Sex Offender
March 23, 2011
California sex offender caught in Skowhegan (Maine)
A California sex offender who allegedly jumped parole was arrested Monday after a foot chase with police through downtown Skowhegan.
Police say Jaime Michael Harrington, 29, was convicted in California of sex offenses against a girl under 16. He was sent to prison and later released on parole.
Harrington allegedly cut off his electronic foot bracelet and fled the state. He is listed on the California Sex Offender Registry as being in violation of registration requirements since Aug. 8, 2010...
LINK - OnlineSentinel.com
March 4, 2011
Parolee behind bars after arrest outside South Pasadena apartments
A 47-year-old convicted sex offender out on parole on a separate drug conviction was back behind bars Friday, arrested on suspicion of fondling himself in front of an apartment building.
Police arrested Edward Valdivia Thursday afternoon on suspicion of indecent exposure and violating his parole in connection with the incident at an apartment complex where he lived in the 700 block of Fremont Avenue...
LINK - PasadenaStarNews.com
December 9, 2010
Parolee Pleads Not Guilty To Raping Teen
EL CAJON, Calif. -- A transient parolee pleaded not guilty Thursday to kidnapping and rape charges stemming from the alleged abduction and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl and a similar attack on a woman in East County.
David Joseph Lascelles, 49, was ordered held on $1 million bail.
Lascelles got together with the teen Monday morning on the pretense of taking her Christmas shopping, sheriff's Sgt. Justin White alleged.
After the two arrived at a Wal-Mart store in unincorporated El Cajon, Lascelles allegedly pulled a pistol on the girl, took her cell phone and forced her to lie on the floor of his Mitsubishi Eagle...
LINK - 10News.com
May 5, 2010
Officials: Fears of molester lie in legal limbo
Law enforcement officials organized a public meeting to quell the fears of Fullerton residents that a convicted child molester and parolee was spending time in their neighborhood.
Eric Hinnenkamp, 45, owns a house near Laguna Lake Park left to him by his parents. Jessica's Law prevents him, as a sex offender, from residing in the house so near to the park, where children gather.
The California Constitution, however, guarantees him a right to own and maintain his property.
Officials said the residents' concerns about the sex offender are, essentially, in legal limbo. About three dozen people attended the meeting Tuesday at the Fullerton Police Department...
LINK - OCRegister.com
March 25, 2010
CDCR’s Kernan defends destruction of parole records in Gardner case from San Diego
State prison authorities said Wednesday that destroying parole agent field notes on convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III from a 2000 molestation case had no bearing on preventing the murder of Poway teenager Chelsea King.
Scott Kernan, an undersecretary with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, also told an Assembly committee that Gardner remained on parole -- rather than being sent back to prison on a 2007 violation -- based on the recommendation of the field agent supervising him.
But a critic of state parole policy, former Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, later said Kernan’s testimony is not credible because he did not have the field files to know.
For example, Spitzer believes it was a supervisor -- and not the field agent -- who allowed Gardner to continue living close to a school in violation of his parole conditions, said Spitzer, now an Orange County prosecutor...
LINK - SignonSanDiego.com (San Diego Union-Tribune)
March 22, 2010
Assm. Nielsen blasts CDCR as corrupt, self-serving!
A north state lawmaker Monday blasted the state prison system he said he spent years trying to reform.
In a scathing interview, Assemblyman Jim Nielsen called the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) one of the most corrupt, self-serving bureaucracies in state government, one that routinely destroys documents to hide its mistakes and cares more for its own interests than public safety.
The Gerber Republican also blamed the agency's failure to follow one of its own policies for giving a convicted sex offender the opportunity to kill at least one Southern California teen...
LINK - Redding.com
March 8, 2010
Redlands girl, 7, molested by parolee
Phillip Michael Berryhill, 22, an acquaintance of the victim's family, fled the home before police arrived about 4:30 a.m. Paramedics took the girl to a hospital for treatment of injuries that were not life threatening, police said.
Police found Berryhill hiding in the bathroom of a relative's home in the 12400 block of 14th Street in Yucaipa about 6:30 p.m.
Officers held him on suspicion of violating parole and several sex crimes including molestation...
LINK - SBSun.com (San Bernadino Sun)
February 23, 2010
“Non-revocable” parolee arrested for molesting 6-yr old girl?
Monterey County Sheriff's deputies arrested Friday night a Salinas man on charges of child molestation and false imprisonment.
Deputies responded to a home on Potter Road around 6:45 p.m.; deputies say their investigation determined Javier Ramirez Venegas, 50, of Salinas, molested a 6-year old girl and held her against her will. Deputies add two other girls were nearby when the alleged attack took place; their ages were left as confidential.
Deputies say Venegas is an active parolee; he is listed as eligible for non-revocable parole....
LINK - KIONRightNow.com
February 9, 2010
Parolee at large, sex offender sought
Merced County's Most Wanted: Elias Catano
The Merced County Sheriff's Department is looking for Elias Catano, a parolee at large and a sex offender out of compliance with his registration requirements.
Catano, 47, is six feet tall, about 190 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes. He has a large tattoo on his chest, and an eagle on the back of his neck. The sheriff's department says that Catano is a drop out of a criminal street gang, and may still associate with gang members.
He was last seen in Gustine and Merced.
Information about Catano may be given to the Merced County Sheriff's Department at (209) 385-7616.
LINK - MercedSunStar.com
February 3, 2010
Gov’s early release inmate arrested for rape 12 hours after early release?
One of the inmates the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department released early as part of an effort to reduce the state's prison population was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of attempted rape, less than 24 hours after getting out of jail, The Bee has learned.
Kevin Eugene Peterson got out of jail Monday night after serving about two months on a four-month sentence for violating probation on a prior felony conviction. Peterson was arrested 12 hours later, around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, on suspicion of an attempted rape involving a female counselor at the 1300 block of North C Street, a Sacramento Police Department spokesman said. He was booked into the Sacramento County jail at 3:21 p.m. Tuesday on suspicion of attempted rape, sexual battery, false imprisonment and violating the terms of his probation.
"Our greatest fear has occurred almost immediately after the early release of these inmates," said Christine Ward of the Crime Victims Action Alliance. "We are certain that we will see more of this as more inmates are released from jails and prisons."…
LINK - SacBee.com
January 8, 2010
Increase in homeless sex offender parolees
Less than a year after state corrections officials tightened a $22 million spigot of free apartments and motel rooms for paroled sex offenders, the number of convicts claiming to be homeless has nearly doubled, adding fuel for critics who say the tight living restrictions under Jessica's Law threaten public safety more than bolstering it.
More than 2,200 paroled sex offenders were registered as transient in November, state figures show, up from 1,257 a year ago and 88 in September 2007. That was just before parole officials began enforcing a ban on sex offenders living within 2,000 feet of a school or park where kids "regularly gather."
The ranks of paroled sex offender at large — on the lam, free of GPS anklets — also grew, from 58 in 2007 to about 500, according to the state Sex Offender Management Board…
LINK - InsideBayArea.com
November 9, 2009
Paroled sex offender with GPS anklet commits sexual battery on two 12-yr old girls, others
A parolee suspected of groping Watsonville six schoolgirls has been connected to at least four incidents of sexual battery near downtown Santa Cruz in the past three months, police said.
Abraham Flores Mena, a 25-year-old registered sex offender who lives in the county, is suspected of grabbing women from behind as they walked alone or in pairs on side streets near Laurel Street, according to police.
Investigators considered Mena a suspect after Watsonville police arrested him Oct. 29 on suspicion of groping four freshman girls who were walking to Pajaro Valley High School and two girls, both 12, who attend Rolling Hills Middle School…
LINK - SantaCruzSentinel.com
November 6, 2009
Notorious sexual predator on parole taken into custody
Sexually violent predator Matthew Hedge, who has been living since April in a trailer near Donovan state prison in Otay Mesa, was taken into custody Thursday night for violating terms and conditions of his release, the District Attorney's Office said.
Hedge, 46, was arrested without incident at the trailer about 7:30 p.m. by officers from the local Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Task Force. He was being held Friday in county jail,
Hedge is not accused of new crimes, but details on why he was arrested were not immediately released…
LINK - San Diego Union-Tribune
October 19, 2009
Man Arrested For Sexual Assault On Elderly Woman
Sacramento police have arrested a man who they say sexually assaulted an elderly woman.
Police got several calls on Sunday of a man exposing himself and harassing people in the area near 10th and J Streets in downtown Sacramento. Officers located 42-year-old Kevin Dresdner, a parolee.
Dresher has been identified as the suspect in the sexual battery of a 78-year-old woman.
LINK - CBS13.com
October 14, 2009
Sex offender parolees, homeless camps in Visalia, evictions?
When 40-year-old Rodney Acevedo was released from state prison in July, the parolee said, he was given two options for housing in the area.
A convicted sex offender who had also served time for battery on a police officer, Acevedo tried making the first option work. He rented a room in a Visalia group home for $600 a month.
But then, only months after the state had yanked housing subsidies for all parolees in a round of budget cuts, the license for that home and several others in Visalia were revoked in a state audit, leaving no sanctioned homes for sex offenders in town. Acevedo sought out his parole officer, who, he said, gave him a clear order…
LINK - VisaliaTimesDelta.com
September 29, 2009
Parolee held in Turlock
A parolee from Turlock who failed to register as a sex offender was arrested early Monday on suspicion of burglary.
Police responded to a silent alarm at Geoanalytical Laboratories at 2300 Maryann Drive in Turlock, according to police Lt. Ron Reid. Upon arrival, they saw two men fleeing toward J.B. Allard School.They caught Raymond Coronado, 45, of Turlock, but the other man got away.
According to Reid, Coronado was found with property belonging to Geoanalytical Laboratories, as well as items from a truck at a nearby company…
LINK - ModBee.com
September 17, 2009
Tehama County Fair attendees will be screened for sex offenders
The Tehama District Fair will have a new feature this year for paroled sex offenders: GPS monitoring and an escort off the fairgrounds for those violating their parole, courtesy of the Tehama County Sheriff's Office and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Sheriff's deputies and CDCR officers from the Redding GPS Parole Unit will have a control van at the fair with a laptop to monitor the locations of paroled sex offenders who wear GPS devices in accordance with California law, said Sheriff Clay Parker.
"Basically it will show the map of the area with the exclusion zone (the fairgrounds), and whenever someone with one of the bracelets goes through the zone, an alert will go off," he said…
LINK - Redding.com
September 3, 2009
Dugard case: Is California’s parole system overstretched?
Criminal charges against a parolee in the abduction of Jaycee Lee Dugard have added fuel to arguments from some California Republicans and law enforcement groups opposed to changes in the state's parole system.
But criminal justice experts say the arrest of Phillip Garrido, a registered sex offender who was under GPS monitoring, for Ms. Dugard's 1991 abduction is just one example of why the state's parole system needs to be overhauled.
"Those cases are proof of why you need greater supervision for high-risk people. The system is too lenient on the most violent and too harsh on people who would literally not be on parole at all in other states," says Joan Petersilia, a professor of criminology at Stanford University and author of "When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry"…
LINK - CSMonitor.com
August 1, 2009
CDC halts, reduces financial aid to Salinas sex offenders
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is cutting or reducing aid to about 10 sex offenders this month in Salinas, officials said, due to a policy enacted in May to prevent parolees from living off taxpayer money. As a result, sex offenders will have to find help from friends or family, be able to afford their own housing or become homeless.
The policy was enacted May 1 after CDCR officials decided to limit a parolee's rehabilitation assistance, which includes housing, to 60 days, said spokesman Seth Unger…
LINK - TheCalifornian.com
July 18, 2009
Parolee On Megan’s Law Site Arrested
A 43-year-old Salinas man was arrested Friday after being accused of trying to make inappropriate contact with teenage boys, sheriff's officials said.
Police arrested Jason Harry Bishop after a woman reported that he was trying to make contact with her teenage son. An investigation revealed that Bishop has tried to contact other teenage boys, and sent one a sexually explicit letter, deputies said.
Sheriff's deputies did not go into details on what the contact with the teenage boys was because of an ongoing investigation…
LINK - KSBW.com
May 9, 2009
Placing Sex Offenders Where Kids Live and Play System Failing?
Residents in neighborhoods all over Los Angeles are angry over the placement of paroled sex offenders where children live, play and attend school. Often, sex offenders are placed in these neighborhoods with no notice given to residents. During the last week in March, local community members walked door to door and handed out flyers informing residents of the potential risks to families. They contacted a huge network of parents through the PTA and other local parent organizations and called a meeting to discuss what could be done to protect their families from potential risk.
On April 14, Chapel of the Hills Church in Sunland Tu junga hosted a meeting for over one hundred people with representatives from the Registrant Enforcement and Compliance team (REACT) and Foothill Division of the LAPD. The house was within 1000 feet of a pre-school that technically does not violate Jessica's Law which protects only grades K-12 children even though pre-school children are especially vulnerable to child predators. Four days after this meeting, the home was reported vacant…
LINK - CityWatchLA.com
April 21, 2009
High-Risk Sex Offender Arrested In San Francisco
A high-risk sex offender who cut off his Global Positioning System tracking device Wednesday was arrested Monday afternoon in San Francisco, Vallejo police said.
Joseph Vierra, 49, was taken into custody at 3:30 p.m. at O'Farrell and Polk streets by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Specialized Sex Offender Tracking Unit in cooperation with Vallejo police and the Solano County Sheriff's Office, Vallejo police said.
Vallejo police said Vierra was considered a threat to the community and had prior arrests and convictions for sex offenses against children under age 14…
LINK - KTVU.com
August 12, 2008
Folsom Prison Inmate Taken into Federal Custody on Charges of Prosituting Minors Interstate
A man charged with federal violations including sexual trafficking of children and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, was taken into federal custody today by agents with the FBI, announced Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office.
According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Aaron Pierre Brown, 28, of Hayward, California, controlled a prostitution operation in which he victimized minor females… The complaint charges Brown with Title 18 U.S.Code Section 1591 ( a )( 1 ), sex trafficking of minors by force, fraud, and coercion; and 2423( a ), transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
…Brown was arrested at Folsom Prison this morning, where he was serving a sentence for a recent parole violation. Brown was afforded an initial appearance before a federal magistrate in U.S. District Court in Sacramento this afternoon and was detained. Brown waived his right to be tried in Sacramento and it is anticipated that he will be transported to Los Angeles to face prosecution.
LINK - Media-Newswire.com
April 15, 2008
Sex offender sentenced to 290 years
A twice-convicted sex offender was sentenced Monday to 290 years to life for raping and repeatedly sexually assaulting two young relatives.
Before that sentence starts, Carl Skidmore must complete a 25-year sentence for related charges, including trying to hire someone to harm a witness.
Skidmore, who turns 57 next week, will be required to serve about 20 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole on the shorter sentence, prosecutor Carla Rodriguez said…
LINK - PressDemocrat.com (The Press Democrat)
March 3, 2008
Dozens Rally Outside Coalinga State Hospital
Coalinga State Hospital sits about 60 miles southwest of Fresno and is home to more than 1,000 sexually violent predators from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "Less than one percent of all sexual offenders are in this category of 'sexually violent predators'. They are the worst of the worst," said Nancy Kincaid, Spokesperson for Coalinga State Hospital.
Jammie Stallworth's husband was convicted for lewd acts with a minor, and is now receiving rehabilitation at Coalinga State. Jammie was part of a group gathered outside the hospital Sunday, advocating for the release of her husband and other sexually violent predators from the facility. "I'm not saying that it wasn't wrong. But they've done all their time like any other criminal," said Stallworth.
But unlike other criminals, those housed in Coalinga State are typically repeat sexual offenders who have completed their prison sentence, but are ordered to extended treatment.
LINK - KMPH.com (Fox 26)
February 28, 2008
4-Year Sentence in Attack on Teen in Hawthorne
A parolee accused of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl off a Hawthorne street and sexually assaulting her was sentenced Wednesday to four years in state prison.
After prosecutors agreed to drop the kidnapping charge against him, Jamaal Todd Davenport, 20, pleaded no contest to one count of oral copulation with a minor, according to his defense attorney, Mark Haushalter. Davenport accepted the plea deal Wednesday before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lawrence Cho at the Airport Courthouse.
He will also be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life…
LINK - DailyBreeze.com
February 25, 2008
Court Cannot Require Parolee to Waive Therapist-Patient Privilege
A parolee cannot be required to waive the privilege for communications with his private therapist in the absence of evidence that he is seeking therapy for some "nefarious" reason, the Court of Appeal for this district has ruled. Div. Six Wednesday affirmed a Santa Barbara Superior Court judge's ruling striking down a probation officer's order that Reynaldo Corona either sign a waiver of therapist-patient privilege or stop seeing the therapist he retained after serving a sentence of more than three years in prison for molesting his two stepdaughters.
Corona was released on parole in May 2006, and directed to comply with various conditions, including participation in treatment as ordered by his parole officer. In his petition for writ of habeas corpus, Corona contended that he had been attending monthly therapy sessions in accordance with his parole agent's order but had, at his own expense, undertaken private counseling with a specialist in sex offenses "to understand [his] offense and to eliminate any possibility of future difficulties."
LINK - MetNews.com
February 14, 2008
Sex Offender Slain at New Folsom Prison
An inmate at California State Prison, Sacramento, who was serving a 400-year sentence for molesting a child, was slashed in the throat and killed Thursday, prison officials said. Shannon Lee Graling, 53, was slashed with an "inmate-made weapon" just before 8 a.m. while pushing a laundry cart, according to a prison news release. He died just over an hour later…
LINK - SacBee.com
