluntarily by April 1, after some Bloom parents objected to him living across from the school. It was unclear whether those plans will change because of Thursday’s order.

Kentucky has 7,860 registered offenders, with roughly 60 percent required to register for life because they were convicted of rape, sodomy or multiple or violent offenses. Attorney General Jack Conway told C-J that he was disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the Kentucky high court’s 5-2 decision striking down the state’s attempt to retroactively apply the residency restrictions to sex offenders. The court said that doing so violates the constitutional ban on increasing punishment for crimes after the fact. The law bars sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, licensed day-care centers and public parks with pools or playgrounds.

OK, so it was a temporary victory for the parents.

But Bloom parents were upset about more than the neighborhood offender. They were upset with the way the district has - or has not - handled the situation.

Apparently stories on the incident first appeared at http://bloomelementary.wordpress.com/ until someone complained to WordPress. That site has now been taken down, reportedly because the blogger did not own the words "Bloom Elementary." But now, at Bloom Elementary Overload the blogging persists. One imagines that if this site is taken down, the next will be titled Bloom Elementary Sux" etc., etc. Overload posted the following,

Keep Those Babies Close and File a Complaint: A Convicted Sex Offender Lives Across the Street from Bloom Elementary

Heads up, Bloom parents!

Ya think a sex offender living at 1610 Lucia Avenue is watching our babies on the playground? He used to live with his father near Greathouse Elementary but was caught by police following a child.

Caught and videotaped. (CLICK HERE TO SEE HIS PICTURE ON THE KENTUCKY STATE POLICE SEX OFFENDERS WEBSITE BECAUSE A READER HAS COMPLAINED TO WORDPRESS AND WANTED HIS PICTURE REMOVED.)

After you click the above link, click on Search the Kentucky State Police Sex Offender Registry. Then, enter the zip code 40204 to find the resident of 1610 Lucia Avenue.
Do staff members at Bloom know about this guy? Of course they do! An LMPD detective confirmed this with me today. Your principal knows but has remained largely silent.

Did anyone bother to let parents know that a convicted pedophile is living within a stone’s throw of our school? Of course not!

But it is not clear that the school failed to respond.

Parent Jennifer Schlechty reported to Overload that the school did send a notice on or about March 10th, but that notice did not include the name, address or photo of Southard, and other parents said that was not a proper notice, and "doesn't count."

Believing that it was Jefferson County school officials who, upset that parents were being alerted to a sex offender in the neighborhood, complained to WordPress, Bloom Elementary Overload also posted this:

This is how JCPS and Bloom Elementary react

when a parent starts blabbing about a convicted

sex offender living across the street from Bloom’s playground

“Hey, giiirrrl!

Let’s shut down that blog that’s telling parents about the child molester

and pretend we didn’t do it!

Wiggy, wiggy, wiggy!!”

Conway appeals to U.S. Supreme Court on sex offenders

This from H-L:

Attorney General Jack Conway on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Kentucky Supreme Court on a ruling that would allow some registered
sex offenders to live where they choose, without restrictions.

"Allowing convicted sex offenders to live near schools or daycares is a serious public safety concern," Conway said in a statement. "As a father and as Kentucky's attorney general, I will do everything I can to ensure the safety of children and families across the Commonwealth."

In 2006, the General Assembly prohibited sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, preschool, public playground or licensed daycare.

Kentucky Supreme Court strikes down sex offender law

This from C-J:

A state law that bans convicted sex offenders from living near schools and other places where children congregate is unconstitutional, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The decision means that potentially thousands of sex offenders either won't have to move or that they can move back into their former homes.

Kentucky lawmakers passed a law in 2006 that barred sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, day care centers and playgrounds. In a 5-2 decision, justices held that the law is punitive because lawmakers applied it retroactively to sex offenders convicted before the restrictions were imposed. The restrictions will still apply to anyone convicted after July 2006.

By doing so, the majority concluded, lawmakers unconstitutionally imposed a
punishment that wasn't in criminal law at the time the sex offenders were convicted.

Covington attorney Bradley Wayne Fox challenged the Kentucky law on behalf of a Kenton County man who pleaded guilty to statutory rape in 1995 and was arrested in 2007 on a charge of living within 1,000 feet of a public park.

Former Florida substitute teacher pleads guilty in sex case

This from TampaBay.com:

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Lisa Marinelli, a former Pasco County substitute teacher accused last year of having a sexual relationship with a student, pleaded guilty in court this morning.

She faced up to 15 years in prison but avoided any time behind bars. Instead, prosecutors and her defense attorney agreed to a stringent probationary sentence that includes a year of house arrest and no contact with children under 18 without supervision.

The married mother of two will have to register as a sex offender,
undergo testing for sexually transmitted diseases and complete sex offender treatment.

Marinelli, now 41, fell under suspicion in February 2008 when the victim's father reported to the Sheriff's Office that he saw his son get out of Marinelli's car pulling his pants up. They were in the back seat...

Dinkel tossed from sex offender program

I figured this story was pretty much over - but No - Jeni Lee Dinkel was kicked out of her court ordered sex offender program on Valentines Day because she failed to accept responsibility for her crime and refused to take a polygraph. If she doesn't get that a cougar trolling her son's friend was illegal and wrong, then its hard to have any sympathy for her.

But, she was apparently struggling as the only woman among a dozen-ish men in group therapy. Imagine that for a second, and ask yourself: Is it therapeutically efficacious to combine a male and female sex offenders in the same program? ...in the same room. ...with male offenders reflecting on their prior crimes. ...talking about their exploitation. ...their feelings about women. ...with Dinkel in the circle? ...12:1.

I'm not sure how that is appropriate therapy for her.

This from the Cincinnati Enquirer: (Backstory from Enquirer Special Section)

Dinkel out of jail on bond
Charged with violating probation terms

VILLA HILLS - Registered sex offender Jeni Lee Dinkel posted bond Tuesday after spending a night in jail on charges she violated probation.

Kenton Circuit Judge Gregory Bartlett allowed the 52-year-old mother to post 10 percent of a $5,000 bond.

Dinkel pleaded guilty in May to one count of third-degree rape for having sex with a 15-year-old friend of her son. She was ordered to serve 60 days in jail, be placed on probation for five years and register as a sex offender for 20 years....

..."Short of absconding or committing a new offense, failure to complete sex offender treatment is one of the next most important conditions of probation," Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders said.

He said Dinkel could be placed back on probation or ordered to serve up to five years in jail if found in violation of her probation. A hearing is Monday...

...Dinkel's husband, former Bengals linebacker Tom Dinkel, said he had been
concerned about the part of the probation that required his wife to participate
in the Kentucky Sex Offender Treatment Program.

He said the treatment consisted of group therapy with his wife
being the only female in the class. He said the 10 to 15 other class members
were men who had sexually exploited women...

Boys Face Sex Trial for Slapping Girls' Posteriors

Two middle-school students in Oregon are facing possible time in a juvenile jail and could have to register as sex offenders for smacking girls on the rear end at school.

Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, both 13, were arrested in February after they were caught in the halls of Patton Middle School, in McMinnville, Ore., slapping girls on the rear end.

Mashburn told ABC News in a phone interview that this was a common way of saying hello practiced by lots of kids at the school, akin to a secret handshake.

The boys spent five days in a juvenile detention facility and were charged with several counts of felony sex abuse for what they and their parents said was merely inappropriate but not criminal behavior.

The local district attorney has since backed off -- the felony charges have been dropped and the district attorney said probation would be an appropriate punishment. The Mashburns' lawyer said prosecutors offered Cory a plea bargain that would not require him to register as a sex offender, which the family plans to reject.

But the boys, if convicted at an Aug. 20 trial, still face the possibility of some jail time or registering for life as sex offenders...

This from ABC News.

14th suspect nabbed in N Ky Internet sex sweep

Highland Heights police and the sex crime-fighters at Perverted Justice snared another suspect Friday in a net that, since April, has hauled 14 men into court, all accused of attempting to meet young teenagers for sex in Northern Kentucky.

Friday afternoon, police arrested a 43-year-old western Kentucky man in the Lowes hardware store parking lot on Alexandria Pike, where they said Randy Stone had arranged to meet what he thought was a 13-year-old girl for sex.

But the teen-ager was actually an adult decoy at Perverted Justice, a nonprofit group that works with law enforcement nation-wide to catch sexual predators through on-line chatrooms.

Highland Heights Police Chief Carl Mullen said Stone has been talking on-line with the decoy since April and had actually first made the five-hour trip from his home in Alma, Ky., to meet the girl on Thursday.

This from the Cincinnati Post.

Judge rejects Dinkel plea deal

Options: Be tried or be sentenced

The Villa Hills woman who thought she had a deal to resolve charges that she had sex with schoolmate of her son's at Covington Catholic High will now have to decide whether to go to trial or let a judge decide her fate.

That's the choice left Jeni Lee Dinkel after Kenton Circuit Judge Greg Bartlett refused Monday to approve her plea agreement, which would have spared her prison time.

Bartlett said he had too many questions about the agreement to ratify it.

He gave Dinkel - a Hollywood makeup artist and wife of former Bengal Tom Dinkel - two weeks to decide whether she wanted to withdraw the guilty plea and go to trial, or allow Bartlett to impose his own sentence on her.

...If her guilty plea stands, Dinkel could be sentenced to one to five years in prison.

"We're obviously disappointed in the judge's decision not to approve the plea deal," Travis said. "We're going to sit down and evaluate what we will do next."

Sanders said the next move is entirely Dinkel's call.

...Bartlett told the two sides at Monday's hearing that the court had not been included enough as the plea deal was being developed.

He complained that a sex offender assessment of Dinkel was done privately at her own expense and not by experts first approved by the court.

Bartlett also said differing accounts of who actually initiated the sexual contact - Dinkel or the boy - left too many unanswered questions to warrant approving the deal.

This from the Cincinnati Post. Photo by PATRICK REDDY/THE ENQUIRER: With her case unresolved, Jeni Lee Dinkel leaves court with her lawyer, Burr Travis.