Graffiti targets businesses, sex offender

5-18-2009 New Hampshire:

PORTSMOUTH — At least seven Islington Street businesses were painted with grafitti over the weekend, some with messages targeting a sex offender from the area.

“Charly Paul rapes children 20 years get out of town,” someone painted on the side of Kline's furniture.

“Charly Paul is a monster,” was painted on one side of Olde Port Traders, while the other side was tagged with the message, “Charly Paul get out of our town.”

The messages target Charles Paul, 43, whose last known address is the Brewster Street rooming house, in the same area of the vandalized businesses. Paul was convicted of two counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault in Rockingham County Superior Court in February of 1987 for raping a North Hampton girl “and leaving her for dead,” retired Capt. Janet Champlin told the Herald last August.

“Obviously it’s somebody who has something to do with that case,” Police Lt. Rodney McQuate said Monday. “We’ll be looking at that.”



Police were notified about the first instance of graffiti at 8:04 a.m. Saturday when walls at Olde Port Traders, Robbins Auto and Kline's furniture were reported as vandalized. Shortly after, a message was found scrawled on a wall at Celebrity Sandwich reading, “Charly Paul rapes children.”

An officer then found a large symbol spray-painted on the side of the closed Getty station and more at Washburn Plumbing. Safeway Storage on McDonough Street was also tagged and all of the graffiti was made with black spray paint.

McQuate said police seek information from anyone else who owns property damaged by graffiti. He said if the person is caught, they will be charged with a felony because the cost of the damage exceeds $1,000.

Anyone with information is urged to call the anonymous Crime Stoppers line at 431-1199, or visit the Crime Stoppers Web site. ..News Source.. by Elizabeth Dinan

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.

Tensions on rise as glass door, window smashed at Concord counseling center

8-5-2013 New Hampshire:

In an apparent act of vandalism, someone threw bricks through a glass door and a window at RTT Associates, the sex-offender counseling center that city officials are trying to evict from a mostly residential neighborhood.

The damage, discovered yesterday morning, comes amid growing tension over RTT’s presence in the office building at 2½ Beacon St., a few hundred feet off North State Street in Concord.

The firm has quietly operated there since 2005, providing counseling services to sex offenders, substance-abuse patients and others. But a man identified by prosecutors as an RTT client was arrested in May and accused of breaking into a nearby house and touching an 11-year-old girl. Neighbors have since expressed concern about the center and its clients.

In June, the city ordered RTT to leave the building, calling it “a hazard to the health safety and general welfare of the public.” RTT, which also has offices in Manchester and Rochester, appealed that order Friday.

Now, the situation appears to have escalated.

Targeted for being a sex offender? Man's Elkhart pizza shop vandalized

6-7-2012 Indiana:

A convicted sex offender said vandals stole money and spray painted references that he was a pedophile outside his pizza shop.

Darren Cornell, who co-owns DC's Pizza in Elkhart with his wife, said he has his suspicions the crime could have been committed by an employee or someone he knows.

Officers are investigating $80 in missing money from the tip jar and the till. Outside there's a shattered window and broken glass, and contrasting paint to cover up letters someone spray painted by the door. While thieves took all of the cash inside the restaurant, none of the equipment inside the restaurant was damaged and a flat-screen TV was not taken.

In front of the building, paint covered up the letters “PEDI.” Cornell said it's short for “pedophile. “

Cornell believes his business was vandalized because he's on the Indiana Sex Offender Registry.

"In my mind it's a hate crime," said Cornell. "I don't feel it be any different if someone came to your house and threw a brick through your window because you're African-American," Cornell said to WSBT-TV.

Cornell was convicted at age 17 for inappropriately touching a 14-year-old relative. He served most of his 9-month sentence 8 years ago.

"The way the system is set up people look at me the same way somebody raped someone's grandma, or some serial killer rapist. They look at me differently, it's not right," he said.

Charles Bowen, a senior parole agent in St. Joseph County, said vigilante crimes against registered offenders are rare.

"So many of these offenses are committed within the family or within a close association with the family," said Bowen. "It's not real common."

"This is the first incident, I hope it's the last one," said Cornell.

One thing investigators might consider is Cornell's ties to another business – DC Burgers across the street, which recently closed for good.

We asked if workers there hadn't been paid, Cornell said “it was a rumor.” ..Source.. by WSBT.com

Home of embattled former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky vandalized

11-13-2011 Pennsylvania:

Cinder block thrown through window of Jerry Sandusky's home

Twenty-four hours after Penn State students rioted in the State College streets following the ouster of football coaching legend Joe Paterno, the home of Paterno’s former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, was reportedly vandalized Thursday evening.

According to the Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pa., two pieces of cinder block were tossed through the windows of Sandusky’s State College home. The 67-year-old disgraced coach has been charged with 40 counts of sexual abuse against minors over a 15-year period.

An NBC report said that Sandusky was not home at the time, and that the State College Police have no suspects. A plastic bag covered one of the windows, according to several reports.

The sex scandal that has rocked the campus resulted in Paterno’s firing, as well as that of university president Graham Spanier. Two former administrators - Tim Curley and Gary Schultz - have been charged with perjury and failure to report the allegations. ..Source.. by Kevin Armstrong & Christian Red
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Woman charged after damaging security cams at sex offender's house

5-31-2011 Ohio:

HENRIETTA TOWNSHIP, OH (WOIO) - A Lorain County woman arrested after damaging security cameras at the home of a former registered sex offender.

Annette Osborn is charged with criminal damaging.

Lorain County Sheriff's Deputies tell 19 Action News she ripped the cords off the cameras at Henry Bennett's home on State Route 113.

Bennett is a convicted sex offender out of California who no longer has to register with the Sheriff's office.

Osborn was convinced his cameras pointed towards her house, which is behind Bennett's.

However, when deputies looked at Bennett's laptop, they determined that was not true and the cameras were only pointed towards his backyard. ..Source.. by 19 Action News

ME- Vandals target Scarborough home

5-21-2009 Maine:

SCARBOROUGH (May 21, 2009): When Ted Quinn woke up at his 213 Pleasant Hill Road home in Scarborough Tuesday morning, he noticed what he thought was frost on his kitchen window.

Quinn inspected the mark more closely and realized the spot on his window wasn’t from the cold. Someone had covered the outside of his home with white spray paint.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Quinn said Thursday. “I felt angry and violated.”

Either Monday night or early Tuesday morning, someone spray painted his home and garage with obscenities. His outdoor lighting, grill and patio were also sprayed, and his screen doors slashed, according to Scarborough police.

Quinn’s insurance company estimated the damage at about $25,000, he said.

It wasn’t the vandalism so much as the wording that bothers Quinn, who is a real estate agent for Ingalls Commercial Brokerage in South Portland.

“A big thing that really concerned me was the writing in three spots,” Quinn said. “I’ve lived here for a year and a half, my son’s 15, so I’ve coached baseball and basketball and a lot of my friends are Scarborough parents who know me. The problem is there are about 200 houses back here and this is prominently displayed. I had a conversation with one of my neighbors who said, ‘I bet a sex offender’s moved in and they are identifying him.’”

According to Scarborough’s sex offender registry, there is no person listed on the registry who lives on Pleasant Hill Road.

The family is still staying in the home, in which hey have lived for a little more than a year.

Neighbors who know Quinn said they feel sorry for him and his family, but the wording has sparked curiosity, said Marjory Halacy of Flintlock Road just behind his house.

“That’s a hate crime, that’s the way I look at it,” she said. “It’s a terrible offense personally and also in the neighborhood. I’ve had 25, maybe 30 people who have stopped saying they were so concerned asking me, ‘who do we have living in the neighborhood?’ I just had to put my hands up and told them to please stop asking and not to go in that thought direction. It just reflects so badly on him as a person.”

Jan Strait, who lives up the road from Quinn on Tenney Road, said she was shocked at the level of hate.

“It looks like he was targeted specifically because they didn’t get anyone else,” she said. “I think it’s isolated. I think they thought they knew him and it was specifically for that person.”

That, Quinn said, is the most upsetting part of the vandalism.
“It is disturbing. I’m confident there is no one in my family that warranted this,” Quinn said. “To me, there’s so much, it looks like there is a lot of hate and a lot of anger in it. I’m confident that we didn’t create this much anger or create a situation for someone to do this. I really hope that whoever did it (will) accept responsibility for this. What was done is senseless.”

Scarborough police are investigating the vandalism. They do not have any leads at this time, but they said they believe the incident is isolated.

“My thought is it could be someone who knows him or his family, I don’t know," said Detective Sgt. Rick Rouse. "We don’t have any suspects at this time.”

Halacy said this is the first time in her 25 years of living in the neighborhood that she has seen this level of vandalism. However, she said, it’s not the first time problems have popped up in the area.

“I have had a lot of things stolen from my house here,” she said. “I had a 6-foot Nutcracker on my door, and that was ripped right off the door a couple of Christmases ago. I’ve had a flag and pole stolen off the side of the house, my Canadian Geese stolen and the hose on the side of my house had been cut at one time. I have dealt with a lot of problems.” ..Source.. by Al Edwards, Reporter - American Journal

OH- SEX OFFENDER'S PHONE, CABLE CUT

3-29-2009 Ohio:

A sex offender's phone and cable service was cut apparently by someone disgruntled with him residing nearby.

According to a Ross County Sheriff's Office report, the landlord of a residence on the 300 block of Valley Drive reported "all the neighbors are in an uproar" because he had rented to a sex offender.

The cable and phone lines were cut and dragged down to Ohio 772 sometime between 9 a.m. and 12:55 p.m. Thursday. ..News Source.. by Chillicothe Gazette.

IN- 'Child molester lives here' spray-painted on man's fence

Really smart reporting, explaining to whoever, he you got the wrong house, its a few houses away...

3-16-2009 Indiana:

Graffiti discovered on an Evansville man's fence Sunday morning suggested falsely that a child molester lives at his residence.

Roy Hall reported the graffiti on his fence at 1305 W. Virginia St. about 9:30 a.m. According to an Evansville Police Department report, it read: "A child molester lives here!"

Hall's son reportedly walked by the fence around midnight, at which point it had not yet been spray-painted.

No suspects have been identified.

According to the Indiana Sex Offender registry, no offenders reside at Hall's address. A convicted child molester does live on the same block in a different house, according to the registry. ..News Source.. by Staff Report

Neighbors go out of way to keep molester at bay

7-28-2007 Ohio:

Springfield police officer says sexually oriented offender being harassed

SPRINGFIELD TWP. - Michael Harig is a child molester. The two large signs on his neighbor's lawn tell you so in bright bold, red letters.

So does a third sign, equally imposing and written in the same red paint, placed on a lawn two doors down.

And just in case Harig is feeling lonely in his Gregory Drive home, his neighbor put a ``Welcome Home Child Molester'' sign on their adjoining backyard fence.

But it isn't Harig who concerns Springfield police. To officers, he's a victim.

It is his neighbor, 50-year-old James Cody, who officers say is harassing Harig, not only with the imposing signs, but also with threats and his unfounded claims of more sexual abuse.

It wasn't always this way between Cody and Harig, who moved in after his release from prison just more than three years ago. But ever since Cody saw a 16-year-old boy alone with Harig, the one-sided feud hasn't stopped boiling.

``I just wish there was more we could do for Mr. Harig because he's being harassed and he's in fear for his life, there's no doubt about that,'' said police Sgt. Denise Johnstonbaugh. ``The fact is, he did his time and he should be able to go on with his life.''

That isn't how Cody sees it.

In an interview Friday, Cody said he's known about his neighbor's past ever since Harig moved in. It was in 2004, just after Harig was released from prison after nearly a year of a four-year sentence for fondling three boys, ages 12, 13 and 14.

Two rules for neighbor

Cody, who also served a brief prison stint in 1981 on weapons charges, told his new neighbor that he would be watching his every move. He and his wife, Sharon Hall, also conducted their own research into Harig's crimes.

``I said we'll wipe the slate clean and hopefully you'll be a better person for this. I was real nice to this man, even though I didn't want to be,'' Cody said. ``I just told him: Mike, never lock your doors and never have a youngster over there.

VIGILANTES CONTINUE TO PURSUE CONVICTED CHILD MOLESTER//AUTHORITIES WARN PUNISHMENT OUTSIDE SYSTEM UNACCEPTABLE

6-21-1996 Minnesota:
Vigilantes have struck again at the Lake Elmo home of a convicted child molester. Last Friday night, the sound of shattering glass woke up those in Fred Keenan's home. Rocks were thrown through three windows.

``You have to wonder what's next,'' said Keenan's wife, Dixie. ``Maybe a firebombing or drive-by shooting. These people might not stop until somebody gets killed.'' It all began 16 months ago, when .... ..more.. by Jim Broede

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LAKE ELMO CHILD MOLESTER//ACTS OF VIGILANTISM CAN'T BE TOLERATED
6-23-1996 Minnesota:

An uncomfortable mixture of feelings is probably every decent person's response to the story of Fred Keenan. The Lake Elmo man pleaded guilty to sexually molesting two toddlers attending his wife's day care center in early 1995. He served four months in jail.

But Keenan also continues to be punished by vigilantes. Keenan was viciously beaten by masked assailants shortly after the accusations surfaced. Last week, a barrage of rocks shattered windows and nerves at .... ..more.. by St. Paul Pioneer Press

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MOLESTER TARGET OF HARASSMENT
7-2-1996 Minnesota:
A man convicted of molesting children in his neighborhood has since been beaten by masked men and had rocks thrown through his windows . The sheriff says acts of vigilantism won't be tolerated.

Residents say they're frustrated. Tom and Karen Kelly, who care for nine children and live about three blocks from Fred Keenan, said they're angry that officials responded so quickly to concerns about Keenan's safety. said at a community meeting .... ..more.. by Grand Forks Herald

Wis. man’s good intentions die by the sword

2-21-2007 Wisconsin:

He breaks into apartment, mistaking porn screams for actual rape

OCONOMOWOC, Wis. - A man said he broke into an apartment with a cavalry sword because he thought he heard a woman being raped, but the sound actually was from a pornographic movie his upstairs neighbor was watching.

“Now I feel stupid,” said James Van Iveren, who has been charged in the case. “This really is nothing, nothing but a mistake.”

According to a criminal complaint, the neighbor told police that Van Iveren pounded on the door and kicked it open without warning Feb. 12, damaging the frame and lock.

“Where is she?” Van Iveren demanded, thrusting the sword at the neighbor, the complaint said. “Where is she?”

Man claims to be target of smear campaign

10-5-2006 Illinois:
NORMAL -- Mark Bronke said someone has been distributing fliers in mailboxes in his neighborhood and falsely accusing him of being a "child predator."

Bronke, supervisor of the Peoria County Juvenile Detention Center, said someone has targeted him for vandalism in the past. Vandals using eggs and spray paint caused about $7,000 worth of damage in February to his house on Blue Bird Street in Normal, he said.

But the latest incident goes beyond his neighborhood, he said. People as far as two miles away have gotten them, and postal officials contacted him after the fliers began appearing in town Aug. 28, he said.

Bronke said all his neighbors received copies, and about a half-dozen people he doesn't know have called his house.

"Three were angry community residents that were wanting to know who I was and what all this was about, and I had to explain them that I was kind of being targeted and I believe that I was a victim," Bronke said. "And one person yelled a few obscenities and I just ended up hanging up on that person."

That person also said words to the effect of, "You better not show yourself in the neighborhood," he said. The fliers include a picture of Bronke, his address and his phone number.

Bronke is not listed on the Illinois State Police's online sex offender database. And he said he has never been accused of such impropriety against children.

"I've worked in probation in McLean County and in court services and probation in Peoria County for the last 18 years," Bronke said. "We are subject to background checks before we are hired."

Police said a report taken in the incident did not say how many fliers were distributed. Postal Inspector Brian Eastman said he looked into the matter, but the only federal violation would be a misdemeanor offense of placing items not to be mailed in mailboxes.

Last week, Bronke received a call about a mutual acquaintance who lives two miles away from him receiving one of the letters.

Bronke said the materials have angered his family, and he hopes to find out who is behind the fliers. He said he talked to the Pantagraph in hopes someone would read his story and call police with information.

But unless that happens, his only clue is a dark-colored Pontiac sedan his wife saw stopping at mailboxes one night in late August, he said. ..more.. by Greg Cima

False assumptions lead to arrest in Neoga

8-23-2005 Illinois:
.NEOGA -- Some "mistaken" assumptions about his neighbor may have landed a Neoga man in jail for alleged assault and damage to the neighbor's property, according to police officials. At approximately 10 p.m. Sunday, Neoga officers were called to the 700 block of Cedar Avenue, where they arrested a man for allegedly attacking his neighbor's windows with a shovel handle, said Chief of Police Gerry Mattern.

The man, whose name has not been released pending formal charges, believed his neighbor was a convicted sex offender who had verbally threatened the man's daughter. "He was under the mistaken impression it was the guy next door," said Mattern. The neighbor had responded to the destruction of his windows by brandishing a three-inch pocket knife, Mattern said.

The incident began when the suspect's daughter returned home and said "there were some people in the residence next door who were drinking, and they made some comments to her," said the police chief. "She got scared." Mattern reported that the intoxicated people were merely visiting the neighbor's home, and did not live there. However, the girl's father thought the neighbor himself made the comments. "He started beating the windows out of the place," said Mattern.

The man with the shovel handle was taken to the Cumberland County Jail in Toledo. He faces possible charges of aggravated assault and criminal damage to property, said Mattern. The neighbor with the knife was not arrested, said the chief. ..more.. : by NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer

Sex offender’s home vandalized

9-28-2006 Ohio:

.ELYRIA — Vandals targeted the Elyria home of a registered sex offender on Sunday, spray-painting an epithet on the garage door and vandalizing at least seven cars in the same area, police said. “Rapist Blood gang” was spray-painted in large, white lettering on the Rosewood Drive home where Glen Perine, 51, lives with his mother, Laura Perine, 77, according to an Elyria police report.

Perine — a registered sex offender who served 12 years for rape — was released from prison last week and has since been staying at the home, said Laura Perine. Laura said the garage was painted sometime Sunday afternoon. “(Glen) came out and saw it and said, ‘Oh, mama, come and see what they’ve done,’ ” Laura said. “It tears the heart out of me. I don’t see how much more I can take.”

Glen Perine was taken by ambulance to a local hospital Monday night after suffering heart problems, Laura Perine said. “I think it’s from all this,” she said, pointing at the graffiti on her garage door. “All hell has broken loose since he’s been back.” Laura, whose husband died in March, said she and her family have lived at the Rosewood Drive home for 47 years.

Glen Perine is one of five registered sex offenders within a mile of that area, according to the county sheriff’s Web site. The four others live on Sandalwood Drive, Hartford Drive, Whitman Boulevard and Georgetown Avenue. Lorain County sheriff’s deputies last week placed fliers around the neighborhood alerting residents of Perine’s status as a sex offender.

Officers also found at least seven cars that had been spray-painted in the Rosewood Drive area on Sunday, the police report stated. “BLOOD” was painted on one car, while it appeared vandals applied a single, broad stripe of paint down the sides of the other cars, the report said. In addition, the words “BLOOD CK” was spray-painted on a residence on North Abbe Road, while the initials “CK” were spray-painted on a number of trees in that area, the report said. ..more.. : by Shawn Foucher

Proposed House For Sex Offenders Vandalized

11-13-2004 Washington:

House In Wallingford Shot By Someone With BB Gun

SEATTLE -- Seattle police are offering a $200 reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever shot at least 19 holes through a house in the Wallingford neighborhood.

Local residents say the BB shots appeared after Christian-based Providence House proposed turning the house into a self-help, transitional residence for sex offenders.

The home, at 5th Avenue NE and NE 51st Street, would house Level I sex offenders, who are considered at low risk to re-offend. ..more.. : by KIRO TV

Sex-offender mixup tags wrong JC house

7-6-2004 New York:

Property egged after residents were notified

Police patrolled a village neighborhood Monday night after someone egged a house that state criminal justice officials wrongly identified as the address of a high-risk, convicted sex offender. "We just want to let people know it's a safe neighborhood," Mayor Harry G. Lewis said late Monday about the increased police presence in the village's North Side.

"Some people got bent out of shape evidently and egged the house." ... Lewis said police think the house was targeted because the state Division of Criminal Justice Services had alerted the village Friday that a Level 3 sex offender moved into the property.

According to state classifications, Level 3 is a high-risk offender. ... After going door-to-door Friday to alert neighbors to the offender, village police had to rush back Sunday to retract the mistaken information.

But it was too late to divert someone's dislike for convicted sex offenders, Lewis said. "I would hate to think anything more would happen, but you never know," he said. ..more.. : by William Moyer

Texas Judge Orders Notices Warning of Sex Offender

5-29-2001 Texas:

CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex. -- The former county appraiser was booked on three felony indictments, a senior school district official resigned and state legislators killed a plan to reorganize the Port of Corpus Christi, the city's largest commercial enterprise.

Out on Corpus Christi Bay, the U.S. Open Windsurfing Regatta began and the speckled trout started biting again off Indian Point.

Ordinarily, such things would be hot topics in the bars along Water Street and the harbor docks, but all anybody in this sunny coastal resort wanted to talk about last week was the sex offenders.

On May 18, a judge ordered 21 registered sex criminals to post signs on their homes and automobiles warning the public of their crimes, and the results were almost immediate. One of the offenders attempted suicide, two were evicted from their homes, several had their property vandalized and one offender's father had his life threatened, according to court testimony.
"It's totally shocking what has happened here," said Gerald Rogen, president of the Corpus Christi Criminal Defense Lawyers Organization, who represents two of the offenders. "It's frightening, as if we're going back to the times of scarlet letters, public hangings and witch hunts."

Although the state district judge who required the warnings, Judge J. Manuel Bañales, later reduced to 14 the number of offenders who must post the signs, he refused an appeal on Thursday to amend his order.

"They have only themselves to blame," Judge Bañales said.