More than a month ago, Manning saw a sign with the words “Danger, Sex Offender, Child Molester Lives Here” in large letters on Cedar Ridge Park Road in Moffat. His daughter, he said, asked him about the sign.
“I tried to explain it to her; I guess I’m not eloquent,” he said. “Tears welled up in her eyes.”
Since then, he said, she has been afraid. Each time his daughter sees an unknown car come into the subdivision she runs into the house. Manning said he had educated his children about dangerous people before the sign went up, but it scared them.
Also, it affects having people over to their house or if someone is attempting to sell property.
“If my family comes to town for the holiday, the first thing they say when they get out of the car is, ‘Did you see the sign?’ ” he said.
Instead of the sign being a punishment for the offender, Manning said, it is punishment for those living in the area.
“I have mixed emotions about it,” he said. “The overriding one is I want to take it down. On one hand the kids will not go up to the house. On the other hand, it’s not really on a neighborhood street.”
Karen Lisette “Angel” Lewis, 38, agrees. On April 19, she was placed on 10 years deferred adjudication for sexual assault.
“This is my mom’s house,” she said. “It’s hurting my mom more than it’s hurting me.”
Ms. Lewis declined to discuss her case but did claim it was false charges.
However, Ms. Lewis entered a guilty plea to the allegations of giving drugs and alcohol to a 15–year–old boy before initiating sex with him from June to December 2005.
Pat Finnegan, adult probation director, said 96 sex offenders are being supervised in Bell County. Of those, 35 are required to display signs that meet state guidelines.
Under state law, the offender is to place a 4–foot–by–4–foot sign facing away from his or her home so that it is clearly visible to the public. The 3–inch high lettering must be either red or black on a white background. Offenders also must place signs at the front and rear doors of the house that are 11 inches wide by 17 inches high with 2–inch high letters.
Manning said he thinks the large sign should be removed and small signs at the door should remain.
“It doesn’t just warn them, it broadcasts it,” he said.
District Judge Martha Trudo said the decision about who must post the signs is made on a case–by–case basis.
The signs are part of the predator law and as a general rule, she said, judges do opt to use the signs.
Attorneys and occasionally probation officers may request that clients be able to take down the large signs for a variety of reasons, usually after a period of time has elapsed. Sometimes, Ms. Trudo said, judges allow the wording to be changed to “No Children Under 17,” so rental agencies and apartment complexes would allow offenders to live there.
“It’s usually very difficult for them to find a place; they’re usually lower income,” she said. “We would rather change the sign than them go homeless or go somewhere where we don’t know where they are.”
Manning also questioned why, if a person is dangerous enough to require a sign, he or she wasn’t put in prison.
“Our system refuses to incarcerate criminals so they dump them back into our neighborhoods hoping public humiliation will punish or reform them,” he wrote in a letter. “This angers me.”
Ms. Trudo said there could be a number of reasons the person was placed on probation or deferred adjudication, such as the victim being unable or refusing to testify.
“It is better they be put on deferred than to dismiss the case,” she said. “At least they’ll have the state watching them.”
jsicking@temple-telegram.com
