Ludington's Registered Sex Offenders: Homeless and Unmonitored

[XLFD]

It's been about a year and a half since the Ludington Torch has reported on the status of our area's Registered Sex Offenders.  This topic was first touched upon in February of 2010 with the thread sex-lies-and-vigilantes and then later in June of 2011 in this thread ludington-landlords-on-patrol, and checked out Scottville's situation in December of 2011 with the thread scottville-gets-ludingtonized-rental-rehab-and-rental-registering. 

                                     Ludington Police Chief Mark Barnett, Freelance Lawmaker

 

I have this interest in RSOs because of an odd local policy crafted by Ludington Police Chief Mark Barnett and passed into law by the city council in October 2007 which put the responsibility of determining whether registered sex offenders are living within 1000 ft. of a school squarely on Ludington landlords, then later in 2012, on Scottville landlords.  Other communities use their local police to monitor such activity.  What a concept.

 

My first reaction is that it's a dumb policy, and will eventually have an unintended consequence of having more RSOs living in forbidden areas, if the local police leave the police work to landlords who may be ignorant of the law, ignorant of their distance to the nearest school property, or ignorant as to whether a RSO is on their property when they themselves live outside Ludington.   

 

Back in 2010, there were six RSOs within school zones, contrary to the chief saying there weren't any at a city council meeting.  In June 2011, there were still six and three of them were brand new to the list.  This went down to five in December 2011 with a homeless person in the mix.

 

It is now April 2013, five and a half years after the ordinance and what do we have?  An exponential growth in the number of homeless or "address unknown" RSOs in Ludington.  We now have twelve RSOs either within 1000 ft. of a school, living at an unknown address, or homeless.  That is very troubling.  Here is a list:

 

 

If you know one or more of these people, or are one yourself, I am making no value judgment on any of them just because they made the list.  They may be fully rehabilitated or erroneously labeled, but they are either within a school safety zone or are a homeless person who just happens to have that RSO tag on them.  I do make a value judgment on our local policy, however; it needs to be repealed and the local police need to own up to their responsibilities, that the State has laid in their laps.

 

There were no homeless or whereabouts unknown RSOs back in early 2010 when Chief Barnett said erroneously that there were none in any school safety zones.  There are now four living in apartments in those zones, and eight who could be living anywhere in Ludington, without a home. 

 

But is it tough all over?  Let's take a look at two other cities in the area with similar populations of Ludington but without some ordinance that absolves their police officers from the responsibilities of checking out where RSO's live. 

 

Manistee has a population of 6220, and has about half the listings that Ludington has.  Only one of their's has an unknown address, no homeless ones. 

 

Big Rapids has a population of 10,695 (including a lot of college students) and has one homeless RSO and one with an address unknown. 

 

Ludington has a population of 8069 and has seven homeless RSOs, one address unknown, and four definitely living within a school safety zone.  There are as many RSOs living in the 49431 zip code than there is in Big Rapids and Manistee zip code combined.

 

A homeless registered sex offender is scarier to me more than one living a couple of blocks away from a school, but hey, the homeless have no landlord policing over them.  In Ludington they don't even have the police policing over them. 

[XLFD]

Let me echo Lisa's sentiment.  I actually missed you at tonight's city council meeting, Wanda.  The 'bookend councilors' and the 'three stooges in the middle' were extra silly tonight.

[XLFD]

Here's a link to the state public registered sex offender list:  http://www.mipsor.state.mi.us/

You need only type the capcha code, and then enter a zip code of 49431 for Ludington to monitor them at any time and catch when they last registered.  A quick check shows that Robert Lessard has dropped off the list, but we still have 6 homeless and an address unknown. 

[James Counahan]

I was wondering about the inclusion of Mr Castillo, Mr Mracna and Mr. Patterson on the list. Using google maps, it appears that they are 1100 or more ft from the nearest street corner to a school. You may very well have gone to the clerks office and used the plot maps. 

[XLFD]

I did even better than that, James; I actually went out in the field and took measurements and applied what I learned in trigonometry class the first time I checked the majority of these addresses.  But since it's raining out, I'll use google maps as my proof, since that is easier than taking out my rolly measurer in this muck and applying the Pythagorean Theorem... and since you used it (without showing your case) in making the claim that the addresses of certain offenders is greater than 1000 ft. from the nearest school zone. 

 

The City of Ludington makes a mistake of not including the Foster Playground as part of Foster School, but using the state's definitions, playground areas are part of school grounds.  This the makes Foster School area extend further south, to the alley running between Danaher and Foster under Foster School (see map).  The first orange wedge made of 1000 ft. radii and an arc contain the property housing Mr. Mracna.  The second orange triangle made up of 1000 ft. radii easily encompasses Mr. Patterson's abode. 

As for Mr. Castillo, it is awfully close.  He lives three blocks due west from the Middle School, and even though most blocks are under a third of 1000 ft. in width in Ludington, I noticed that the block just west of the school is wider.  Using Google maps, I'd say he was beyond 1000 ft.  If I can confirm this, I'll take him off ASAP. 

 

 

[James Counahan]

I said it appears on the google map. I said you may have used plot maps, implying that you used some more accurate measurement. That is why I said it appears. I did not make any claims that they were or were not within 1000 ft. That is why I was asking about their inclusion on the list. You seem quite defensive. 

[XLFD]

If I seemed heavy-handed, I didn't mean to be, James, I just wanted to show that Patterson was well within 1000 ft. and Mracna also was under 1000 ft. using Google maps. 

The 1000 ft. radius is a rather arbitrary figure in its own right, and it begins to lose significance when you have eight homeless/address unknown RSOs in your small city, and have others like Ryan Sanderson (below) living a normal life in the shadows of the High School, unregistered for years.

[XLFD]

James,

I finally paced off the distance between the school property on North Washington and Mr. Castillo's property line at 610 N Delia.  Between the School property, which extends to the middle of Washington Avenue, and Ramon Castillo's back yard which extends to the alley behind his house, it is just over 900 ft. 

This places Mr. Castillo properly on the list.  And since I did my measurement in the field, I trust it a lot more than Google maps and any plot maps that I could get at the Clerk's office.  But I would advise anyone to not take my word for it and do their own research.  You have access to the same info I do.  BTW, there is at least one new registered sex offender who has moved into rental property here in Ludington since this article.  Landlords make awful cops.

[XLFD]

Some of these RSOs get a bad rap.  The ones who tried to be discrete and failed while publicly urinating, sunbathing without proper attire, or who inadvertently or unwisely touched another person's goodies without proper permission should be somehow distinguished from the pedos and rapists. 

Yet, I've known a couple women with children who have taken up with men who were registered pedophiles, ignored the warnings, and it hasn't yet added up to a good result.

[Brian Carlson]

I just discovered this week that my niece is married to a sex offender by the name of Ryan Sanderson. Ryan has been living at 402 N Washington Ave in Ludington since about 2008.

Ryan was also convicted of two sexual offenses: 750.145A-A and 750.520E1A-A.

402 N Washington Ave is just over 800 ft from Franklin Elementary School. Ryan never registered as a sex offender and lived near the school for 5 years.

The law just caught up with Ryan in March of this year. In March, Ryan appeared as a sex offender for the first time in the 49431 zip code.

Ryan went to court This month and is now in Prison in Jackson County. My sister and her husband own the house that Ryan was living in and were more than surprised to fine out that Ryan is a sex offender. Ryan's address has changed from 402 N Washington Ave to "incarcerated".  There really needs to be a more timely manner to track the offenders down when they fail to register.

You may wonder if Ryan became a good citizen while not registered. Well he left a bill behind for several XXX rated movies that my sister and her husband had to pay for.

 

You can find Ryan now on the Michigan OTIS web site.

 

[Willy]

Brian, does his offenses deal with children?

[XLFD]

Ryan's offenses dealt with children and happened in Jackson County back in 2008 or earlier.

[Brian Carlson]

You are correct that his offenses were from Jackson County. I brought up his case because he was living in Ludington as an unregistered  offender and he lived less than 1000 feet from Franklin Elementary School. He was listed in the 49431 zip code area from the end of March to mid-May of this year.