Darren Breen / The Herald
The 92nd Street SE bridge over U.S. 2 is where the state Department of Corrections assigned a level-3 sex offender to live.
Why rapist got put under Snohomish bridge
High-risk sex offender had no place to go, now on the lam
By Jackson Holtz and Jerry Cornfield, Herald Writers /Published: Saturday, April 26, 2008
SNOHOMISH -- They tried motels. They tried relatives. They tried homeless shelters.
When a high-risk sex offender was about to be released from prison, he had no place to stay. The state told him to sleep under a bridge beneath U.S. 2 near Snohomish.
"That's not an acceptable place to be living," Snohomish Police Chief John Turner said. "There is an issue. Where do sex offenders live? Where can they live?
"There's another issue, too.
Three days after being released from prison, David J. Torrence, 43, on Wednesday cut off the electronic monitoring bracelet he was issued and stopped reporting to his parole officer.
A nationwide no-bail arrest warrant has been issued for Torrence. He's a level-3 sex offender and considered at the highest risk of reoffending.
(snip)
The bridge near Snohomish was selected because it was convenient for Torrence to check in with parole supervisors and get transportation to other services, Rehberg said, adding there were no other alternatives for the homeless offender.
"I didn't want him under that bridge either," she said.
In 1995, Torrence pleaded guilty to second-degree rape. He was accused of grabbing a 16-year-old Snohomish County girl off Fifth Avenue near Casino Road. He threatened to shoot her and then sexually assaulted her, according to court records.
"He's a stranger rapist, which is the worst of all kinds," Snohomish County sheriff's detective Joseph Beard said. Beard tracks sex offenders in the county.
(snip)
Torrence's case isn't unique.
In the first three months of 2008, the state Department of Corrections (in Washinton state)released 34 level-3 sex offenders. Of those, 15 were homeless at release, said spokeswoman Anna Aylward.
FIND DAVID TORRENCE: LEVEL 3 SEX OFFENDER...
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080426/NEWS01/497109135&news01ad=1
1 comment:
The level of stupidity shown is appalling!
If the jails and prisons were stripped of luxuries, what do they need with pornographic material and cable tv? Doesn't it just feed their lusts and impulses? The SAME ONES that got them into trouble in the first place?
Basic food, no tv, no magazines, no pornography, no fancy little this's and thats, make prison unpleasant enough so that they have incentive to stay out!
Then maybe they can afford to build what they need to house(or warehouse the worst).
Good morning, G*D bless and Maranatha!
tmw
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