Man charged for attacking sex offenders greeted as a hero by some

8-3-16 Alaska:

ANCHORAGE (KTUU) It's not often that someone handcuffed, in shackles, and facing a Superior Court judge on felony assault and robbery charges is greeted as a hero. But Jason Vukovich was last week, at least by some from a distance.

Little about the case against him is ordinary.

The 41-year-old is accused of using the state government sex offender registry to find his alleged victims, three men previously convicted of sex offenses ranging from possession of child pornography to attempted sex abuse of a minor. All three served prison terms but were still required to report their home and work addresses.

Prosecutors claim, over a five-day stretch in June, that Vukovich tracked the men down at their homes and used a hammer to threaten, assault, and rob them.

After his arrest, the defendant penned a letter to Alaska Dispatch News saying he had been physically and sexually abused as a child and described himself as an "avenging angel."

Some who read the initial story and subsequent news coverage have reacted with condemnation, saying he was a vigilante acting outside the law, deserving a lengthy jail term for attacking people who already served time for their crimes. But many more said things like this: "You are my hero." ... "Give the man an award. If there is a child molester, that individual should be shot and killed." ... "You'll get much respect inside for sure, and on the outside when you're done."

Sex offender attacked and told to leave neighborhood

2-1-17 Illinois:

DECATUR – A Decatur man was being held in the Macon County Jail on Monday night, accused of beating a victim labeled as a “sexual predator.”

Police statements say the alleged assault happened Aug. 20, but police finally caught up with 19-year-old suspect Saturday morning. The statements described him as being a student at Lincoln College of Technology in Indianapolis, Ind.

Police accuse the man of setting upon the victim with two other teenage men as the victim walked along the 2000 block of East Pythian Avenue. The 53-year-old victim, who is a registered sex offender, told police he had seen the three men watching him as he walked along and, after crossing the street, he was initially attacked by two of them.

Man who tried running over man he thought was a child molester gets probation

1-22-17 Michigan:

BAY CITY, MI -- A 34-year-old man who tried to run over another man and said he did so to defend children has received a probationary sentence.

Bay County Circuit Judge Harry P. Gil on Tuesday, Jan. 17, sentenced Justin R. Aikens to three years' probation. The judge gave him credit for 57 days served in jail and deferred an additional 308 days, meaning Aikens will only have to serve them if he violates his probation.

The judge also ordered Aikens to pay $1,400 in restitution.

Aikens in December pleaded guilty to single counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and larceny by conversion less than $1,000. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed a charge of reckless driving.

The assault charge stems from police on the afternoon of Sunday, July 17, having responded to a complaint on Hart Street in Bay City after a 40-year-old man called 911 to report he was nearly run over. The man told officers a white panel van bearing a construction company's name had driven by him as he walked his dog. The van's driver yelled at the man and accused him of being a sex offender, the man told police.

Lawsuit: California Breaking Law On Sex Offender Website, Leading To Vigilante Violence

11-10-16 California:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California is breaking the law by failing to include updates about sex offenders on its Megan’s Law website, leading some offenders to be targeted by vigilantes, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The suit filed by two offenders says the California Department of Justice has not updated the sex offender registry to include the dates offenders were convicted and released from prison. That has been required under state law since 2010.

The information is important so citizens can better gauge if an offender is an immediate threat, said Janice Bellucci, president of the advocacy group California Reform Sex Offender Laws. The website includes a current photo and home address for offenders, no matter how old the crime.

“Most people jump to the conclusion that it must have happened recently,” she said. “We have people who have been on the registry for 50 years or more.”

Man charged with assaulting 3 in Anchorage after finding addresses on sex-offender registry

7-28-16 Alaska:

A man charged with using a hammer to attack a registered sex offender in Anchorage last month now faces additional charges for assaulting two other men listed on the public sex-offender registry.

According to a recent bail memorandum, Jason Vukovich, a self-styled "avenging angel" according to one of the victims, carried a notebook with a list of names, including Charles Albee, Andres Barbosa and Wesley Demarest. Over five days in June, he entered the homes of the three men, uninvited, and hit them, sometimes with his fists and sometimes with a hammer. He also stole from them, said the bail memorandum signed by assistant district attorney Patrick McKay.

Vukovich told police that he targeted his victims based on their listings on Alaska's sex-offender registry, the memo says. The online registry includes their home addresses, employer addresses and convictions.

Woman allegedly stabs accused child molester

11-21-16 Montana:

A Great Falls woman is accused of stabbing a man suspected of sexually abusing children.

Tracy Lynn Bossie is charged with one count of assault with a weapon, a felony, for allegedly stabbing Wallace Bossie Jr. on Saturday. She made her initial court appearance Monday on a $200,000 arrest warrant.

Charging documents say Tracy Bossie pulled up to Great Falls Fire Station 1 Saturday with her horn blaring. Firefighters made contact with her, the report says, and saw that she had multiple injuries to both arms and was covered in blood.

Documents say she told the firefighters she stabbed someone, specifically Wallace Bossie Jr., because he had been recently charged with sexually assaulting children. She also told them she stabbed him multiple times in the neck and back, and that she thought he was dead, documents say.

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.

Ex-Coventry fire chief files lawsuit against prison staff after he’s repeatedly attacked

8-26-16 Connecticut:

The ex-Coventry volunteer fire chief who’s serving a 10-year sentence for having a sexual relationship with a teenaged junior firefighter has filed a lawsuit accusing the staff at the Bridgeport Correctional Center of acting with “deliberate indifference” when they did nothing as another detainee regularly assaulted him.

Joseph Carilli, 56, filed the lawsuit in New Britain Superior Court in February against 14 employees of the state Department of Correction.

In his two-page handwritten complaint, Carilli wrote that in January and February of 2014 when he was held in pretrial detention at the Bridgeport Correctional Center unable to post bond in the sexual assault case another detainee regularly assaulted him.

In the lawsuit, Carilli is seeking monetary relief in the form of $100,000 from each defendant, the retraining of the defendants “to prevent repeated assaults from occurring,” and a written apology from them.

At the time the lawsuit was filed Carilli had already served 19 months of his 10-year sentence and was incarcerated at the Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown. He has since been transferred to the Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers, and it was there that the Journal Inquirer met with him about his lawsuit.

On a recent afternoon Carilli was led by a correctional officer into the visitors’ room at Osborn to meet with a reporter. He was dressed in a beige-colored prison uniform with a white T-shirt underneath, the ensemble seeming a little loose fitting but still holding a bit to his husky frame.

His complaint against certain staff at the Bridgeport Correctional Center is that while he was supposed to be in protective custody while in pretrial detention another detainee assaulted him multiple times in early 2014.

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.

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.

The people's voice is angry: Outcry over sex offender's release fires up social media — but when does the fire get out of control?

8-9-2014 Iowa:

MUSCATINE, Iowa — When a 23-year-old Muscatine man convicted of lascivious acts with a child was released from prison after serving four years of a 15-year sentence, the People of Muscatine exploded.

The outrage began after a July 30 post that appeared on the People of Muscatine Facebook page began taking on a life of its own. The post by the page's administrator was asking about the release of Robert A. Howard from prison. Howard was sentenced to prison in 2010 after being found guilty of sexually abusing his girlfriend's baby son.

It didn't take long before responses to the post included death threats, graphic descriptions of bodily mutilation, and even jokes about Howard's arrest. The anger wasn't directed entirely at Howard. One post said that the child's mother should be "stomped." Another person, who posted a defense of Howard, was the target of outrage: "I guess Jessica needs to have her baby molested by this [man] to feel different."

The original post, and others after it, generated several hundred comments, nearly 50,000 views, and attracted the attention of KWQC-TV, who reported on Howard's release under the headline, "Child sex offender released early from prison."

Neighbors allegedly assault man in Flint for being on sex offender registry

8-20-2014 Michigan:

FLINT, MI -- A man was assaulted by three men from his neighborhood after they found out he was on the sex offender registry, according to a Flint police report.

Flint police were called to an area hospital in reference to an assault that happened on Crawford Street on Monday, Aug. 18, around 4:20 p.m.

The victim told police he was allegedly assaulted by three men from the south side neighborhood because he is on the sex offender registry list.

According to the report, the victim had what appeared to be a cut on his right wrist, red left eye, and a cut on his bottom lip. Police said the victim also complained of rib pain.

No suspect information was available in the report and no further information was released. ..Source.. by Amanda Emery

Police: Men single out sex offender, stab him several times

5-13-15 Utah:

WEST JORDAN — Two men accused of singling out a registered sex offender and repeatedly stabbing him were charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court.

Dustin Ray Lewis, 26, and Brailosky Aguado, 25, allegedly stabbed the man six times at a home near 9100 S. 2700 West on Feb. 5 while telling him, "You deserve to die," and, "I knew it was you."

The men allegedly said "you're on the sex offender list" before attacking him.

The stabbing victim, who is listed as a non-compliant sex offender in Utah, eventually escaped the residence and took himself to a nearby medical center. He was later hospitalized at Jordan Valley Hospital for his injuries.

The man was convicted of lewdness involving a child, a class A misdemeanor, in 2001, according to court records.

Deputies: Man was shot 'because he's a sex offender'

9-22-15 California:

CITY OF SHASTA LAKE, Calif. - The Shasta County Jail has released the mugshot of a suspect who deputies said shot another man after learning he was a registered sex offender.

Timothy Gould, 28, was arrested Monday around 5:30 p.m. after officers had identified him as a suspect in an earlier shooting in the City of Shasta Lake.

According to a news release from the Shasta County Sheriff's Office, the motive behind the shooting was due to the victim Roy Matagora, 62, being disliked because he is a registered sex offender.

The Megan's Law website for registered sex offenders showed Matagora was previously convicted of several charges including rape, and several charges relating to the sexual abuse of a person under the age of 18.

Police swarm Waukegan home of registered sex offender on prank 911 call

5-29-15 Illinois:

Police converged on a Waukegan apartment earlier this week after a chilling 911 call was made by a man claiming he had stabbed a woman, bound her and was holding her hostage with a shotgun, according to police.

On Tuesday morning, police closed down the area around the 1700 block of Sunset Avenue before officers armed with AR-15 rifles forced their way inside, Waukegan Police Chief Wayne Walles said. it turned out the 911 call was a false report, summoning police to the apartment of a registered sex offender.

"This is similar to what they call 'swatting,'" said Walles, who likened the call to a prank. "But we're not sure what this was and that's why we are investigating."

Authorities called the SWAT team, but officers at the scene were sent into the apartment instead, equipped with their street rifles, Walles said

The 911 call was placed at 11:13 a.m., police said, and the male caller told a dispatcher he had his girlfriend tied up in the apartment. He also said he had stabbed her twice and claimed that he had a shotgun, according to Waukegan Police Lt. Edward Fitzgerald.

Officials investigating vandalism of Boulder sex offender Zach Meints' car

10-29-2014 Colorado:

The Boulder County Sheriff's Office is investigating the vandalism of Boulder sex offender Zach Meints' car earlier this month — and Meints' attorney said video of the incident is evidence Meints did not stab himself twice earlier this year as investigators allege.

Meints, a former Boulder youth hockey coach convicted in 2012 of Internet sexual exploitation, reported being stabbed twice in two weeks this spring, but was charged with false reporting after investigators concluded he inflicted the injuries himself.

Meints, 26, is facing four counts of false reporting to authorities, Class 3 misdemeanors, and one count of attempting to influence a public servant, a Class 4 felony.

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.

TI becomes vandalism target following alleged distribution of sex photo

11-12-2014 New Jersey:

The phrase “Rape Haven” was graffitied in black spray paint on the stone partition outside Tiger Inn at some point between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

The graffiti was discovered this morning, according to a picture obtained by The Daily Princetonian that was taken at around 7 a.m. The graffiti was partially blurred out before at least 1 p.m.

It remains unclear who is behind this act of apparent vandalism. TI president Oliver Bennett ’15 and TI graduate board chair Robert “Hap” Cooper ’82 did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

University spokesperson Martin Mbugua deferred comment to the Princeton Police Department as to whether the incident had been reported to authorities. A local police spokesman said Wednesday evening that he was unaware if any incident had been reported. The Department of Public Safety did not log any reports of vandalism or any other crimes between Tuesday at 7 a.m. and Wednesday at 7 a.m.

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.