Two major things:
(1) Making parents more aware of the dangers of sex offenders in chatrooms talking to kids.
(2) Getting sex offenders off the street and put behind bars.
This program is ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT . . .
I'm hoping that this will bring about an awareness that make people be supportive of much stronger laws to put sexual predators behind bars.
Tonight I watched an interview which you can watch online at MSNBC - To Catch a Predator Videos
]]> Stronger laws are necessary to protect the innocent. It is so good to see programs and news that brings awareness into public discussion so that there becomes a national awareness of the neccessity for stronger laws and longer prison terms to get predators 'off the street'.THANK YOU to MSNBC for this television program!
To read more about the "To Catch a Predator" show and Chris Hansen's new book:
To Catch a Predator
BALTIMORE - To Pat Goles, it was divine intervention.
His son Michael had faced the Baltimore Catholic community’s damnation after making sexual abuse charges in 1993 against popular Calvert Hall chaplain “Father Jeff” Toohey. Then, in 2004, his son, who remained troubled and unvindicated, got a phone call from a man only several blocks away in Atlanta. He had just come forth with similar allegations.
The second man, CNN Headline News anchor Thomas Roberts, was a previous Toohey victim. Roberts talks extensively on camera for the first time about the sexual abuse he suffered at Calvert Hall on “Anderson Cooper 360” Monday night.
In an hourlong segment, Roberts, 34, discusses the abuse — emotionally at times — which he said took place from 1987 to 1990. He reveals the struggle to overcome the psychological damage, including a suicide attempt, and the decision to ultimately come forward and press charges with Goles.
]]> “It’s probably the worst place you can be in your life,” Roberts says at one point in a preview reviewed by The Examiner. “There’s shame. There’s self-hatred, self-doubt. Every mixed-up emotion you can have, and you don’t feel you can talk to anybody.”Toohey pleaded guilty to abusing Roberts in February 2006 and was sentenced to five years in prison, but served less than 10 months before being released into home detention.
After his parents split up when he was in seventh grade, Roberts says he slowly withdrew, struggling in school and failing to get into the high school of his choice, Calvert Hall. His mother, Michelle, brought her son to Toohey for guidance. The priest got him a placement at the Towson private school.
Roberts kept his secret to himself for a decade and a half, even as Michael Goles was vilified publicly for his accusations.
“I still couldn’t stand up for this kid,” Roberts says.
But eventually he did, asking for Goles’ name and phone number from the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
And last year, both men testified in Annapolis in support of legislation that would extend the statute of limitations to file civil claims against sexual predators. That right ends when the victim turns 25. Senate Bill 575, introduced this year, would create a one-year window of opportunity for victims to file civil suits.
“The call from Thomas changed Michael’s life,” said Pat Goles, a Catholic deacon in Bel Air. “It changed both their lives. We believed Michael all along, but now they both knew someone else believed them, too, and understood what they had been through.”
They had a great attitude towards the train staff and me and appreciated the help. As we got into the train station and I helped them find a seat to wait for their next train and asked the Amtrak staff to look after them. They were so appreciative. And it sure made me start thinking that there are worse things to bear than the scars of experiencing child abuse.
]]> As she thanked me, she gave me a gift of a wax angel that she makes. It will be treasured along with the greater gift they gave me yesterday of appreciating what I have and 'feeling less sorry for myself'.They were traveling on to California by train. What troopers they are to be out traveling. I will remember them forever, even though they only touched my life for a brief time yesterday.
]]>This is very helpful to male survivors of sexual abuse. Having a male come forward who has proven himself in a "macho" sport (and is admired by millions as a football star) gives men more freedom to let others know that they have been abused.
Abuse is tough on us girls - very tough. But I think it is even tougher on men. It's okay for us girls to cry and show emotion and people give sympathy. But it must be many times harder for men to speak up about this.
Having Laveranues come forward will be a huge breakthrough for many men.
Thank you, Laveranues !!
]]>CHICAGO, IL — Today, after hearing the exciting news of the capture of two child predators, just 48 hours after the launch of Oprah's Child Predator Watch List, Oprah said, "This is a great day and we're just getting started." On Tuesday, October 11, The Oprah Winfrey Show will broadcast live as Oprah presents the first $100,000 reward and shares the details of the tips, the big breaks and the captures of these fugitives.
]]> On Tuesday, October 4, The Oprah Winfrey Show launched an initiative to highlight the stories of victims and survivors of child predator crimes. During that show, Oprah announced her pledge to provide a $100,000 reward per case to those individuals who the FBI says provided critical information leading to the capture and arrest of the fugitives featured on the show or its companion website Oprah.com. "With every breath in my body, and with you by my side, we are going to move heaven and earth to stop an evil that's been going on for far too long," said Oprah. "Before one more child lands in the headlines, we need to capture these criminals and put them away for good."Oprah's Child Predator Watch List can be found online at
www.oprah.com/predatorwatch
It features:
Predator Profiles
Contact Your Local FBI
Reward Rules and Instructions
Remembering the Victims
Protecting Your Children
What You Need to Know About Child Predators
How to Keep Your Children Safe
The Oprah Winfrey Show has remained the number one talk show for 19 consecutive seasons, winning every sweep since its debut in 1986.* It is produced in Chicago by Harpo Productions, Inc. and syndicated to 215 domestic markets and 115 countries by King World.
SPOKANE -- It's been a year of staggering news for a region that likes to bill itself as a good place to raise a family. The Spokane area seems awash in pedophiles.
Local residents were already reeling from months of revelations about pedophile Catholic priests when a judge ruled last week that individual parishes, parochial schools and other church property may be sold to pay off victims and their lawyers.
]]> This spring, the local newspaper reported that Mayor Jim West used the Internet to seek dates with young men and allegedly molested boys as a sheriff's deputy decades ago.West assertively denies any wrongdoing.
Then it was revealed that officials at the Morning Star Boys Ranch, a revered local institution, might have tolerated physical and sexual assaults against troubled boys. A lawsuit filed last week contended that, as punishment, some boys in the past were photographed with flowers sticking out of their rectums.
In nearby Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Joseph Edward Duncan III is accused of bludgeoning to death three members of a household as he kidnapped two small children for the purposes of sex. One of those children, 9-year-old Dylan Groene, was killed. His sister, 8-year-old Shasta Groene, was with Duncan when he was arrested in May.
Many residents worry about the effect on the region's children of seeing authority figures such as West and Catholic priests tied to lurid stories and watching repeated images of Duncan on television amid details of kidnapped and slain children.
"Children are not equipped developmentally to handle this kind of information coming at them all the time," said Connie McCleary, director of the Spokane Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Center. "It's hard for everybody, even professionals."
The West revelations were too much for Shannon Sullivan, a single mother with a high school education and no record of civic involvement. With little help, she drafted and pushed a recall proposal past various legal challenges. Locals are now signing on in droves.
"This is a moral issue for me, not a political one," Sullivan said.
The number of pedophiles in the United States is not known, but mental health experts estimate that 4 percent of the population has a sexual orientation toward children, the vast majority of them males. In 1999, 93,000 kids were sexually abused, and 70 percent of the perpetrators were family members.
The widely publicized Spokane cases are somewhat interconnected, involving a group of men in positions of authority in the Catholic Church, Boy Scouts and Spokane County Sheriff's Office in the 1970s and early 1980s.
The key players in this group were former Catholic priest Patrick O'Donnell, deceased sheriff's deputy David Hahn, deceased insurance executive George Robey, and convicted child molester Tim Carlson.
Hahn and West were friends and fellow Spokane County sheriff's deputies. They shared leadership of a Boy Scout troop before Hahn killed himself in 1981 when he was being investigated for child molestation. West has said he never knew Hahn was a pedophile.
O'Donnell, who has repeatedly denied requests for interviews, is named in 52 of the 140 claims of sexual abuse filed against the Spokane Diocese. The diocese has filed for bankruptcy, blaming the lawsuits.
Court documents contend that O'Donnell and Robey were friends who molested boys on their boats on Lake Coeur d'Alene in the 1970s. O'Donnell for the past two decades has been a mental health professional in Bellevue
Robey killed himself in 1982, also amid allegations of pedophilia. For years, a Camp Fire lodge at Camp Sweyolaken near Coeur d'Alene was dedicated to Robey after his family raised money for the building. The plaque was recently removed.
Robey and Carlson were leaders of Scout Troop 353 at Hutton Elementary in a posh neighborhood on Spokane's South Hill.
Robert Brewster, a prominent Spokane real estate developer, was in their Boy Scout troop and went on campouts with them.
"Yes, there were inappropriate things done and talked about," Brewster said, declining to disclose more about the incidents. Brewster has also questioned West's friendships with Carlson, a former roommate, and Hahn, saying those close associations raise troubling concerns about the mayor.
West has denied knowing that Hahn or Carlson were pedophiles.
"I have said before and I repeat again that the allegations that I molested young boys years ago are entirely false," West has said. "I have never had improper contact with a child."
O'Donnell has also been accused of raping a boy at the Morning Star Boys Ranch, which is operated by the Catholic Church.
Last week, Morning Star was sued by two former residents who claim they were sexually abused by counselors. The lawsuit, filed in Spokane County Superior Court, contends that in one incident, two counselors forced several boys to pose for photographs with flowers protruding from their rectums. O'Donnell is not a defendant in that lawsuit.
Morning Star officials issued a statement in which they said: "The ranch has never knowingly allowed or condoned abuse of any kind." The ranch has cared for nearly 1,300 boys since opening in 1956.
Former residents have rushed to the ranch's defense.
"We're here because we think we benefited greatly from Father Joe (Weitensteiner, the director) and from the ranch," said Ray Clary, 49, a Spokane attorney.
]]>PROVO, Utah (AP) -- A judge has ruled that the jurors who will hear the case of a Springville couple accused of causing their 4-year-old daughter's death by forcing her to drink too much water may be told about previous allegations of child abuse.
Fourth District Court Judge Claudia Laycock ruled Thursday that the allegations cannot be used to prove guilt in this case but can be used to establish a pattern of behavior for the defendants, Richard and Jennete Killpack.
]]> The Killpacks are charged with child-abuse homicide and child abuse in the 2002 death of their 4-year-old adopted daughter, Cassandra.The allegations include testimony from the Killpacks' 7-year-old daughter that Jennete Killpack bound Cassandra's arms behind her with rope. In a separate incident, Jennete Killpack allegedly struck Cassandra on the head with a metal object, causing her to bleed.
Prosecutors say the Killpacks caused Cassandra's death by forcing her to drink excess amounts of water after she was caught stealing her older sister's drink.
The Killpacks have said they were following advice from therapists at the Cascade Center for Family Growth in Orem when they administered the punishment.
Therapists have denied issuing such advice.
Defense attorneys contend the couple did not act recklessly and were unaware that their actions could harm the child.
The Utah County Attorney's Office concluded that the Cascade Center and its therapists had no wrongdoing in the death of Cassandra Killpack.
Jury selection is set for Sept. 12
Information from: Deseret Morning News, http://www.deseretnews.com
]]>TALLAHASSSEE - The Department of Children & Families announced a five-year plan Tuesday to cut child abuse rates in half by working with communities and other agencies to improve prevention programs and better target families needing help.
"No agency is expected to be responsible for prevention of child abuse and neglect on their own," said Beth Englander, who directs DCF's child welfare office. "The statewide plan reflects conventional wisdom and belief that plans across the state need to be connected."
]]> Florida's abuse and neglect rate is 31.5 per 1,000 children. Only two other states had a rate above 20 victims per 1,000. DCF wants to reach a rate of 15 per 1,000, according to a report prepared by the Florida Interprogram Task Force made up of DCF and several other agencies."If we focus on prevention, if we use the community-based care model to expand services for families, to make them more loving and wholesome, one would hope that we can cut child abuse in half," said Gov. Jeb Bush.
The task force came up with a 136-page plan that serves as a first step toward that reduction. It outlines goals, but more specific, steps on how to achieve them will be developed over the next few months, along with proposed legislation to help the effort.
A key will be looking at existing prevention programs and figuring out what works and what doesn't.
Communities throughout the state have many programs to help families. Officials would focus on successful programs and bringing them to communities with less effective programs.
"Plans across the state need to be connected," Englander said. "The plan is intended to be a blueprint to pull together all of those activities comprehensively for the first time."
Officials already have an idea of areas where they need to send resources.
Typical abusers are in their mid-20s, high school dropouts, poor and emotionally stressed. Abuse is also more likely to occur in poor neighborhoods with high residential turnover, high unemployment, crime problems and less contact and trust between neighbors.
The question becomes how to improve those conditions.
"I do think that it's probably difficult to do, but you always set these goals a little bit higher," said Sen. Skip Campbell, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat who chairs the Senate Children & Families Committee. "Nothing's impossible."
The Child Welfare League of America agrees it is possible, though difficult. Prevention services do work, the trick will be getting the Legislature to pay for them year after year, said Linda Spears, a vice president with the Washington-based organization.
"It takes a lot. I think it's doable. The real question is whether the state can and will commit the investment," Spears said. "Florida has done this kind of work in some communities and sustained it well in some communities, but it requires a stick-to-itiveness."
]]>AUSTIN — Child Protective Services is looking for a few good men and women to join its ranks. Hundreds of new workers, actually, are needed for the state agency.
College graduates are being sought for 850 new child-abuse investigator positions that will be created in the next two years, said Darrell Azar, spokesman for CPS' parent agency, the Department of Family and Protective Services.
By mid-2007, CPS also will hire 1,670 other new employees, according to agency documents, including some 400 supervisors and 77 family-based safety services caseworkers, who also will need a bachelor's degree.
]]> The hiring spurt is part of an attempted overhaul of CPS and its sister agency, Adult Protective Services, called for in a bill Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed Tuesday.An emergency spending bill the governor is expected to sign this month would pump $200 million in additional state funds into CPS.
Recruiting so many college graduates for CPS' gritty work and low pay will be tough, though not impossible, said Madeline McClure, director of the Texas Association for the Protection of Children, or TexProtects.
Finding and retaining enough investigators won't be easy but can be done with the right support and pay, said McClure, who has spent several years urging improvements to the agency's recruitment and retention efforts.
CPS and APS have been under fire for more than a year. News reports showed children were beaten or starved to death even after their families came under scrutiny from CPS. Decisions by APS workers have been questioned after enfeebled adults were living in squalid, vermin-infested homes. Perry ordered audits of both agencies.
Carey Cockerell, state family and protective services commissioner, said he's ready to rebuild the two agencies.
"We are excited about the considerable resources the governor and the Legislature have given us," he said. "I am convinced that the quality of services that we provide will improve significantly, and the real winners will be the children and adults we serve."
Statewide, CPS will hire 2,517 new employees by mid-2007, and APS will get 89
Over the next two or three months, CPS will hire new managers and 33 training specialists, lease new office space and acquire additional desktop and notebook computers.
Large-scale hiring probably will not occur until late summer or early fall and then will be done in ways every quarter through August 2007, Azar said.
Perry said Texas' high caseloads for child-abuse investigators will be cut by 40 percent, from about 74 cases per worker per month now to 45 cases in 2007
But former state District Judge Scott McCown of Austin said that is still too high. In 1998, CPS investigators handled an average of 24 cases a month, but they've spiraled out of control since then, said McCown, who as a judge handled abuse and neglect cases.
"It's just unreal to think that caseloads of 45 are acceptable," said McCown, now executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for more state spending on education and social programs.
National child welfare groups recommend no more than 12 to 15 cases per month per investigator, but lawmakers say no states meet those guidelines.
]]>This powerful personal autobiography comes at a time when the world was watching the Michael Jackson child molestation trial. "An Inch From Murder" deals with the author's life as a male victim of sexual child abuse. Long overdue, this courageous account will benefit other male survivors who have learned to cope with multiple molestations, with valuable information for professionals and parents.
(PRWEB) June 14, 2005 -- "An Inch From Murder" was written 20 years ago and is now being brought to print for the very first time and deals with the author's life as a male victim of sexual child abuse. Drawing from the memory of past molestations from the age of four until sixteen, a trauma unfolded in adulthood profiling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The uncanning of the abuse by seven men (including Boston Catholic Priests, a policeman, close relatives and friends) resulted in the attempted murder of the author's latest assailant; the ensuing incarceration and the attempt now to bring the issues of male victimization into focus.
]]> Author Cornelius Ahern has come out from the main stratum of society to become a sexual child abuse statistic, and a criminal statistic as well. Now, his desired hope is that he can prevent a victim of sexual child abuse (SCA) from developing into a criminal statistic, and more importantly, work towards preventing the SCA statistic in the first place.Studies indicate that 10-16% of all men experienced some form of sexual child abuse yet this subject has only been treated recently in scholarly journals. No other account approaches the topic in the first person as explicitly and with such graphic detail as dealt with here.
Reminded by these recent sensational reports of child sexual abuse, this compelling story comes with the author's pledge of 20 years ago: "If I could save one person's life from the heartache and anguish that has come into my life because of child sexual abuse by writing this book, then I would have truly and finally accomplished something in my lifetime - by having someone read that there is hope and recognition for the abused, and that you can get help before it's too late."
Frightened by the experiences of a maximum security prison in Connecticut and in the States' Mental Institution for the criminally insane, the victim turned aggressor and takes readers back 20 years ago in many jail cells of 15 months; editing all that information as a male survivor of sexual child abuse, completing this story for these present times.
"An Inch From Murder" (ISBN: 978-1-58939-730-9) is published by www.virtualbookworm.com/aninchfrommurder.html
For more information or to contact the author, go to www.aninchfrommurder.com
]]>SALEM — A bill requiring school workers to warn law enforcement or the Department of Human Services about suspected child abuse by an employee cleared the Senate on 28-0 vote.
The legislation also would force schools to disclose the disciplinary records of employees convicted of drug and sex crimes.
The House, meanwhile, passed a bill that would require the human services department to release child-abuse records to the public if a child suffers a serious injury or dies from abuse.
]]> Opening the records would help the public decide whether the department took appropriate action to protect a child, said Rep. Gordon Anderson, R-Grants Pass.The twin pieces of legislation follow several high-profile child abuse cases.
The Department of Human Services faced criticism following the 2002 deaths of two Oregon City girls — Ashley Pond, 12, and Miranda Gaddis, 13.
An investigation revealed the agency had lost reports from Pond that she had been sexually abused by her Oregon City neighbor, Ward Weaver.
Weaver was convicted of the killings in 2004.
In southern Oregon, a former assistant coach at Gold Beach High School was arrested in April on charges that he had sexually abused several female students over a three-year period. In May, an assistant coach at South Medford High School was charged with sexually abusing a 15-year-old female student.
"It's important for you, as a community member or Oregonian, to know what's happening in our schools,'' said Sen. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene, who sponsored the bill passed by the Senate Wednesday. "This helps protect our children."
]]>
SEATTLE - Relatives of a man suspected in thousands of cases of child sexual abuse described him Friday as a "black sheep" whose only ties with the family dissolved years ago when his grandmother died.
Dean Schwartzmiller, 63, was arrested May 23 in Washington state on a California fugitive warrant. An anonymous tipster provided information that led to his arrest, Snohomish County Sheriff's spokesman Rich Niebusch said Friday.
Jack Schwartzmiller of Butte, Mont., said his cousin Dean lost contact with most of his relatives years ago. Dean Schwartzmiller has three brothers and a sister living in western Washington, but they could not be reached for comment.
"They knew he was in trouble all the time and they really had disassociated themselves of him," Jack Schwartzmiller said, calling his cousin "just a black sheep in the family."
Schwartzmiller's family knew he had legal troubles, but are likely "pretty surprised at the part that's coming out now," said his aunt, Shirlea Schwartzmiller of Edmonds.
Authorities said Dean Schwartzmiller apparently gained the trust of victims and parents by working as a home renovation contractor. Police in San Jose got involved after he allegedly befriended at least two boys in the city with gifts, invited them to his house for video games and movies, and molested them.
He was returned to California on June 7 to face molestation charges involving two 12-year-old boys.
Although police said Schwartzmiller appears to have spent much of the past 30 years in California, he has been arrested on child molestation charges in New York, Arkansas and Washington. He also served prison time in Idaho for child molestation in the late 1970s, and is wanted in Oregon on sexual assault charges involving a minor.
Police believe he may have victims in Brazil and Mexico, as well.
]]>SAN FRANCISCO - A San Francisco jury on Wednesday awarded nearly $5.8 million in damages to four people who were repeatedly fondled as children by a Roman Catholic priest in San Jose.
The plaintiffs, three men and one woman, received $5.78 million total, ranging for $1.3 million to $1.58 million each, according to a spokesman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. They had asked for a total of $20 million, while a lawyer for the archdiocese had suggested that $1 million in combined compensation was appropriate.
The archdiocese stipulated at the start of the 2 1/2-week trial that church officials knew in the 1970s that the Rev. Joseph Pritchard had been accused of molesting young parishioners but did not investigate the claims or take steps to protect the children.
]]> As a result, the only question put to jurors was how much the plaintiffs, three men and one woman, should be compensated for psychological suffering and loss of productivity attributed to their abuse, said Larry Drivon, an attorney who represented one of the victims."The church was forced to admit that molestation had been occurring and they should have known what was occurring," Drivon said. "It was a historic concession on the part of the church."
During the trial, the plaintiffs testified that Pritchard, who died in 1988, had fondled them under their clothes, sometimes with other children or three other priests watching.
The verdict, reached after 16 hours of deliberation, came less than a month after another jury awarded $437,000 to another man who was molested by Pritchard when the late priest was assigned to St. Martin of Tours church in San Jose. In that case, which involved the first of 24 people who have sued the Archdiocese because of abuse allegedly committed by Pritchard, the jury had to find the church liable before awarding damages.
San Francisco Archbishop William J. Levada said in a statement Wednesday that the archdiocese has taken steps to make sure the kind of abuse now being litigated in the courts would never occur today.
"While the incidents of abuse in these lawsuits date back more than two decades ago, this fact does not lessen our vigilance today, nor diminish our concern for victims of past abuse," he said.
The consolidated cases decided Wednesday were the third of more than 750 lawsuits against Roman Catholic dioceses in California to go to trial since the state in 2002 temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for filing old sex-abuse claims. The action came as a response to the child molestation scandal involving Catholic priests nationwide.
Last week, an Oakland jury awarded $1.93 million to two brothers in their 30s who were molested as young boys by the Rev. Robert Ponciroli at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Antioch. Ponciroli, 68, has been removed from public ministry and now lives in Florida.
]]>There are 13 convicted sexual offenders who last reported an Osceola County address currently on the run from probationary supervision, a Florida sexual offender registry showed.
Another 17 are no longer at their last reported address given to authorities.
With the tragic loss of a 9-year-old Homosassa girl, Jessica Marie Lundsford, who authorities said was assaulted and murdered by a registered sexual offender that wasn’t living at his listed address, some local law enforcement officials and residents want to boost efforts to safeguard youngsters.
]]> “It shouldn’t take a tragedy to wake us up,” said Kissimmee Police Officer Ralph Herrera, department spokesman. “Parents should always be guarding their children.”St. Cloud resident Debra Carter, a child abuse survivor, is leading the local charge to motivate other county residents to join her on the Jessica Lundsford Team.
Started by the Jessica’s father Mark, a Web site is currently in the works to solicit volunteers from around the nation to help the family and legal representatives research the laws and penalties concerning sexual offenders and predators in each state. Once the research is complete, the team hopes to draw up a petition to collect signatures and seek stronger laws from state and federal lawmakers.
“I’m trying to get the rest of the local residents to join,” Carter said. “The more people know, the more they get involved, the stronger it will be.”
There are currently 290 registered sexual offenders in Osceola County, according to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement sexual offender registry.
There are 13 sex offenders who are currently listed as having absconded from probation, meaning they have fled from the Florida Department of Corrections non-confined supervision or control. According to the FDLE’s registry, they are:
• Brian D. Westbrook, 21, convicted of sexual battery with injury. Westbrook last reported a St. Cloud address in March of this year. Westbrook is a black male, 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 135 pounds. He has black hair, brown eyes and a tattoo on his right arm that says “ethel.”
• David Allan Rupe, 46, convicted of sexual battery. He last reported a Kissimmee address in June of 2000. Rupe is a white male, 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 160 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.
• Jesus Rapalo, 54, convicted of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under 12. He last reported a Kissimmee address in November 2002. Rapalo is a Hispanic male, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 170 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.
• Ronald Price, 41, convicted of sexual battery on a victim under 12-years-old. He last reported a St. Cloud address in July of 2001. Price is a white male, 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 164 pounds. He has brown hair, brown eyes and has a tattoo of a skull with crossbones on his left arm.
• Juan C. Palacio, 52, convicted of sexual battery on a victim under 12 years old. He last reported a Kissimmee address in October 2003. Palacio is a Hispanic male, 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 128 pounds. He has brown hair and green eyes. He has tattoos on his left arm consisting of the phrase, “Lord is my Protector,” an anchor, a woman’s face and a Playboy bunny. Tattoos on his right arm included, “I Love Irma,” “Gracias A. Dios,” a warrior’s head, dagger and a tiger.
• Manuel Montoya, 90, was convicted of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 16. He last reported a Kissimmee address in March of 2001. Montoya is a Hispanic male, 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 150 pounds. He has gray hair, brown eyes and is missing his left hand.
• Cristian Armando Melendez, 26, was convicted of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 16. He last reported a Kissimmee address in June of 2003. Melendez is a Hispanic male, 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed 185 pounds. He has black hair, hazel eyes and has tattoos on his right arm of Jesus Christ and a clown.
• Benjamin Chico Manguiat, 44, was convicted of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 16. He last reported an Osceola County address in July of 1999. Manguiat is a white male, 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 145 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes.
• Steven Hassan Farahat, 19, was convicted of lewd or lascivious conduct on a victim under 16. He last reported a St. Cloud address in November of 2004. Farahat is a white male, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 185 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.
•Thomas Aquino Diaz Sr., 71, was convicted of lewd and lascivious conduct on a victim under 16 and sexual battery on a victim under 12. He last reported an Osceola County address in May of 1998. Diaz is a Hispanic male, 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 179 pounds. He has gray hair, brown eyes and has a burn scar on his left arm.
• John Henry Davis, 43, was convicted of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 16. He last reported a Kissimmee address in August of 2001. Davis is a black male, 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 162 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.
• Eddie Cajigas, 24, was convicted of lewd and lascivious battery on a victim between 12 to 15. He last reported a Kissimmee address in June of 2004. Cajigas is a Hispanic male, 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighed 155 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes He has a tattoo of a crab with his birth date, 7-18-80, on his right arm and a spade with a face on it on his left.
• Cecil Gary Boyette, 47, was convicted of sexual battery. He last reported a Kissimmee address in March of 2005. Boyette is a white male, 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 131 pounds. He has gray hair and green eyes. He has a surgical scar on his stomach. And he has a tattoo of “G.B.P.M.” on his left arm and a tattoo of “G.B.A.T.” on his right arm.
Once the offender or predator has absconded, the state corrections department has an absconders unit, which does nothing but look for the suspects, “24-7,” said state corrections spokesman Sterling Ivey.
A judge will also issue a warrant for their arrest. The warrant is then placed with the respective county sheriff’s office.
“Ultimately the Sheriff’s Office has the responsibility to carry out the warrant,” Ivey said.
There are 17 other sex offenders whose last known address was in Osceola County who have reportedly absconded from registration. They are no longer at the last reported address given to the Florida sexual offender registry. But while it may appear shady, law enforcement officials don’t have the authority to simply find and arrest them, authorities said.
“They do not commit a violation until they move to a new location and do not register,” said KPD’s Herrera.
U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Crystal River, has proposed the Jessica Lundsford Act, which would require more frequent checks on the whereabouts of sexual offenders, tell probation officers that an offender has a sex offense in his or her background and create a national registry of offenders, according to published reports. Offenders who are not where they’re supposed to be would be placed on electronic surveillance for the first offense and then sent to prison for life for a second offense, according to the proposed legislation.
John Couey, who confessed to killing Jessica, was illegally living in a home near the girl. She disappeared from her grandparents’ home on Feb. 24. She was found buried March 19 near the mobile home where Couey was staying.
“Sadly it’s the offenders and the predators who are on the run that we have to worry about,” Herrera said.
Herrera encouraged parents to access the FDLE registry.
They can access the site at www.fdle.state.fl.us and click in the sexual predators/offenders bar.
For more information contact the FDLE’s sexual offender/predator unit at 1-888-357-7332 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
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