BECAUSE OF A GLITCH, SEX OFFENDER AT LARGE

LAST KNOWN ADDRESS:

145 CAPTAINS WAY  

PORT JEFFERSON STATION, NY  

Because of a glitch, convicted sex offender Michael Galgano, is at large.  In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, 38 year old Galgano who lives with his parents in Port Jefferson Station, may have found an opportunity to commit a crime and escape.  That day, the parolee who served 10 years in a California prison for raping two women and shooting bullets at three others who spurned his advances in 1989, got into a scuffle with a man on a Greenwich Village street.  Because of the glitch, caused by computer or human error or just the confusion caused by the attacks, he was released days later and is still at large.  Parents For Megan's Law, a Stony Brook advocacy group, is circulating fliers to warn women about him before he can strike again.  Laura Ahearn, executive director of PFML, has launched a letter campaign to keep people in Nassau and Suffolk counties on the lookout and is mailing out notices to about 3,000 liquor-serving establishments - bars, restaurants, even bowling alleys - on Long Island.  We don't have a megaphone so we can't tell every woman who's going to a bar about the risk this man poses to them, said Ahearn, who said she believes Galgano should be classified as a Level 3 sex offender, one who is most likely to re-offend.  In fact, had it not been for Suffolk County Court Judge Gary Weber's decision to overrule the New York Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders, he would be listed as a Level 3 offender.  Our hope is to reach out to all the bars and licensed establishments throughout Nassau and Suffolk and make them aware and hope they will be on alert for this individual, said Ahearn.  PFML is asking area law enforcement organizations, primarily the unions of the counties' police and correctional officers, to help fund the mailing, which will include information about Galgano's offenses and a picture.  Because he is a registered sex offender, some of that information is already available at www.parentsformeganslaw.com.  What motivates me is the fear that this individual is capable of committing even more horrible crimes than he already has.

(New York)