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Chelsea King's Disappearance: Who Is Watching California's Sex Offenders?
Topic Started: Mar 2 2010, 10:41 AM (16 Views)
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Chelsea King's Disappearance: Who Is Watching California's Sex Offenders?

Posted Image
Chelsea King, who disappeared Thursday, is pictured
in an undated photo posted by friends on a Facebook
page devoted to her search.


Investigators Searching California Coastline After Finding Piece of King's Clothing

ABC News

By MIKE VON FREMD and SARAH NETTER

March 2, 2010—

Chelsea King's family is holding out dwindling hope that their bright-eyed daughter will one day return home, but the growing link between the missing San Diego-area teenager and a known child molester has raised questions about why he was allowed on the street.

Suspect John Albert Gardner is being held on suspicion of murder in the King disappearance. Authorities said he was arrested after a piece of King's clothing containing DNA evidence was found near the California shoreline in the park where she was last seen jogging.

That discovery has focused the search on 14 miles of shoreline as police continue to probe the area with a high-tech drone aircraft and helicopters with infrared equipment.

But it's a search, some say, that never should have had reason to exist. Gardner was one of 83,000 registered sex offenders living in California, a state that is overburdened with staffing shortages and budget crises.

"The law is good, but it's got to be implemented," Ernie Allen, CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, told "Good Morning America." The reality is the most dangerous offenders seek situations where they can be anonymous. Where no one knows they're there. Where they have easy access to children."

Allen said that changes are both needed and possible, but lawmakers can't use budget constraints as an excuse.

"There is no higher priority than protecting the children and maintaining public safety," he said.

In 2000, Gardner pleaded guilty to committing a forcible lewd act on a 13-year-old girl after she testified that she escaped after he tried to strangle her. He served five years in prison and was released even though a psychiatrist told the court that Gardner "would be a continued danger to underage girls in the community."

Although no arrests have been made, investigators say Gardner may be linked to two other attacks in the San Diego area; one in December on a jogger in the same park where King was last seen and the February 2009 disappearance of Amber DuBois, 14.

Gardner is due in court in the King case Wednesday.

The community where Gardner lived is now outraged to learn that Gardner often stayed with his mother, who lives near an elementary school.

"He is on the Megan's Law Web site and as long as he lived lawfully, he could walk where he wanted to walk," San Diego County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said.

Chelsea King, Jaycee Dugard Cases Highlight Trouble in California

There are 700,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Most states rely on sex offenders to register and notify authorities about their whereabouts, but 100,000 are considered noncompliant.

California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation came under intense scrutiny last year after 1991 kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard resurfaced and was found to have spent 18 years hidden in the backyard of registered sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy Garrido.

Dugard, who bore two children believed to have been fathered by Phillip Garrido, went undetected even though Garrido was a known violent offender. He was visited by parole officers and even police after a neighbor called in a tip that he might have someone living in his backyard.

Phillip and Nancy Garrido have pleaded not guilty to 29 felony charges, including rape and kidnapping.

Dugard, her two daughters and her mother are now suing the state for "various lapses" by the Department of Corrections. And the Office of the Inspector General released a scathing report in November finding numerous failings and missed opportunities by Garrido's parole officers.

Allen said immediate solutions to failures in tracking known sex offenders include better risk assessment of each offender as an individual and more time behind bars.

"Sentencing has to be improved for the most serious offenders and the public needs to be vigilant," he said.

Experts say potential predators, once out of prison, learn how to live beneath the public's radar and find loopholes in the laws meant to protect the public.

"There's little doubt that this case may become a kind of poster case for increased sanctions across the country against sexual offenders, so they do longer time," Jody Armour of the University of Southern California Law School said of the King disappearance.

But some people question whether full rehabilitation is ever possible.

"I'm not sure," Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said. "But we find that the same people commit the same kinds of crime."

To see a ABC video see the ABC page: Posted Image for video
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Will society EVER decide to protect women and children from known sexual offenders? After a conviction, the case should be examined carefully and if the deviate is considered to be a danger to the populous he should never be allowed back into society.

:dth:
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