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Shooting targets sex-offender's home

7-14-2006 Utah:

Police in St. George are investigating a drive-by shooting at the home of a man who they believe was targeted because he is registered sex offender.

Officers said the 29-year-old man was putting his baby to bed about 10 p.m. Monday when he heard a shot.

"He hears a shatter and a boom and puts down his baby to go see what's going on," St. George Police Sgt. Craig Harding said Tuesday. "The outside pane of his double pane window is shattered. He heard a loud noise of (the car) leaving the area."

Shotgun pellets were found outside the home. Police said had the man been in the room and the shotgun blast gone through the window, the baby could have been injured or killed.

Police believe the man's home was shot at because he is a convicted sex offender and listed on Utah's sex offender registry. Court records show the man was convicted in April 2006 of forcible sex abuse, a second-degree felony. He was sentenced to probation and ordered to serve weekends in the Purgatory Jail.

The man told police that since his conviction, he has been intimidated and harassed. Recently, police said someone vandalized the man's power box outside his home.

Officers said despite the man's criminal past, they do not need vigilantes targeting sex offenders.

"He's caught between a rock and a hard place," Harding said. "When you've got people like this coming forward with a shotgun to administer a little street justice, I can see why sex offenders don't want to register." ..more.. by Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News

Sex offender stabbed at Cook County Jail

8-3-2005 Illinois:

A Cook County Jail inmate was recovering Tuesday from a stabbing in a maximum-security wing of the Southwest Side complex.

Demtre Golden, 28, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital for a wound to the chest. At least three other inmates are suspected in the attack, said Bill Cunningham, a spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan, who runs the jail.

Golden was booked into the jail in June on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender. The motive for the attack is unclear, Cunningham said, but investigators are looking into whether it was related to his history as a sex offender or whether it was gang-related. ..more.. by

Sex offender says neighbors' actions constitute harassment

8-1-2007 Wisconsin:

Note: The actions of the man's neighbors, in the article below, are a violation of the PUBLIC WARNING on the state registry, which says: "It is illegal to use information obtained through the Registry to commit a crime against any registrant or to engage in any illegal discrimination or harassment." Wisconsin statute 940-32 et. seq. makes the neighbors' actions a crime. eAdvocate

One neighbor's call to action has another neighbor charging that he's being harassed.

Convicted sex offender Michael A. Allen, 327 N. Macy St., said he silently stood by for the year he has lived on Macy Street as his next-door neighbors harassed him and made references to the fact that he's a convicted sex offender, including instances when they called him a rapist and a pedophile.

Court records show that Allen was convicted in 1998 of second-degree sexual assault of a child for receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old girl. The records show that Allen was 16 years of age at the time of the incident, which occurred in 1997 in Shawano County.

In a victim statement included with court documents, the 15-year-old girl said it was her idea to perform the sexual act. She also wrote that she didn't think it was Allen's fault or that he should get in trouble.

On July 10, Allen said his neighbors took the harassment to a level at which he couldn't quietly stand by anymore. That day, Allen said he learned that copies of his sex offender information had been posted around Fond du Lac.

Harassment

Right away, Allen said that he knew his neighbors, Linda C. Schultz and Michael J. Merkel, who live at 323 N. Macy St., were responsible for the postings.

Not knowing what his rights were, Allen said he called the sex offender registry and asked some questions.

Police: Man Tried To Hire Hit Man To Kill Sex Offender

8-1-2007 Florida:

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- A Port St. Lucie man is accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill a convicted sex offender he said he did not want hanging around his daughter, police said.

According to a police report, Dennie Wayne Dobbins, 36, was looking to find someone willing to kill James Lee Manack for $500. Dobbins allegedly told a police informer in prison that Manack was a pedophile and was hanging out with his pregnant daughter, police said.

Dobbins was placed in jail on July 23 on drunken driving and battery charges.

According to State records, Manack is listed as a sexual offender after serving two years in prison for sexual assault on a child under 16.

Police said Dobbins told the informer that he would pay the hit man when he got out of prison. According to the police report, Dobbins said that if the hitman did not do it, he would kill Manack when he got out. Dobbins told the informer that he would know if the hit man did it when he read the obituaries in the paper the next day, police said.

Dobbins is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and currently remains in the St. Lucie County Jail. ..more.. by WPBF.com