Author Archive

Houston Chronicle/Renee C. Lee

Samantha Portwood’s son pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault at age 12.  He’snow 24 and Portwood awaits the day this month he is removed from Texas’ sex offenderregistry.  For the past decade Dale Portwood has lived under public scrutiny for a crime hecommitted when was 12.  He inappropriately touched a 7 year old girl at his baby sitter’shouse and was charged with aggravated sexual assault.  After completing two years of therapyand probation, he had to register as a sex offender, which shocked his parents.  Dale isn’talone. 

The Long Island Advance

Eric Quinones, a 26 year old Mastic man, pled guilty this week to a 12-count indictmentcharging him with sex crimes related to his having sexual contact in January and February of thisyear with two juveniles younger than 15.  He pled guilty to charges of second-degree criminalsexual act, sexual abuse and use of a child in a sexual performance.  He will be sentence toeight years in state prison and eight years post-release supervision of October 13.
(New York)

The Long Island Advance’/Linda Leuzzi

State Senator Brian X. Foley is hoping that legislation passed unanimously by the Senate andall but one vote by the Assembly will be signed by Governor Paterson that will enable parents tosign up for e-mails that will alert them of sex offender in their neighborhood for up to three zipcodes for Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders.  But Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parentsfor Megan’s Law, said her non-profit organization already has a web site in place that can provide30 zip codes for parents. 

Newsday.com/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher

The California case of a parolee whose kidnapping of a girl remained undetected for 18 yearsdespite authorities’ visits to his home is the worst nightmare for a probation or parole officer,said those who monitor sex offenders on Long Island.  We like to think that in this county,something like that would never happen, said Susan Vinci, supervisor of the Sex Offense Unit inNassau’s probation department.  It makes you hyper vigilant.  She said her office hasfollowed the California case of Phillip Garrido, 58, who is accused of abducting Jaycee

Yahoo News/Juliet Williams and Samantha Young

Jaycee Lee Dugard, an 11 year old girl snatched on her way to school was hidden fornearly two decades behind a series of fences, sheds and tents, even giving birth to her suspectedabductor’s children in the suburban backyard compound less than 200 miles from her childhoodhome.   Jaycee, now 29, was abducted in 1991 and was taken directly to the house andsheltered from the world by Phillip Garrido, who raped her and fathered two children withher.  The first when Jaycee was about 14.  Those girls, now 11 and 15, also

Newsday.com/Zachary R. Dowdy with James T. Madore

Three state senators called on Governor David A. Paterson to sign into law a bill that wouldcreate a statewide e-mail alert program notifying people when a convicted sex offender moves into aneighborhood.  But the executive director of Parents for Megan’s Law, a Stony Brook-basednonprofit group that provides the same service and allows visitors to its Web site to map whereoffenders are located with thumbnail sketches complete with pictures said such a program may beredundant.  Last year, Parents for Megan’s Law used a $593,000