http://rutlandherald.com/article/20130726/NEWS03/707269945
Timothy Szad, Dangerous Sex Offender, Prompts Vermont Town To Issue Dire Warning By DAVE GRAM 07/25/13 05:12 PM ET EDT Dangerous sex offender Timothy J. Szad, is about to be released from prison, prompting Vermont authorities to issue warning. SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — Correction officials said Thursday they have a new plan for a high-risk sex offender due to be released from prison: He's moving out of state. The Department of Corrections is notifying police in the place where the sex offender, Timothy Szad, is going but isn't releasing the information publicly, said Dale Crook, the department's director of field supervision. Officials said last week Szad, 53, would be living with his elderly parents in Springfield, a town of about 9,000 residents, but that plan fell apart after public outcry. The case highlights a tough dilemma in releasing sex offenders: Correction officials and police sometimes see a requirement to notify the public about the possible danger, but broad notification can generate such opposition that living arrangements can fall apart. A homeless sex offender is more dangerous than one with a stable place to live, said state Rep. Alice Emmons, chairwoman of the Vermont House committee that oversees correction. "Where's he going to go?" asked Emmons, D-Springfield. "Is he going to live under a bridge? Is that secure to a community?" Szad was convicted in 2001 in a sexual assault against a 13-year-old boy. Authorities said he grabbed the boy, who was fishing, carried him across the Williams River in nearby Rockingham, handcuffed him and sexually assaulted him twice. Szad, who's at the Southern State Correctional Facility, declined a request for an interview, said the prison's superintendent, P. Mark Potanas. An elderly man who answered the door at the Szad family home this week refused to comment. When the Department of Corrections announced Szad's impending release last week, it took the unusual step of warning that blue-eyed, blond-haired boys of 12 or 13 could be in particular peril. Crook said the department sometimes issues such warnings when an offender has expressed particular victim preferences. Szad cooperated with sex-offender treatment in prison but is still considered high risk, officials said. Police Chief Douglas Johnston on Thursday said any relief within the Springfield community was tempered by the fact that Szad would be a free man after Friday and could return at any time. He said if Szad moved back to Vermont he would be required to notify the state sex offender registry within 24 hours. Szad's case has focused attention not only on the state's public-notification practices for sex offenders but on the value and constitutionality of civil commitment laws, which about 20 states use to keep some offenders locked up in mental health facilities after their prison terms. Vermont debated such a law eight years ago and decided against it, said Emmons, who counted herself among the opponents. "You're holding someone who has not committed a (new) crime," she said. "Do we as a society in Vermont want to do that?" The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Vermont chapter, Allen Gilbert, said the public needs to accept that sex offenders like Szad get out of prison when they complete their sentences. "Courts have determined the appropriate sentence for him, he's served his sentence and now he's getting out," Gilbert said.
And this story puts Springfield, VT on Fox News.
ReplyDeleteI saw that too
DeleteAre you kidding me??? This is your plan? Pawn him off on other states because your laws are inadequate to deal with this in a way that will keep the children in your state safe. That is your plan! I guarantee you that as long as the laws of your state do not protect children from "high risk" pedophiles my family will never visit Vermont. I truly hope that this will encourage your citizens to vote candidates into office that will put forth bills to protect your communities from sex offenders.
ReplyDeleteHe served his time and was punished per the law. What do you folks expect?
ReplyDeleteI EXPECT that when a pedophile is being released and they are EXPECTING him to reoffend to the point they tell the citizens to watch their 12-13 year old blonde-haired, blue-eyed boys, that there will be a safeguard in place to NOT release the offender! That is what I EXPECT! Thanks for asking.
DeleteI think that the events of this spring, which included
ReplyDelete- a widely publicized drug bust after which everyone who was arrested was back on the street up to their old tricks
- a hearing for a guy who allegedly tried to shoot someone in downtown Springfield in broad daylight who cried boohoo they don't like me because I am black
- a judge disallowing evidence obtained by the police which included heroin and a handgun found in a vehicle because the police did not have probably cause (the police had recognized someone in the vehicle as an out-of-stater who had previously given a false name to the police)
- and of course the news that not only are Vermont laws set up to release pedophiles who have served their time (even if their prison sentence was short owing to a plea bargain as it was in this case), but that this has been given the blessing of a representative who is head of the VT prison committee who GREW UP in Springfield (I went to HS with her by the way)
that citizens have gotten the wake up call.
One can only hope. I for one am so fed up with what is going on - well - I cannot find appropriate words for it.
The leaders of Springfield are quite comfortable with the current situations in Springfield. It falls in line with their "progressive" mindset.
DeletePlease people, we have power. Three simple words-Vote Them Out!
ReplyDelete