Do you know there are seventy one registered sex offenders in
Gilroy?
Do you know there are seventy one registered sex offenders in Gilroy?
I looked it up on Megan’s Law after reading that disturbing story about Elizabeth Shoaf, the 15-year-old girl who was held captive in an underground bunker in Lugoff, SC. She sent a text message to her mother and was fortunately found. But not all stories end so well.
My former classmate Franca Barsi apparently knew about her alleged killer’s past as a registered sex offender. According to the sex offender registry required under Megan’s Law, he was convicted of “assault with intent to commit rape, sodomy or oral copulation.”
I don’t know what she knew about this but I find it hard to believe she was OK with it, and I thoroughly can’t comprehend what she was doing with a guy like that. Franca was a beautiful, intelligent and classy girl. Maybe she was unaware of the extent of his crimes. Maybe she had a forgiving heart and believed that people could change.
Franca’s tragic death also played a part in prompting me to investigate who our local registered sex offenders are. I started really thinking about my own teenage daughters, and I decided to go online to the Megan’s Law Web site and see what sex offenders live closest to me. Luckily the west side of Santa Teresa seems to be pervert free, but in every other part of town one is registered within three to six blocks of every neighborhood. There are six sex offenders registered within a quick walking distance from Glenview Elementary School, five of which are two blocks away and one is about three blocks away.
This also puts them in the general vicinity of Gilroy High School, where my daughter goes to school. There are five registered within a few blocks of Elliot Elementary School, and two close to St. Mary’s School. Some of these sex offenders live on Rosanna, Hanna, Sussex, Carr, Third, Greenwich, Hastings, Wren, Furlong, Briarberry, Welburn, Las Animas, Stratford, Trenton, Murray, Alexander, Stonecress, Hersman and Wayland streets, and that’s not all of them.
Do you recognize your street, or is one of them close to you?
I, of course, immediately assumed they were all serial rapists and horrible, violent people. Then I decided to dig a little deeper to reassure myself that some of these people may have simply been convicted of having sex with a minor. For example, a 19-year-old might be having a completely consensual sexual relationship with a 17-year-old. That relationship may be “illegal” but ultimately is a personal choice, even if the parents don’t agree with it.
The outcome of that situation could result in statutory rape charges by the parents and maybe that evolves into the sex-offender category. That’s a heavy label for a guy who isn’t really a threat to the community. But after pulling up 10 or 12 people in Gilroy on the Megan’s Law Web site, I didn’t find anything resembling that scenario to ease my mind. What I saw was men and women convicted of things like, “Rape by force, sodomy in concert with force, oral copulation in concert with force, kidnapping, lewd or lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14, rape of a drugged victim and annoying and molesting children.”
How horrifying! I didn’t examine each profile, I looked randomly and I didn’t see anything about consensual sex with a minor. I don’t feel very forgiving and I don’t want any of these people near my family.
I wish we could go back the days of the scarlet letter and enforce a visible mark that would identify a sex offender on sight. Perhaps a large red “X” tattooed on the forehead would be sufficient. I don’t understand why these perverse criminals have the right to discreetly walk public streets and live near schools or why their rights are even considered at all.
The good news is that we have the resources to look them up and check out our neighborhoods.
Even if we can’t force them to move, we can be aware of who they are. I encourage you to get online and look at the addresses and pictures of people in your neighborhood that are registered. Familiarize yourself with their faces because until the red “X” is the official mark of a sexual predator or registered sex offender, it’s up to us to be as proactive as possible in preventing crimes against our loved ones. Go to the Web address www.meganslaw.ca.gov/index.aspx and get informed.
