Thursday, February 10, 2011

David C. Hartshorn - Repeat Sex Offender - “He was just a mild-mannered man”

According to a law enforcement official, Mr. Hartshorn was convicted in 1989 on charges of sodomy, promoting sexual performance by a child under 16, and promoting obscene sexual performance by a child under 16. He served three years of probation.

A convicted sex offender who had risen up through the ranks at his local Little League was arraigned Wednesday on new sex offense charges, the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, announced.

The defendant, David C. Hartshorn, 52, has been accused of using his post with the Rochdale Village Little League — where, according to the league’s Facebook page, he was its commissioner — to sexually assault three boys at his home over a six-month period ending in January 2010.
A onetime Little League Coach of the Year, Mr. Hartshorn is charged with showing child pornography to the boys, two of whom were 14 and one 13, and coercing them into performing sex acts, which he filmed. Additionally, according to the charges, Mr. Hartshorn hosted a game of poker for six boys in which the loser was made to perform a sex act on one of the others. Mr. Hartshorn also captured video of that instance of abuse, the authorities said.
The allegations surfaced after one of the boys reported the abuse to his mother, who called the police, the district attorney said. Upon searching Mr. Hartshorn’s home, the police discovered a cache of child pornography videos, some featuring children younger than 10, Mr. Brown said.

Mr. Hartshorn has been charged with first- and second-degree criminal sexual acts, the use of a child in a sexual performance, second-degree sexual abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child. He would face as much as 25 years in prison if convicted, and is being held without bail.
Mr. Hartshorn was convicted in 1989 on charges of sodomy, promoting sexual performance by a child under 16, and promoting obscene sexual performance by a child under 16. He served three years of probation, though no other details were immediately available.

A message left on Mr. Hartshorn’s voice mail on Wednesday afternoon was not returned. Several calls to the Rochdale Village Little League also went unreturned; the organization’s policy on vetting potential coaches could not be determined.

News of Mr. Hartshorn’s arrest, and the revelation of his previous conviction, shocked people in his neighborhood, where residents said he had lived alone in a two-story house since his parents died.

“I am totally shocked,” said Wanda Harris, a next-door neighbor. “Because you would never know it. These kids come and they’re fighting to get into the house.”

“I’ve never heard or seen anything” bad, Ms. Harris said, adding that during her 11 years on the block, even her grown children had played in the street with Mr. Hartshorn, his nephews and the boys on his baseball teams.

Ms. Harris said she saw children at her neighbor’s house every day, especially in the summertime.

“You’d never know this was going on,” she said. “He was just a mild-mannered man.”

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

"On average most sex offenders are never caught again for a new sex offense, after five years, between 10 and 15 percent of sex offenders are detected, often convicted, of committing a new sex offense. If you follow them for ten years the rates go up somewhat, if you follow them as long as we’ve been able to follow them, which is about 20 years, the rates go up to somewhere between 30 to 40 percent of the total sample will eventually be caught for a new sex offense."
Dr. R. Karl Hansen

Monday, February 7, 2011

Jefferson Benjamin Simmons - Repeat Sex Offender - McDonald's Predator

Previous convictions
  • 1984
  • 1996
  • 2005


A convicted sex offender already facing charges that he twice visited a fast-food restaurant playground in Raleigh is now accused of taking indecent liberties with a minor, authorities said.

Jefferson Benjamin Simmons, 52, of Raleigh, is charged with one count of indecent liberties with a child involving a Jan. 18 incident, according to arrest warrants filed with in the Wake County Magistrate's Office. The child involved was under the age of 16, the warrants say.

Simmons is being held in the Wake County jail on a $250,000 bond on the latest charge. Court documents noted he is "considered a danger."

Simmons' other charges relate to visits authorities said he made to the playground at the McDonald's restaurant at 4121 Blue Ridge Road on Jan. 18 and Jan. 19 in violation of conditions placed on him as a convicted sex offender.

Simmons, of 3704 Hillcrest Drive, was convicted in 1996 in Guilford County on a charge of indecent liberties with a minor, according to the N.C. Department of Justice Sex Offender Registry. The victim in the case was 14, the registry says.

Simmons, who has 17 aliases, was also convicted in 2005 in Wake County of assault on the handicapped and in 1984 in Wake County for taking indecent liberties with a child.



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


"On average most sex offenders are never caught again for a new sex offense, after five years, between 10 and 15 percent of sex offenders are detected, often convicted, of committing a new sex offense. If you follow them for ten years the rates go up somewhat, if you follow them as long as we’ve been able to follow them, which is about 20 years, the rates go up to somewhere between 30 to 40 percent of the total sample will eventually be caught for a new sex offense."

Dr. R. Karl Hansen