Shoreline Media in Downtown Ludington has Four Employees Listed on Sex Offender Registry

You may have noticed a splashy front page story in the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) yesterday.  You may have caught it on the web as well in a slightly abbreviated form under the title of  "Rooming house near downtown Ludington has 10 boarders listed on sex offender registry"

It begins:  "A building in a downtown Ludington area neighborhood is home to 10 people who are listed on the Michigan State Police Public Sex Offender Registry and some people who know about it are concerned for the safety of women and children who might not know about the criminal history of the men.  The building is Carr Manor, a rooming house at 109 E. Foster St., which is across the street from Ludington’s city hall.

The article then lists the ten RSOs living there and their criminal offenses without any other context.  The rest of the article amounts to a state corrections officer saying that this often happens and can be a good thing, the print article continues with little more than trying to justify itself, ending with a rather amusing tidbit from Ludington Police Chief Mark Barnett:

"I think it's important that people are aware of their surroundings.  I think it's important for people to arm themselves with information."  

This from somebody who has repeatedly blocked the release of non-exempt public records of his agency and assigned a $2500 price tag to one police incident report to a citizen trying to be more aware of their surroundings, armed with information.


As someone who has reported on the registered sex offender (RSO) situation in Ludington before, the swarming RSOs at Carr Manor comes as no surprise. State law provides that RSOs cannot live within a 1000 ft. radius (about 3 typical city blocks) of school property. In cities like Ludington with widely dispersed school grounds, such laws force RSOs into small neighborhood pockets where they are allowed.

They may also be covertly discriminated against by landlords who don't want extra trouble (which isn't helped with incendiary newspaper articles like this). This gives them very limited options, so those who do live here are often concentrated in zones.

Yet, the COLDNews assigned some importance to attaching scarlet letters on the manor and the ten men living there.  They want you to believe that they are printing this information as a community service, according to a post by their managing editor on Facebook, but it seems to have been motivated by city officials.  In the Nov 13, 2017 LCC minutes it was revealed that the owners of Carr Manor and the City had developed a Non-conforming Use Agreement in order to avoid a lawsuit and to expand the capacity of Carr Manor up to 20 rooms.  

In the past, I've counted seven RSOs at times living in Carr Manor; the increase in rooms has apparently led to others joining.  Reportedly, a couple of city officials who work across from Carr Manor became concerned with the potential dangers posed by the arrangement, and with Chief Barnett's help, decided to use the media once again for their own bizarre purposes.

I am in no way defending the ten sex offenders in any of their past criminal enterprises, but they have served their time, they have found themselves a place to stay outside of the school safety zones, they fully comply with the law for registering, and they are secure enough in their rehabilitation to settle down just across the street from the police station/city hall.

The COLDNews article as presented is just a cannonade at Carr Manor and their policy for accepting tenants that others may not want to have (and their chutzpah in challenging the City).  It's city propaganda willingly broadcast by their newspaper of record. 

Meanwhile, they ignore their own record of hiring Registered Sex Offenders in order to provide you with newspapers barely fit to line your bird cage.  Here is the work address of four local sex offenders, 202 N. Rath, shared by Shoreline Media, printer of the COLDNews:

Does the COLDNews (or Chief Barnett) advise us to be wary of walking past their place on North Rath for fear of being accosted by one of these four RSOs?  Do our officials express fears that these RSOs are just four of many, many more that earn their money in beautiful downtown Ludington?

The ten sex offenders living in Carr Manor are less scary to me than these nine sex offenders I will list registered as living within school safety zones or as homeless according to up-to-date RSO registry records:

Tim P is a dangerous tier 3 offender (those convicted of rape, attempted rape, molesting a child under the age of 13, and/or kidnapping a minor), who lives a mere 570 feet away from the northwest corner of Foster School property.  He effectively lives downtown too.

Shawn P. is one of the homeless tier 3 sex offenders in Ludington.  A homeless RSO, even one that regularly goes to a shelter, must loiter someplace else the rest of the time.  Shawn has chosen the Ludington area to while away the daylight hours.

Robert L another tier 3 offender, registers right next door to the PM Early Education Center, a school by state definition.  There is no other address associated with him.  What does Chief Barnett have to say about this living arrangement?

Rodney S is our only non-compliant RSO, which is concerning when you consider that he is homeless too.  Wouldn't it be great to house him at Carr Manor after he registers at the LPD right across the street?

Randy J. lives 630 ft away from the Foster School Playground's southeast corner, but he's only a tier 1 offender.  That's still against the law.

Ryan J. is another homeless RSO, an intermediate tier 2 offense level.

Herbert G. has been living at this address for awhile, roughly 890 ft away from Foster School to the south.  

James B. has several distinctions working against him: he is tier 3, he's homeless, and he works at the COLDNews.  

Shon G. was convicted of serious crimes against a young girl just recently, did a few months in jail, and is now out and registering right next door to the PM school with Robert L.  He doesn't actually live there though.  Doesn't that make you feel safe?

Would you not consider these nine men more dangerous than those living at Carr Manor?   They have either violated the law by living within a school safety zone in utter defiance of the law, or couldn't find themselves a home.  And what about Chief Barnett?  Is he comfortable knowing that there are so many RSOs in his bailiwick that should be laughing at his department's inability to enforce state and local laws.  Would you help me tell him:


"I think it's important that people are aware of their surroundings. I think it's important for people to arm themselves with information."

Views: 3154

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

  • BRAVO!!!  We all knew that sooner or later these idiots would step in their own shit. 

Good job on this discussion X. There seems to be a lot of RSO's in Ludington. I wonder, are they imports or locals. What better place for these people to reside then across from the police. I wonder how many past LDN employees are on the list.

A list of offenders who have raped the taxpayers of Ludington for their own personal satisfaction would be a better article in the City of Ludington Daily Snooze.

Then again they don't have schnutz to publish a registry seeing as they are an accomplice to the act.

The ten plus registered tax offenders who meet directly across the street from Carr Manor at 6:30 PM every other Monday scare me and my family more than these guys.  Chief Barnett allows them to get away with anything, whether it be fraud, public extortion, embezzlement, etc. while harassing the whistleblowers that point out the transgressions.

That's funny.

RSS

© 2024   Created by XLFD.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service