Sex offender at center of Mart employment controversy

8-15-2014 Texas:

Seven years in prison taught Lonnie Green to own up to his past and not to be ashamed. So when a Mart resident recently complained to the city council after learning Green — a registered sex offender — is employed by the city’s public works department, Green said he knows that no matter how much he alters his attitude, his sex offender status will always cause problems.

“You have to know yourself,” he said. “People will always hate on you, but just as many people that talk down on you, there’s another to talk you back up. That’s pretty much how I look at life.”

At this week’s Mart City Council meeting, Kellie Green, 38, who is no relation to Lonnie Green, stood before the elected officials holding up an enlarged photo of her 12-year-old daughter.

Area woman convicted for harassing sex offender

3-13-15 Virginia:

FRONT ROYAL – All she wanted to do, Delores Ann Harris told a jury Friday, was to protect herself and her granddaughter from a man who had been convicted 21 years ago of aggravated sexual battery, a man who has been on the state’s sex offender registry since 1997.

But the convicted sex offender in the courtroom was the victim in the jury trial. And Harris, 61, was the defendant, charged with misusing information from the sex offender registry.

It took the jury only 23 minutes to find Harris guilty and even less time to impose a $1,500 fine on her for actions that the prosecution described as a campaign of harassment against Scott Costello, 43.

“The commonwealth realizes that Mr. Costello is not a sympathetic victim,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Fleming told the six-member jury during closing arguments.

Rape Suspect Sets Fire to Escape Angry Neighbors

6-1-2008 Texas:

The mother of the girl who Jeremy Dontae Craft is accused of punching in the face and sexually assaulting spotted him ambling down a Fort Worth street on Thurs.

She began chasing him and was soon joined by a host of other citizens, who collectively chased him into the Prima Vera apartment complex on E. Berry St.

Apparently Craft, holed up in an apartment, set fire to a mattress to create a diversion and then escaped through a side window. ..News Source.. by MyFox Dallas

Community tries to get sex offender fired

11-19-2008 New Mexico:

A group of Farmington residents are campaigning to get one man fired from his job. There's a community effort to oust a registered sex offender who's now working around kids.

Jim Edward Bloomfield was convicted of molesting a child twenty years ago. He did his time, serving 15 years in prison.

Now, Bloomfield's a registered sex offender living next door to where he works, the Frontline Mission. It's a non-profit shelter for homeless and low income families.

But some Farmington residents say Bloomfield is too close for comfort.

"Well, I think it's absurd. The man has committed a horrendous crime against children. He should not have contact at all with them," said a Farmington resident.

Gerald Barber used to work with Bloomfield. He knew about Bloomfield's past and found out this week that he's now working with kids, so he wanted to do something about it.

Barber and a few others started posting flyers around the downtown area and in local businesses, alerting people about Jim Edward Bloomfield.

Bloomfield declined to comment on the effort to get him fired.

Bloomfield's boss says he gives everyone a second chance in live.

The Frontline Mission is independently owned and can employ anyone they choose. ..News Source.. by Austin Reed KOBF

Reward offered for information about man beaten in Newark

8-7-2012 New Jersey:

3 suspects called victim a child molester during attack

NEWARK -- A reward was offered for information about a Newark man hospitalized for months after he was beaten May 14 on a path between Sherwood Downs South and Ditmore Stroll.

The 59-year-old man was walking from a North 21st Street store to his Churchill Downs Road home when he was approached by three men who stole money from his wallet and threw him to the ground, Newark police Sgt. Scott Snow said.

During the attack, the three men taunted him, calling him a child molester, Snow said. The 59-year-old man told police he did not know how the men found out he is a convicted sex offender, but a notice was sent to his neighbors when he moved to the area, Snow said.

He was convicted of felonious sexual penetration from a 1991 case, according to court records.

The suspects laughed at him and threatened to harm him further if he called police, Snow said.

He initially called his mother, who had not heard from her son since May 13 -- Mother's Day -- and had not seen him since May 11, Snow said. On May 16, a squad was sent to his home.

The man had bruises on his pelvis, head, neck, throat and other body parts. He was using an oxygen mask and had trouble speaking, Snow said.

He was flown to Columbus by emergency medical helicopter and later transferred to the Regency Hospital, which handles "catastrophic injuries or illnesses" that require longer stays, according to its website.

Licking County Crime Stoppers is offering up to $1,000 for information about the crime. The three suspects were described as white men in their early 20s and taller than 5-foot-9. They wore hooded sweatshirts and two had sideburns and goatees, Snow said.

Anyone with information about crime should call Licking County Crime Stoppers at 740-349-6888 or 1-888-488-9058. A coding system protects the identity of the caller but allows for the reward to be issued later. ..Source.. by Jessie Balmert Advocate Reporter

Second House For Sex Offenders Shut Down

6-3-2009 Kentucky:

I think it is time for the government to step in a quell this vigilantism, and do so with punishments that shock the conscience, 20--30 years in jail. Do that once and it will end!


For the second time since January, the Catholic Action Center in Lexington has been forced to shut down a house they were providing for registered sex offenders.

The home was in the Woodhill Neighborhood.

Four men, three of them sex offenders, were living there with their program monitor.

"They were harassed, rocks thrown at them, windows broken in," said Ginny Ramsey.

Ramsey is the Co-Director of the Catholic Action Center. She says they were forced to move the men on Sunday.

"They were fearing for their lives. People were threatening them over and over," Ramsey said.

This was no surprise to Ramsey. In January, the Catholic Action Center purchased a home on Detroit Avenue to house registered sex offenders, but before they could move in, the residents there petitioned.

Taking the law into their own hands, poorly

2-7-2007 New Mexico:

I wrote a story a few weeks ago about the Otero County Sheriff's Department conducting a round up of sex offenders who had failed to register with the department as is required by law.

The Daily News printed the names of the offenders for the sole purpose of informing the public that these sometimes dangerous individuals are out there and be on the look out. And we're not the only one to publish the names.

There exists a Web-based list of these criminals. The Web site offers their names, addresses and photos. And for the same reason we print them from time to time just so you know.

That's right. Just so you know they are there and you can be vigilant, not so you can call them up in the middle of the night and harass them. The site also specifically states that the information contained within it is not to be used for harassing anyone.

Which, unfortunately, some of you out there appear to be doing.

This is not your job. The sex offenders listed on the registry and in this publication have been arrested, tried and convicted by the police, courts and finally, a jury.

Sure, mob justice has a long and proud history in the state of New Mexico, and much of the country.

It was wildly popular in the past, but this is the 21st century and, for better or worse, infrastructure exists to deal with all the perverts, fiends, felons, murderers and others who feel too comfortable operating outside the law.

When you, who ever you are, take the law into your own hands, you are undermining that infrastructure and making a mockery of the system, no matter how flawed and imperfect it is, that has been put in place to protect you.

If it weren't there, we would all be subject to arbitrary street justice and stonings on the edge of town at the hands of lynch mobs.

I have received two phone calls in the last few days from an irate woman in Carrizozo and a man named Quill Bradley. The irate woman is a friend of Quill. It seems Quill has been receiving threatening phone calls late at night because his name is similar to that of a sex offender hauled in a few weeks ago. I will not name the offender because, well, some of us don't have the maturity level required to know such things.

The next time you feel the urge to call up and harass a sex offender, refrain from doing so. First of all, it is not your job. And you may not even have the right person. ...more... by Opinion:

Teens Held For Alleged Assault On Sex Offender

5-28-2005 Florida:

Police Young Men Went Too Far Distributing Fliers

.Some east Baltimore residents are upset after police released six young men without charges Thursday night in an incident tied to an investigation into an alleged child abduction. The family of a 9-year-old Johnston Square Elementary School student says someone abducted the boy at knifepoint last Friday morning as he walked to school.

The boy's mom ultimately found her son, possibly saving his life, but his attacker remains at large. Though detectives continue to investigate, some residents now stand accused of taking the law into their own hands. WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Barry Simms reported police officers detained six young men late Thursday night after two witnesses reported seeing some of them attack a registered sex offender.

Police said the men were distributing fliers that showed pictures of registered sex offenders in the neighborhood. "They did have fliers in their possession ... (that had pictures of) people on the sex offender registry," Baltimore City Police Officer Troy said. "No, it's not against the law to pass out the fliers, but you can't go around harassing (people)." : by WBAL ..more..