Rapist Fights Eviction in Costa Mesa

1-8-1999 California:

Courts: Landlord acted after fliers from police and complaints by tenants. The case tests the limits of Megan's Law, which allows for notifying neighbors of a 'high-risk' sex offender's presence.

A convicted rapist who faces eviction from his Costa Mesa apartment complex after police distributed fliers warning neighbors of his presence is fighting to keep his home in a case that tests the limits of Megan's Law.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Geoffrey T. Glass is considering the case, which marks a rare occasion in which a sex offender has fought to stay in his neighborhood despite the uproar.

Legal experts say it could trigger several rounds of legal battles as courts wrestle with trying to balance the constitutional rights of former convicts with the community's right to protect itself against potential harm.

Under Megan's Law, police agencies are permitted to inform citizens when a "high risk" sex offender is living near them. But it also sets limits on how the information is used and prohibits discrimination or harassment against the offender.

"This illustrates how Megan's Law, which allows only the dissemination of information, can be potentially used to attempt to remove a person from a neighborhood," said Robert Pugsley, a professor at the Southwestern University College of Law.

"Some court will have to reconcile the policy behind the law with the sometimes practical outcomes of the law, which can lead to harassment or the removal of a person from a living place," he added.

At the center of the case is Chris Decker, 44, who in September was ordered to move from the two-bedroom, West Wilson Street apartment he shares with a roommate. The notice came one day after Costa Mesa police distributed fliers in the area that identified him as a sex offender.

Decker's attorney, T. Matthew Phillips, argued in court this week that the threatened eviction constituted an unjustified, "vigilante" reprisal against a man who had paid his debt to society and wanted to live in peace.

Decker, who was convicted of the 1977 rape of a Garden Grove woman, was paying his $795 rent on time and lived without incident for seven months in the 24-unit apartment complex, Phillips said.

Decker's landlord, Robert Stellrecht Jr., said in court that he felt an obligation to protect his tenants, several of whom he said had expressed concern about Decker.

He said tenants, most of them female, had complained about unwanted sexual advances and uninvited touching from Decker. Phillips strongly denies the charges, calling them "phantom" complaints designed to help get his client evicted.

The landlord said no reason was needed to give Decker a 30-day notice because Decker had a month-to-month lease. But he did say the complaints and the Megan's Law fliers influenced his decision. ..Source.. by RICHARD MAROSI

DPS denies mailing post cards to sex offenders

10-7-1999 Texas:

AUSTIN Post cards purporting to be from the Texas Department of Public Safety have been sent to registered sex offenders across the state, DPS officials warned Wednesday.

The sender is asking sex offenders to confirm their address and return the post cards to DPS at P.O. Box 13012 in Austin. However, the cards didn't come from DPS.

"That's not our address," said DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange.

The DPS Special Crimes Service and the U.S. Postal Inspector have launched a criminal investigation into who sent the cards. Investigators are looking into possible mail fraud and state offenses, including forgery and the fraudulent use of the DPS name.

"We need the assistance of citizens who have received these post cards to mail them in an envelope to the DPS," said Lt. Col. Tommy Davis, assistant director of the department.

The cards can be mailed to DPS Special Crimes Service, P.O. Box 4087, Austin, Texas 78773-0420.

Mange said DPS began receiving calls about the phony post cards late last week and early this week.

"We've heard from a lot of people ... sex offenders, people who live at addresses where sex offenders live and parole and probation officers," she said.

Mange said sex offenders are required by law to register with local law enforcement agencies, but the post cards aren't part of the registration requirements. DPS receives information about sex offenders from the local agencies and posts it on the Internet, she said.

David Rowan, a probation officer in Lubbock County, said he hasn't heard from any probationers who received the cards.

Some registered sex offenders in Lubbock have had flyers about them placed on cars around their neighborhood and have been confronted by neighbors, Rowan said. ..more.. by Morris News Service

BRANDED

October 1999 California:

Chris Harrison Decker was just another tenant at the 531 W Wilson Street apart-- ment complex in the Orange County city of Costa Mesa. He paid the $795-a- month rent for his two-bedroom apartment on time and got along with his neigh- -bors. "There was peace in rny life," Decker recalls.

But on September 8, 1998, several Costa Mesa police came by the complex with a stack of flyers that named Decker as a high-risk sex offender, convicted in 1977 of the rape of a 31-year-old Garden Grove woman. The flyer said, "The purpose of this release of information is to allow members of the public to protect themselves and their children from sex offenders." The police included Decker's mug shot and listed his tattoos, a bug and a flower on his chest.

The following day, Decker found a 30-day eviction notice nailed to his door. He had served eight years at the California Institute for Men in Chino and had moved to Costa Mesa to start over, pursuing his calling as a minister to street people. Now he found himself living what seemed to be a modern-day version of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. ..more.. by California Lawyer October 1999

Yes, he molested his daughter. Will an Internet listing hurt her, and his son, further?

8-29-1999 Oregon:
She was 8 years old when he went into her room, after she was asleep, and molested her. Call it a crime, a sin, a sickness: He molested his daughter four times, he says, and then he stopped. Not because he lost the desire to abuse his daughter. Because he was afraid.

Today he's afraid again, but not just for himself. He's afraid for his son and his daughter. He's afraid he and his family will become targets, now that the Oregon State Police are going to put his name and face and address on the Internet, on a listing of convicted sex offenders. He knows firsthand the things people do to sex offenders and those who live with them.

To protect his daughter and son, we won't use his real name. We'll call him John Baker.

Back in 1988, John knew he'd committed a serious crime. John was a police officer. At work he'd read police reports about men who'd been arrested for doing what he'd done.

When she was 12, John's daughter told her mother.

"They called me in off patrol and arrested me in my uniform," John says. Four months later he pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse. He didn't fight the charges, he says, "because I was never in denial about what I did. And I'd already put my daughter through enough." Corrections officials determined John was not a sexual predator. He was given three years of probation, had to pay fines and was required to provide counseling for his daughter and his son. He did not go to jail.

John, who's 44 now, enrolled in a two-year sex-offenders treatment program, which he paid for.

His crime caused damage like waves on water. His daughter wants no further contact with him, which he accepts. "This is part of the consequences of what I did. She is the victim, not me. I know she will have to deal with this for the rest of her life." John and his wife divorced. Their son, who was 9 when John was arrested, began to have behavioral problems.

"His mom couldn't deal with it, so she took him to CSD." John sought custody. "CSD said, 'Here's what we want you to do.' I spent the next two years doing it. Therapy, working on parenting skills, family therapy with him." In December 1995, John got custody.

List on Internet Leads to a Mistaken Beating - Thinh Pham wrongfully beaten as a suspected sex offender in Texas

11-29-1999 Texas:

Texans are tough on convicted child molesters not only in prison, where they often are targeted for special abuse, but also after they're released back into their communities. The state operates an Internet database that lists information about the sexual offender -- name, birth date, description, even shoe size -- as well as the offender's address. Local law-enforcement agencies contribute information and are supposed to update the files.

But a tragic occurrence in September has some wondering if such public access to convicted sexual offenders' records, particularly residential information, might be fraught with potential harm for innocents. A mentally retarded young man, Thinh Pham, 27, was attacked by four men who beat him unmercifully, chanting "child molester, child molester" as they rendered him nearly unconscious.

The problem is, Pham isn't a child molester. But he did live in a small Southwest Dallas home listed as the residence of a convicted sexual predator -- who had moved out more than a year ago.

"We have urged people to be careful on how they use that list," says Tela Mange, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, or DPS. "The sexual offender database is not intended to be used as a retribution tool. It is intended to be a safety tool for parents." ...more... by Hugh Aynesworth

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Sex-offender list might pose problems
11-4-1999 Texas:
DALLAS - Faced with a choice between convicts' privacy and the public's right to know about sex offenders, the Texas Legislature sided with the latter.

The decision cost Thinh Pham his front teeth. Now, he fears leaving his home.