Man accused of setting fire to sex offender's house in Jefferson County

8-20-17 Alabama:

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office announced Friday an arrest in connection with a house fire earlier this summer.

Jessie Lessley, 35, of Robinwood, is charged with second-degree arson. Lessley is accused of burning a home in the 400 block of 10th Street on July 31. Authorities said he was reportedly spotted running from the rear of the home just before the fire brokeout.

An arrest warrant was issued on Aug. 14 after the state fire marshal investigated.

Lessley was booked into jail and later released on a $15,000 bond. ..Source..

Fire destroys future home of California sex offender

1-13-17 California:

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Fire has destroyed a mobile home in a rural Central California foothill community set to house a convicted sex offender.

The Fresno Bee reported Thursday (http://bit.ly/2jcCcdr ) that state officials planned to put Jeffrey Snyder in the mobile home. He's due to be released from a state mental hospital.

California's directory of convicted sex offenders describes 61-year-old Snyder as a sexually violent predator. The newspaper doesn't say whether investigators suspect somebody intentionally started the fire.

The mobile home was located near Squaw Valley, a community in eastern Fresno County.

State officials chose the mobile home after residents in a Fresno neighborhood protested plans to put him in a house near them.

Snyder's attorney, Curtis Sok, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Fire breaks out at home of sex offender who is feuding with neighbors

11-24-16 Alabama:

An investigation is underway after a Thanksgiving morning fire damaged the home of a convicted sex offender who has been in a running feud with his neighbors.

Center Point firefighters responded about 9:15 a.m. to the 10th Street home of Raymond Kyle Martin, 27. The first unit on the scene reported smoke coming from the roof, and firefighters who arrived later said there was fire on the back side of the home.

It wasn't immediately clear whether anyone was inside at the time the fire erupted. Martin lives there with his mother, Tammy McCullers, his newborn and other family members. Martin, however, was not home at the time of the fire because he is back in the Jefferson County Jail after being arrested Wednesday on a harassment charge, jail records show.

Center Point Fire Battalion Chief Brad Appleton said only that the fire was under investigation and that there were no injuries. The fire marshal, however, was on the scene and could be seen collecting evidence from the bottom of the home's back door.

Neighbor puts up billboard to shame sex offender into moving

11-14-16 Alabama:

ROBINWOOD, Ala. - Jeb Lessley had a billboard made to pressure a registered sex offender to move. It shows Raymond Martin’s mugshot and lists his address and charges including second-degree rape and sodomy for a 2013 conviction involving an underage girl.

Martin and his family want to see the billboard taken down. He lives across the street from it.

“There’s people that already know my circumstances,” he told CBS 42. “They can find it on the website, but it ain’t got to be broadcast. There’s more than one sex offender that lives here.”

Martin estimates that there are more than a dozen registered sex offenders living in the neighborhood. It’s a statistic that the man who actually bought the sign backs up.

“The reason I posted the billboard is because he has been a thorn in my side since he moved into this house,” explained Lessley. Lessley said that Martin first started worrying him when he tried to talk to Lessley’s children. He has six kids, ranging from a newborn to 14 years old.

Protesters outside Brock Turner’s home leave messages scrawled in chalk

9-3-16 Ohio:

UPDATE @ 9:15 p.m. (Sept. 2): Members of the Sugarcreek Twp. Fire Department are are using fire hoses to clean chalk-written messages off the sidewalk, driveway and the street in front of the Brock Turner residence in Sugarcreek Twp.

The words that were scrawled included “rapist” and the following: “Its [sic] your job to hold your son/self responsible so he/you don’t hurt my daughters.”

The dozen or so protesters have left the neighborhood. Only reporters, police officers and firefighters remain in the neighborhood.

UPDATE @ 8:10 p.m. (Sept. 2):

A group of protesters has gathered in front of the family home of Brock Turner in Sugarcreek Twp. Some of them are carrying weapons.

A newspaper sat unopened on the driveway as about a dozen protesters and roughly twice as many reporters stood at the neck of the cul de sac. A Cincinnati news chopper circled overhead as a neighbor mowed his lawn.

Cottage Grove man arrested on suspicion of burning house intended for sex offender

2-25-15 Wisconsin:

Dane County authorities arrested a town of Cottage Grove man they say set fire to a house Sunday night in a vigilante effort to keep a sex offender from moving in there.

Russell A. Speigle, 50, was arrested on a tentative charge of arson for the fire, which destroyed a home at 4721 Gaston Circle in the town of Cottage Grove, Sheriff Dave Mahoney said Tuesday.

Investigators are now trying to determine if Speigle was responsible for another fire that damaged the same house in December, Mahoney said.

They are also looking for some pieces of evidence that could connect Speigle to the fire, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The home was to house 40-year-old Howard Nyberg as part of a supervised sex offender release program, over vocal opposition from the man’s neighbors — Speigle among them, Mahoney said.

The first fire, on Dec. 8, caused $90,000 worth of damage, the Sheriff’s Office said. The home was repaired after that blaze and was considered a total loss after Sunday’s fire.

Speigle lived “only doors away” from the Gaston Circle home, Mahoney said, and had attended a notification meeting the Sheriff’s Office held last week to tell neighborhood residents about Nyberg.

“Like many, (Speigle) voiced his displeasure” that Nyberg was coming to the area, Mahoneysaid.

An article about the notification meeting from The Herald-Independent quoted Speigle saying the neighborhood was “upset and on guard” with Nyberg set to move in.

Midtown Inn, mecca for prostitutes, sex offenders, torched by arsonist

1-7-16 New York:

The Midtown Inn.

For many residents on the city’s Southeast side, the ramshackle rooming house held a terror that would rival that of the Bates Motel, featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1963 tale of terror, “Phycho.”

The inn was a target of controversy in 2009 when the New York State Division of Parole began placing level 2 and level 3 sex offenders there after their release from prison. At one point, sexual predators were housed in the joint, which is located in an otherwise quiet residential neighborhood, 1,500 feet of the city’s Niagara Street Elementary School and less than 200 feet from a church operated day care center.

Citizen complaints led to the involvement of the Niagara Falls Reporter.

The place was the former site of the Zodiac Lounge, the premier blue collar Polish saloon in a neighborhood filled with blue collar Polish saloons. They’d cash your paycheck, serve up a scrumptious fish fry on Friday nights, and everybody had a good time.

As recently as 2002, the Reporter covered a party there at which more than 200 people made it to the Zodiac Lounge on Niagara Street for a community tribute to community activists and tavern owners Bob and Mary Kay Wilson.

Blaze that destroyed sex offender’s home suspicious; ATF investigating

1-15-2015 Oklahoma:

Local, state and federal authorities are trying to learn more about what caused a destructive fire at the trailer home of a convicted sex offender who was recently charged with possession of child pornography.

The blaze was reported Tuesday night in a mobile home park off of West 810 Road. Tahlequah and Woodall fire departments were called to the scene and found the trailer home of Bill Robinett engulfed by flames.

“We don’t really know what started the fire,” Tahlequah Fire Chief Ray Hammons said. “When we got there, the trailer was half-involved on the front living area. We knocked it down pretty quick, but it had a lot of fire throughout and took a long time, with all of the hot spots.”

Bill Robinett, 72, had been living in the trailer until his arrest earlier this month on charges of child pornography. He was released from the Cherokee County Detention Center this week to seek medical treatment, but Cherokee County Undersheriff Jason Chennault said witnesses saw Bill Robinett’s son, 46-year-old Michael Dwayne Robinett, at the home before the fire.

Setting fire to sex offender’s home nets prison

7-22-2014 Wisconsin:

Two men accused of setting fire to a mobile home of a registered sex offender in the town of Gardner last fall have been convicted in Door County Circuit Court.

T.J. Robert Hunt, 25, Sturgeon Bay, was given three years in state prison and seven years of extended supervision by Judge Peter Diltz on July 14 for arson, party to a crime.

On Nov. 2 the corner of a mobile home was doused with gasoline where Jason H. Johnson, 40, was living and asleep at the time. Johnson, who had been convicted in Michigan in 2009 of second-degree sexual assault, had recently moved into the home in the neighborhood where Hunt and Baker lived.

Johnson awoke to the smoke, and the fire was put out by the Brussels, Union, Gardner Fire Department. No one was injured, and Johnson continues to live in the town of Gardner.

Hunt pleaded no contest to the arson charge on April 10. Other charges of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, second offense; first-degree recklessly endangering safety, party to a crime; and obstructing an officer were dismissed.

Teens Keep Vandalizing a University Park Sex Offender's House, and He's Getting Sick of It

6-10-2014 Texas:

When Robert Coleman's house got egged, he called the University Park police. It was a Saturday night in September 2012. Officers came to the crime scene but found no leads, other than the splattered egg yolk. Coleman realized that his patio umbrella was also missing, according to the police report.

The following Saturday night, the eggs hit again. A neighbor told the cops that he saw two teenagers walking nearby around the same time.

Coleman installed a video camera security system, hoping to catch the egg-throwers. But when his house got hit again, the vandal spotted the camera and slapped it down.

Soon the vandals moved onto tougher objects. Coleman was sitting in his home one night when he heard the sound of glass breaking. His window had been hit with "an unknown object," according to a University Park Police Department report.

Another night, Coleman told police, he saw a car drive over his yard. The vehicle fled when he stepped outside.

Fire at sex offender’s camper ruled arson

2-6-2014 Ohio:

GILBOA — A fire inside a camper where a man facing a 46-count indictment including child sex crimes lived has been ruled arson, but authorities have no suspects.

The State Fire Marshal’s Office has closed the investigation into the fire unless additional information surfaces, said Michael Duchesne, a spokesman for the agency.

The fire happened Dec. 21 inside a camper at 326 Sugar Ridge Road. Someone placed a large amount of clothing and combustible materials in the middle of the camper and set it on fire, Duchesne said.

The fire occurred the day after Gary L. Badertscher was arraigned on criminal charges.

Badertscher is charged with four counts of endangering children, one count of compulsion to involuntary servitude, two counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, six counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor and 33 counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented material or performance.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of 90.5 years in prison.

Two counts involve the same child and the other charges are for other children, a prosecutor said.

Badertscher is a registered sex offender for crimes in Florida in 2001 and 2006. Those crimes included committing or simulating sexual acts with or in the presence of a child under the age of 16 in a lewd, lascivious or indecent manner by an adult.

Bond set for two men in arson case

11-8-2013 Wisconsin:

The men allegedly set fire to the home of a registered sex offender

Two Door County men could face charges of arson as a party to a crime and first-degree reckless endangerment for allegedly setting fire to the home of a registered sex offender in the town of Gardner Saturday.

TJ R. Hunt, 24, and Justin S. Baker, 25, both of Gardner, appeared via video feed Monday in Door County Circuit Court, Branch 2. Hunt could also face additional charges of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, second offense, and obstructing an officer.

According to Door County District Attorney Raymond Pelrine, authorities notified residents at Goetz’s Hideaway Bar & Resort on Friday that Jason H. Johnson, 39, a registered sex offender from Michigan, had taken up residence there.

Johnson and members of his family attended the bond hearing. Johnson’s sister-in-law Andrea Johnson, in an interview with the Door County Advocate following the hearing, said Hunt’s and Baker’s actions seemed “premeditated.” Johnson, who was injured in a car accident in 1993, used a wheelchair provided by the courthouse to get into the courtroom. He is able to walk.

Hunt, who lives near the homes of Johnson and Johnson’s brother Dale Johnson, “became increasingly agitated as the evening went on” after learning about Johnson’s sex offender status, the district attorney told Judge Peter Diltz. Both Hunt and Baker were drinking throughout the night, he said.

In the presence of others, including Baker, Hunt “would wax and wane in his agitation over what an outrage” it was having a registered sex offender in neighborhood, he said.

Hunt and Baker went back and forth “seeming to bolster each other’s courage” before they went to Johnson’s house and poured gasoline on a corner of the trailer, he said. Both men later gave statements allegedly admitting to what happened, but neither knew who actually lit the fire.

Offender’s Home Vandalized

Hummm, no comment from police that, those who did this will be prosecuted. Guess we know where police stand.

10-25-2013 Iowa:

A convicted sex offender moved into the small Marshall County town of Liscomb and quickly learned he was not welcome.

Donald Liger was greeted with smashed windows and the word “Pedophile” spray-painted on his garage. “We got spray paint on our garage last night around midnight. And the window got broken,” Liger said, pointing to the damage.

We couldn’t find any neighbors who admitted to doing this but we also couldn’t find any who felt bad about it.

“For the simple fact what’s on his garage lets everybody know who he is, where he lives,” says neighbor Joe Robinson. “I don’t know. I’m not upset about it.”

“If it’s true they got what came to them,” adds neighbor Alex Draft. “I live right over here and I got a younger sibling, she’s about 14 years old and she’s kinda been scared to come out here lately.”

Police understand the neighbors’ frustration. Afterall, Liger molested a five year old girl back in 2005. But authorities say he did his time and he has to live somewhere.

“The bottom line is these individuals are in our society,” says Marshall County Sheriff Ted Kamatchus. “We can’t victimize those people based on something that they’re legally doing.”

Liger’s wife, Sharon, says the couple just wants to live at the home in peace, “We just want to be left alone so we can live our life without all the hassles that they give to pedophiles and stuff.”

Neighbors say they know the Ligers have to live somewhere just not in their town.

“It makes my gut wrench,” Robinson says glancing at the Ligers on their front porch. “Especially to watch him sit there watching those kids. Is it going to continue? I don’t want him to be here to continue.”

Police say Liger could face charges for failing to report his change of address. ..Source.. by Aaron Brilbeck

Attacks on sex offenders may be connected

11-11-2008 California:

Police say two registered sex offenders living in Mountain View have been targeted for attack in recent weeks, apparently by someone who wants to punish them for their crimes.

In the first incident, a sex offender's home was nearly set on fire by a Molotov cocktail on Oct. 19 before a passerby intervened. In the latest incident, on Nov. 6, a suspect broke into a sex offender's home and hit him several times on the head, causing moderate lacerations that required hospital treatment. In both instances, the attacker made it clear that he was targeting a sex offender, said police spokesperson Liz Wylie.

"He is attacking people because they are sex offenders, which is awful," Wylie said.

Sex offenders are easily tracked because their whereabouts are posted online by law enforcement agencies.

Police are not sure if the two incidents involve the same suspect, but the descriptions from each incident are similar. Police will be releasing a description soon.

Like most of the 80 registered sex offenders in the city, both of the sex offenders in these attacks had been convicted of crimes against children, Wylie said. Each crime happened more than 15 years ago and each of the sex offenders had been law abiding as of late, Wylie said.

Police have not ruled out that the suspect knew the victim in each crime, but the man who was physically beaten said he had "never seen the suspect before in his life and didn't know why he would attack him," Wylie said.

In both instances the suspect is described by police as about six feet tall, in his early 20s and wearing "all dark clothing, including a dark baseball cap." In the first incident he was described by the passerby as Hispanic and weighing about 175 pounds. But in the second the suspect is described as white.

House Fire, Of Man Charged With Child Porn, Ruled Arson

8-30-2013 Pennsylvania:

ALIQUIPPA (KDKA) – A vacant house fire in Aliquippa Thursday morning has been determined to be an arson.

According to officials at the scene, the fire broke out in the 2000-block of McLean Street around 3 a.m.

When firefighters arrived, they found a fire that was growing in intensity. It did not take long for it to go to three alarms.

The fire chief pulled firefighters from the building to focus on preventing the fire from spreading to neighboring homes.

“Heavy fire, a lot of smoke upon initial entry and then it pretty much flared up after that. There was nobody in the home, but it sustained heavy damage. There weren’t any utilities to the building. We’ve called the state police fire marshal in to investigate. It looks suspicious at this time,” Aliquippa Fire Chief Dave Foringer said.

By 8 a.m., arson investigators determined someone unlocked the door, set the first floor on fire and locked up as they walked out.

As state police fire investigators continue to comb through the evidence, police want to talk to the man who last lived at the house. However, he has already been in trouble with the law recently.

Clifford Karolski was accused and pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year-old girl at the residence. He was sentenced to five years of probation.

Karolski is also presently out on $10,000 bond after being charged earlier this year after investigators said they found over 1,000 images of child pornography on a computer taken out of his home.

Neighbors said they’ve seen Karolski in and around the home over the last few weeks.

Investigators are not calling Karolski a suspect in the apparent arson. However, sources close to this investigation said they want talk to anybody who may have a key to the home. ..Source.. by Ross Guidotti

Sex Offenders Say They Are Harassed, Others Not Sympathetic

5-25-2011 Arkansas:

A registered sex offender says he's being harassed at his home, because people know his past.

"They chipped off the paint, there's two dents right there," said Heather, showing KARK the marks in her home.

Preferring to be referred to only as Heather, Saturday she says someone shot up her home off Crystal Hill Road with a BB gun

"This is a last Hail Mary effort, I hope it doesn't keep happening. It scares me and it scares my neighbors and friends," she said.

Heather says this, and other harassment, has happened before: all because her roommate is a registered sex offender.

"I think they are targeting sex offenders, every time the notification fly-er goes out, they target whichever trailer they think is where the person lives," she said.

In this area, there are more than a half a dozen sex-offenders. Each time one moves in, local law enforcement has to let the neighborhood know.

"It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen," said Lt. Minden.

Lt. Carl Minden with the Pulaski County Sheriff's office says retaliation isn't what the registry is intended for and in fact, is potentially criminal.

"Obviously they did commit a crime, as a sex offender, but they still have rights as a citizen and you have to respect their rights or you'll be breaking the law and you won't be any better than them," he said.

That's why they're investigating what happened at Heather's home.

Still, she's worried someone is taking the law into their own hands.

"That's what worries me is that someone is going to come out here with more than a BB gun and mischief on their mind," she said.

But nearby neighbor Marley Benefield sees things differently. With three young daughters, she wouldn't retaliate, but she's not exactly sympathetic.

"They weren't being very sympathetic when they did what they did," she said.

Heather didn't want us to give out exact information about her, her home or roommate, fearing more retaliation.

The notification fly-ers actually have a warning on them against taking revenge.

If you are having a problem with a registered sex offender in your area, law enforcement says call them instead. ..Source.. by Lauren Trager, KARK 4 News

Gas leak at sex offender's home 'suspicious,' fire officials say

7-16-2010 Ohio:

MIDDLETOWN — Fire investigators are saying a natural gas leak that occurred today, July 16, at a home on Queen Avenue looks “suspicious.”

Police and firefighters evacuated residents from a Middletown neighborhood for the second time in two days after a natural gas leak was reported about 9 a.m. at _____.

When police and firefighters entered the home to investigate, they found all the doors locked, candles lit, the TV on and the home’s furnace looked as if it had been tampered with, Middletown Deputy Fire Chief Tom Snively said.

“It is suspicious and we’ve turned it over to the police department to investigate,” Snively said.

Middletown police Lt. Rodney Muterspaw said police are trying to determine if any criminal activity is involved. He said there are no suspects at this time.

“We’re going to try to determine where the leak came from and to see how it came about,” Muterspaw said. “It was a pretty strong leak.”

Police were able to pinpoint the home on Queen Avenue because its gas meter outside was running. Muterspaw said when he arrived on the scene the odor of gas was so strong, he could smell it two streets away.

“It could have been a major disaster,” Muterspaw said.

Firefighters and Duke Energy employees have shut off gas to the house, and have ventilated the area. Residents were allowed to return to their homes around 10 a.m.

No one was inside the Queen Avenue home when police responded to the initial call. According to the Butler County Sheriff’s Department website, ______, a 49-year-old registered sex offender, lives at the residence.

Daniel Richardson, a neighbor who lives at ___, confirmed that information, saying he and others in the neighborhood received notices when English moved in more than five years ago.

Richardson said ___ pretty much kept to himself and that no one in the neighborhood “really knows him very well.” He said the home where the leak occurred had recently been remodeled after being gutted by a fire last summer.

Some curious and anxious neighbors stood on their porches as authorities continue to investigate. It is unclear how many residents were evacuated this morning, however the entire block of Queen Avenue was evacuated in all directions.

About 10 fire officials, three police officers and two Duke Energy representatives remain on the scene. ..Source.. Chelsey Levingston, Staff Writer

Sex offender wants to live near school

No where in the story did this man say, he wanted to live near a school, instead the man said 'he wants to live with his partner and the mother of his three children.' So why does the media report something in a manner that implies a reason not expressed by the person? Sensationalism, attacking the person by purposefully misconstruing his intent; twisting facts for sensationalism.

3-18-2009 New Hampshire:

FRANKLIN, N.H. (AP) — A convicted sex offender who wants to live in Franklin is challenging an ordinance that prohibits him from living within 2,500 feet from a school.

Frank Singleton, III, represented by the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, asked a judge to order the mayor and police chief not to enforce the sex offender registry ordinance that would prevent him from living with his partner and the mother of his three children.

Singleton, who's in the State Prison in Concord, was eligible for parole on Jan. 22. However, his pleading states his pending release requires he live with his companion.

Singleton pleaded guilty in 1998 to endangering the welfare of a child. He was found guilty last year of possessing a narcotic drug and failing to report as an offender. ..News Source.. by SeaCoastOnline.com Information from The Citizen (see below)

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Sex offender wants to live near Franklin school

A convicted sex offender has notified Franklin city officials of his intent to challenge the Franklin city ordinance that prohibits him from living within 2,500 feet from the boundary of a school.

Proposed Oklahoma law could force some sex offenders in a mobile home park to move into tents

If the Gov. signs this bill, and it is likely she will, this places the public MORE AT RISK and there isn't a single reason why it should be done. The latest lawmaker effort DOES NOT resolve a problem, it CREATES additional problems, and for that reason alone she should not sign the bill. She ought to force lawmakers to resolve the problem not create further problems. Actions such as this are nothing more than Legislative Vigilantism!

There isn't a single study to show that, allowing former offenders to live together is bad, but there is a study showing that, to do so is actually good because offenders monitor each other (Colorado's "Shared Living Arrangement" study), and former offenders want those that violate the shared principle OUT! i.e., they turn them in to authorities.

4-30-2011 Oklahoma:

The Oklahoma House and Senate this week passed Senate Bill 852, closing a loophole used by Hand Up Ministries to house multiple registered sex offenders in its 69 mobile homes and 50 travel trailers in south Oklahoma City. The measure is awaiting approval from Gov. Mary Fallin.

Carol Barber came to Hand Up Ministries five years ago out of prison with no money, no job and no place to lay his head.

He was a middle-age, registered sex offender, having been convicted in 1998 of molestation and attempted rape.

Barber, 64, lives in a mobile home park operated by Hand Up Ministries in south Oklahoma City. The park is being targeted by legislation intended to limit the number of sex offenders living there, but it might inadvertently turn it into a tent city.

“I had nothing and no place to go right out of prison,” Barber said. “No one wants a sex offender living next door to them, but where are we supposed to be? We have this place to help us, and now the politicians want to take it away from us.”

About 250 sex offenders live in the 14-acre park at 2130 SE 59.

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