Charles W.A. Burks - Repeat Sex Offender - 10 years later

Endicott Police arrested a Level 2 registered sex offender, 38 year old Charles W.A. Burks for Sex Abuse in the second degree, a class A misdemeanor and Endangering the Welfare of a Child, also a class A misdemeanor. Burks is accused of subjecting a 12 year old female to sexual contact.

The victim was an acquaintance of Burks’ at the time of the incident. Burks was originally placed on the New York Sex Offender Registry for a 1998 conviction for Rape in the Third degree involving a 15 year old female.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Ricky Reinhardt - Repeat Sex Offender - Caught by DNA in ANOTHER case

Reinhardt was first convicted of Aggravated Sexual Battery in 1981 in Florida, when he was just 18.

He was convicted of another sexual assault in Nashville in 2005.

The sexual assault took place in the St. Regis community in Louisville's East end in January 2008.

The Jefferson County Grand Jury indicted Ricky Reinhardt on the charges Tuesday.

Investigators say technology helped connect a suspect who wasn’t even remotely on their radar, and who lived in a different state.

Now neighbors in this quiet neighborhood are relieved that they no longer have to live in fear of an attacker.

On the night of January 8th, 2008, things changed drastically in this dead end neighborhood.

That's when police say a rapist broke into a single woman's home.

“He entered through a doggy door.,” said Sgt. Andy Abbott of the LMPD Sex Crimes Squad.

The suspect then allegedly hid until the woman went to sleep, that's when she says he attacked her, armed with a gun, knife and taser.

“He had a ski mask on, actually indicated that he was a police officer, and had a badge. He proceeded to sexually assault her,” said Abbott.

For weeks, investigators had few clues. The victim bought an alarm, put her house on the market, and took a job out of town.

“From time to time, we wondered if this person had been caught,” said a neighbor. “And why here? Why did he pick here?”

“It's scary knowing that it could have been me,” said another neighbor. “It could have been any of us along this block.”

Then investigators got a break.The suspect's DNA matched that of 46-year-old Ricky Reinhardt, a registered sex offender who lived in Clarksville, Indiana when the rape occurred.

Rhinehardt is currently incarcerated in Tennessee for an attempted rape and robbery that happened three weeks after the Louisville crimes.

During that incident, he allegedly cut off the victim's clothes and stole 13 live snakes from a pet store.

We spoke to some of his former neighbors.

“If he was sitting there, I was afraid to come out,” said Juanita Benson, who lived at the same apartment complex as Rhinehardt. She said she felt like, “at any time he could attack me.”

Her granddaughters say Reinhardt even allegedly circled the parking lot and offered money to girls.

“He's creepy. Why do you want to follow two little teenagers around in a car and give them money?” said Autumn Morris.

We also discovered Reinhardt was first convicted of Aggravated Sexual Battery in 1981 in Florida, when he was just 18.

He was convicted of another sexual assault in Nashville in 2005.

Reinhardt pleaded guilty in April to the most recent Tennessee charges and was sentenced to 25 years in prison with no chance of parole.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

David John Vernon - Repeat Sex Offender - Gets 10 years

• Conviction Date: 2/1/1990 - Indecent liberties
  
• Conviction Date: 1/25/1995 - Rape of a child in the second degree
• Conviction Date: 10/16/2003 - Voyeurism
  

A Mossyrock man was sentenced to 10 years in jail after he was found guilty of two counts of voyeurism in September.

David John Vernon, 41, a convicted level three sex offender, installed viewing holes inside an outhouse at the Mossyrock Dam and watched women using the bathroom inside, according to court documents.

The fact that he was already a sex offender landed him an exceptional sentence of 60 months for each count, which Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt granted Wednesday.

Lewis County Prosecutor Michael Golden said it’s not the first time Vernon has been a criminal voyeur. In 2003, Vernon pleaded guilty to a count of voyeurism after he used a mirror to look up women’s skirts in Centralia and Chehalis, Golden said.

“The allegation was that he would get an excuse to bend down, and used a mirror in his wallet to look up skirts,” Golden said.

He’s been convicted of similar crimes in Lewis County dating back to 1988: multiple counts of indecent liberties, four counts of public indecency, second-degree rape, indecent exposure and failure to register as a sex offender.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

David Knutsen - Repeat Sex Offender - Claims HE is the TRUE victim

David Knutsen is the victim of an overly broad law, and an indictment charging him with sexual abuse of a vulnerable adult patient at St. Luke's Canyon View Behavioral Health should be dismissed, according to his lawyer.

Judge G. Richard Bevan heard three motions from Knutsen's attorney, Mike Wood, on Thursday in Twin Falls.

Wood wants Bevan to dismiss the indictment against Knutsen, suppress testimony in the case and deem the charges against him unconstitutional.

After a three-hour hearing Thursday on Wood's motions, Bevan said he would write a decision "in due course."

Meanwhile, the 29-year-old Knutsen, a convicted sex offender, faces trial on Jan. 30, 2010. He was indicted March 25 for four counts of sexual abuse of a vulnerable adult following the alleged incidents of abuse on Jan. 30, 2009, at Canyon View in Twin Falls. As a patient, Knutsen allegedly abused the then-21-year-old female patient, who is described in court records as developmentally delayed.

"This is an ambiguous statute," said Wood. "Even with a law degree, good luck reading it ... This is a catch-all statute."

Wood argued Thursday that the statute prohibiting sexual abuse of vulnerable adults restricts an adult's right to engage in sexual activity. Adults are responsible for their own sexuality, said Wood, "not the state of Idaho."

But the Twin Falls County prosecutor on the case, Suzanne Craig, disagreed saying the felony statute is fair and protects people.

"The state may limit sexual activity," said Craig, adding it protects people "who legitimately need to be protected. ... Children need to be protected and so do people with limited mental capacity."

But Wood said the law isn't clear enough on defining who is a vulnerable adult.

"Is (the victim) a vulnerable adult?" he asked. "You can't tell who you should stay away from."

Wood said that Knutsen has "very clear and long-term cognitive disorders."

The grand jury that indicted Knutsen was also called into question on Thursday. Wood claims it exceeded its term by 11 to 13 days.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Michael W. VanNess - Repeat Sex Offender - Didn't "Intend" to get caught

VanNess was convicted in 2006 for sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl in North Carolina.

QUEENSBURY -- The registered sex offender who is accused of climbing through the bedroom window of a young girl plans to argue at trial that he did not intend to commit a crime when he went to the home.

Michael W. VanNess, 26, of Glens Falls, faces felony counts of second-degree burglary and disseminating indecent material to a minor in connection with allegations related to the allegedly burglary last summer.

Last week, a Warren County grand jury added three felony charges accusing him of possession of a sexual performance by a child. Those counts were filed after a State Police examination of a computer he used yielded child pornography, according to court records.

Trial in the case has been scheduled to begin Dec. 7 in Warren County Court.

VanNess was arrested early on the morning of July 11, after an Aviation Road, Queensbury, man allegedly caught him climbing through his 14-year-old daughter's bedroom.

He has also been accused of sending the girl a digital picture of his genitalia through a cell phone before the incident at her home. A misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child pertains to his alleged effort to lure a 15-year-old girl to a bar parking lot late on the night of July 8.

The weightiest charge VanNess faces is the burglary count. That crime requires proof that a person entered a home with the intent to commit a crime.

VanNess told police that he went to the girl's home at her request because she told him she had written notes for him. He told police he had left notes for her inside her window two nights earlier.

VanNess' lawyer, Warren County Public Defender John Wappett, said the defense plans to argue that VanNess did not intend to commit a crime when he went to the home, and he questioned whether VanNess went in the home at all.

"We don't think he entered the place to begin with," Wappett said.

Any part of a person's body entering a building constitutes entry of the building. A local man was convicted of second-degree burglary in 2003 after a Queensbury homeowner saw just his head poking through a basement window.

VanNess has rejected a plea deal that would require he serve 12 years in state prison.

He could face up to 15 years on the burglary count, and up to 4 years each on the disseminating indecent material and child pornography counts.

VanNess is a Level 1 sex offender because of a 2006 conviction for sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl in North Carolina. He is due in court Friday for pretrial hearings.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

David Wayne Phillips - Repeat Sex Offender - Must serve full 25 year sentence

A sex offender is headed back to prison for victimizing children.

David Wayne Phillips has pleaded guilty in Bedford County to multiple counts of rape of a child, sexual battery and violation of the sex offender registry.

Phillips, a truck driver, admitted to taking at least three children for rides in his rig and then abusing them.

He has prior convictions for sexual battery and will have to serve his entire 25-year sentence for the latest charges.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Edward Boyle - Repeat Sex Offender - 3 time rapist being released

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- Edward Boyle, a convicted felon, will soon be released from from his latest stint.The sister of a woman who died at his hand is shocked he’ll be once again be out in the community.

Bev Canfield said, “By being released, he has his life, my sister doesn’t. I haven’t had her in my life for 29 years.”

Canfield has been dreading the day her sister’s killer, repeat rapist Edward Boyle Jr., is released from prison. She fears for the safety of every woman in Connecticut.

During Memorial Day weekend in 1980, Canfield’s 20-year-old sister Louisa Marie Scott was found strangled to death on the banks of the Skungamaug River in Coventry.

Canfield said, “She fought him from raping her and he strangled her and threw her body in the river like she was nothing.”

Three years later, when Boyle was in prison for rape, he confessed to killing Scott, but there was no trial because of the lack of evidence.

In 1999, Boyle completed his sentence and was released. Scott’s family fought it hard.

Canfield said, “We just knew it was going to happen again.”

And it did.

Several years later, he was back in prison for sexually assaulting a minor. Canfield heard Boyle had befriended the young girl’s family when he moved into their Groton neighborhood.

The judge sentenced him to five years followed by a special parole, which means he will live in a halfway house in Middletown, be supervised, wear a GPS device and undergo sex offender treatment.

Canfield said, “I don’t think it will work because he said he could control his urges through deep breathing. Clearly, it didn’t work. There’s a pattern there, there’s a clear pattern and I don’t think anyone who does this can be rehabilitated.”

See Video

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Mark A. Hoffman - 50 years for Production of Child Pornography - Wife not yet sentenced

Mark A. Hoffman, 35, of Portland pleaded guilty to using his own children, a two-year old and a 10-year old, in the production of child pornography.

The father of three sold the photos around the country in a nationwide pedophile ring. His wife Kathrine Hoffman faces separate state charges for tampering with evidence.

Police say his wife, Katherine Dawn Hoffman, 33, learned of the abuse by 2005. In state court, she was indicted on charges of hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence, four counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment and second-degree encouraging child sex abuse.

The two counts of production of child pornography carry a sentence of 50 years in prison. He will serve a lifetime of supervision if he is ever released, according to the FBI and U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones.

Judge Jones stated this was one of the worst cases he had seen in his 47 years in practice.

“It is appalling that this father would steal the innocence of his own children,” stated Acting United States Attorney Kent Robinson. “Because of the determined collaborative efforts of law enforcement, this parent has been brought to justice for his crimes.”

The federal investigation began in 2006 when an undercover online police officer, working with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, received child pornography videos from a Florida man.

The videos depicted the sexual molestation of that man’s 5-year-old daughter. After his arrest, the man provided agents with information that led them down a trail of fathers and guardians across the country who were sexually abusing minor children in their care.

Eventually, information was provided to authorities about Hoffman and his then 2- and 10-year-old daughters. Images sent by Hoffman to other fathers included pictures and videos of Hoffman’s minor daughters engaged in sexual conduct with Hoffman.

Jeffrey Hawkins - Repeat Sex Offender - People thought he was a Bush Pee'er

"There were rumors that he had been caught urinating in public"

"If I knew back then what I know now," John Lastocy says that about his former co-worker, Jeffrey Hawkins. Lastocy says he was in the dark, and he once supervised the former Plainfield Township firefighters. Hawkins was on the sex offender registry and is now accused of targeting children again.

Jeffrey Hawkins was fired this week from his job as Plainfield Township's Deputy Clerk and as a Plainfield Township Firefighter.

Hawkins is charged with soliciting a 15 year old on Facebook.

John Lastocy was a firefighter in Plainfield Township for 30 years, until he was let go 3 years ago. Lastocy was Jeffrey Hawkins' supervisor. He says, "He was a good firefighter. He was one of the better firefighters we had."

Lastocy says he heard Hawkins might be on the sex offender registry. But, he says, "There were rumors that he had been caught urinating in public. But that was just a rumor. The department never officially told us anything. Never came to us, never came to me as a lieutenant."

So, when Lastocy learned Hawkins plead guilty in 1997 to sexual contact with a 12 year old relative, he was upset. Lastocy says, "I'm a parent, I'm devastated. I don't believe the fire department should have hid that from us. I had teenaged kids at the time. Other firefighters had kids. It's my responsibility as a parent to protect my children. But I wasn't given that opportunity."

Plainfield Township Fire Chief David Peterson says he doesn't know for sure if Lastocy knew of Hawkins' criminal history. But the command staff at the time of the offense was involved in the decision to keep him on.

Peterson says the department would not hire someone with a criminal background, but Hawkins was already on staff. He says the department intentionally did not send Hawkins to schools and tried to minimize his contact with children.

Tom Cottrell is the Vice President of Counseling Services at the YWCA and works with sex offenders. He says, "It isn't necessarily a lifelong process of therapy. It is a lifelong process of being vigilant. No one is ever cured. It's an ongoing awareness of the choices they make."

Cottrell says statistics show only 5 percent of offenders sent to prison for a sex offense re-offend within three years. He says that's much lower than the 60 to 70 percent rate for other types of crimes. But, Cottrell says sexual offenses are also an under-reported crime, so it's hard to judge the accuracy of those recidivism rates.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte

Deverick Lockett - Repeat Sex Offender - Convicted by DNA match

A registered sex offender has been convicted of multiple counts of kidnapping and rape in violent attacks on women in Sacramento and Sonoma counties in 2007, officials said.

Deverick Lockett was found guilty Tuesday in Sacramento County Superior Court, according to a statement by the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office. He faces a possible punishment of 94 years to life in prison at sentencing Dec. 8.

Lockett was convicted of attacking a 22-year-old woman who stopped at a Rohnert Park gas station around 1 a.m. Sept. 20, 2007. She was attacked from behind as she got into her car, beaten unconscious and carried to a trash bin area, where she was raped. She suffered six facial fractures in the attack, the statement said.

Three days later, a Carmichael woman returning to her apartment after working a graveyard shift was attacked in the parking lot, beaten and carried to a laundry room. A neighbor who saw the abduction came to her rescue, but she suffered injuries requiring 50 stitches in her face, officials said.

A shirt that was caught on a fence as the attacker fled provided DNA matching the Sept. 23, 2007, attack to Lockett, who is a registered sex offender, the DA's statement said. During his prosecution for the Carmichael crime, a hit from a national DNA database of criminals also matched Lockett's DNA to the Rohnert Park attack, the statement said.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"

.........Sarah Tofte