Tuesday, October 31, 2017

No Dice: Megan Dice of ABC 13 (Lynchburg/ Roanoake VA) offers dirty tricks, not treats, for Halloween


There's no worse way for people to ruin my birthday than to propagate Halloween Hysteria over people forced to register as "sex offenders." And out of the myriad of poorly-written scare pieces, this one was the absolute worst. The headline is the worst part of all. If someone is this terminally stupid, I doubt any degree of education would educate her. But if you want to try, her Twitter page is @MeganJDice.

http://wset.com/news/local/bus-stop-pedophiles-how-close-is-a-sex-offender-around-your-children

Bus stop pedophiles: How close is a sex offender to your children?
by Megan Dice
Monday, October 30th 2017

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) -- With Halloween coming up, state police said they are working with probation and parole officers to check on supervised sex offenders.

Sex offenders who are on supervision cannot participate in giving out candy to trick-or-treaters.

But the question many have is, 'what about every other day?'

Nicole Mcqueary said she had no idea that one of her neighbors is a registered sex offender and that it worries her as her seven-year-old catches the bus every single morning, and it also hits close to home for her as she was the victim of an assault.

"Just uncomfortable, uneasy, you know, not only do I have my child here, I watch other kids and these kids have ADHD, some of these kids are disabled. I don't really feel like their mind is really capable of discerning people," she said. "I'm 32, and it happened when I was about 17, and I can just say that it causes me to be extra cautious with my child. I fear that somebody will do this to my child, you can't stop a sex offender."

So, do schools check bus routes against the sex offender registry?

Lynchburg City Schools said they do not check their routes against the sex offender registry because they still need to pick up kids in neighborhoods where sex offenders live.

Comparing the sex offender registry to some of LCS' bus routes, we found that one offender, convicted of forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual battery, and other charges, was just .2 miles away from one of the bus stops.

Another offender is working near a bus stop and a daycare on Bedford Ave. in Lynchburg.

That offender is convicted of carnal knowledge, which means inappropriately touching a child.

Virginia law requires every adult convicted of an offense occurring on or after July 1, 2006 shall forever be prohibited from residing within 500 feet of the premises of any place he knows or has reason to know is a child day care center, primary, secondary, or high school.

500 feet is about the full length of a football field, plus another half.

State law does not specifically address the issue of offenders living near bus stops.

"When it came to the bus stops, the problem we had with imposing that law was that the buses in rural areas will stop in front of every house and you could not make every single house a zone in and to itself," said Sen. Steve Newman, (R) 23rd District. "We do encourage schools and bus stops that are aggregated to move to an area that does not have an individual close to them, but you can't have every bus stop included."

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recommends you teach your children to tell an adult if they are approached by someone acting strange as well as a safe place to go if they need help after getting off at the bus stop.

If you have a concern at a bus stop location, you should contact the school system or police.

To search the sex offender registry, click here.

To learn more about Virginia laws regarding the sex offender registry, click here.

Friday, October 27, 2017

Virginians can't risk Trumptard Ed Gillespie as Governor

I'm sure a certain blonde Virginia "advocate" might vote for this clown, but anyone who actually cares for the rights of registered citizens will avoid this guy like the plague. Virginia is for losers.

Trump is endorsing this clown. Need I say more?

http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/gillespie-ad-blasting-mcauliffe-rights-restoration-policy-as-soft-on/article_3534923b-31d4-5217-97e9-8271ee93ac48.html

Gillespie ad blasting McAuliffe rights restoration policy as soft on sex offenders draws outrage from Democrats
By GRAHAM MOOMAW Richmond Times-Dispatch  Oct 23, 2017

A marquee policy initiative of Gov. Terry McAuliffe took center stage in the Virginia governor’s race Monday as Republican Ed Gillespie attacked McAuliffe’s approach to felon rights restoration as charitable to the point of being dangerous and Democrat Ralph Northam pushed back by saying Gillespie should be “ashamed” over his “fearmongering campaign.”

The Gillespie campaign rolled out an ad Monday highlighting the case of a sex offender whose rights were restored late last year, months after he was arrested for having a massive child pornography stash. Gillespie said the case of John Martin Bowen of Accomack County illustrates the flaws in McAuliffe’s expansive approach to rights restoration with minimal screening of individual cases. Northam, the current lieutenant governor, has praised the policy.

In the ad, Gillespie says he supports rights restoration for offenders who have “paid their debt to society and are living an honest life.”

“But Ralph Northam’s policy of automatic restoration of rights for unrepentant, unreformed, violent criminals is wrong,” Gillespie says in the 60-second ad that sharpens the law-and-order message the GOP nominee has already emphasized with ads opposing sanctuary cities and stressing the dangers of the Latino gang MS-13.

Responding to Gillespie’s ad, McAuliffe, who has used his executive authority to restore rights to more than 168,000 people, accused the Republican of spotlighting one sexual predator to “sensationalize” the issue, adding that Gillespie “has jumped in the gutter with (President) Donald Trump.”

“This is one of the most divisive campaigns that I have ever seen,” McAuliffe said on a conference call with reporters.

McAuliffe’s office said Bowen’s rights were restored because he completed his sentencing obligations for an earlier sex crime, but he lost his rights again when he was convicted of the new charges and sentenced to 15 years. The Virginian-Pilot reported in June that Bowen already had a 2001 conviction for molesting a child before he was arrested last year with “one of the largest caches of child pornography ever recovered in Virginia.”

“He had been re-arrested, but he hadn’t been convicted of anything,” McAuliffe said when explaining why Bowen’s rights were restored last December.

The Northam campaign responded to the Gillespie ad with similar outrage.

“Since he has no positive ideas, he’s resorted to lying about Dr. Northam,” said Northam spokesman David Turner. “It is a new low for him to accuse a pediatrician and children’s hospice medical director of favoring felons who have hurt children. Ralph believes all Virginians who have served their time and are law-abiding should have their rights restored, and that’s never changed.”

Though Virginia is one of only a handful of states that constitutionally strip felons of their voting rights for life unless they’re restored by the governor, there is broad bipartisan consensus that those who have done their time and no longer pose any danger to society should regain the rights to vote, hold public office, serve on juries and notarize documents. Then-Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, took steps to make that process easier, but McAuliffe reached for a more sweeping reform last April when he restored the rights of 206,000 felons at once through a single executive order.

Republican leaders in the General Assembly successfully sued the governor, arguing he had overstepped his authority by effectively invalidating the felon disenfranchisement policy enshrined in the Virginia Constitution. Nevertheless, McAuliffe pressed forward with a streamlined review system that has allowed him to continue to restore felons’ rights at a rapid pace.

Though Republicans lost a second legal challenge against McAuliffe’s revised system, they have still argued that the restoration policy should draw a distinction between violent and nonviolent offenders and require felons to pay all victim restitution and court fees before regaining their rights.

Scrambling the typical partisan views on guns, Gillespie criticized McAuliffe’s approach Monday for making it easier for felons to get their gun rights restored. On a press call, Gillespie said the existing approach puts Virginia communities “at risk” from violent felons who can legally own guns.

“I believe that my policies will keep Virginians safer,” Gillespie said.

The McAuliffe administration has long rejected the argument that its rights restoration policy puts guns in the hands of potentially dangerous people, noting that ex-offenders whose civil rights are restored still have to petition a judge to regain the right to have firearms. That process allows local prosecutors to argue a case before the judge if they believe a particular felon shouldn’t be trusted with guns.

Even with the additional safeguards in place, McAuliffe’s policy puts the onus on the legal system to weed out reformed felons from those who may still pose a threat, said Loudoun County prosecutor Jim Plowman, a Republican who sued the McAuliffe administration to obtain a list of names showing the felons restored under the governor’s original order.

“What the administration is doing now is putting judges in the very precarious position of having these restored felons, many of them violent felons, walking into court with the cloak of gubernatorial review that they drape over themselves,” Plowman said on the call with Gillespie.

Gillespie has said he’ll look to amend the Virginia Constitution with a new felon voting policy with input from McDonnell and former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, a Democrat. A Republican-sponsored constitutional amendment died in committee in the 2017 legislative session. Gillespie said formally adopting a new policy through legislative action would minimize swings that could come with leaving it up to the individual views of each governor.

The rights restoration debate has veered into racially charged territory in the past, with critics calling the disenfranchisement policy a vestige of Jim Crow laws meant to suppress the black vote.

“On the heels of his despicable attacks on our Latino friends and neighbors, Gillespie is now declaring loud and clear that he’s a strong supporter of racist laws that disproportionately block black Virginians from the ballot box,” said Anna Scholl, executive director of the left-leaning advocacy group Progress Virginia.

Democrats have compared debt repayment requirements to poll taxes, the financial barriers that historically blocked many African-American voters from democratic participation.

State Del. Greg Habeeb, a Salem Republican who sponsored the amendment to ease the constitutional ban on felon voting but with stricter rules than those adopted by McAuliffe, said Northam was among the many Democrats who supported requiring restitution payments in earlier attempts to reform the law.

“For those very same people to play the race card now on a policy that was their own proposal, ... that’s politics at its worst,” Habeeb said on the Gillespie call.

Asked for his response to the concerns that a more restrictive policy would disproportionately affect African-American voting power, Gillespie said, “That’s something that would be taken into account in the legislative process.”

Bowen, the sex offender whose mugshot appears in Gillespie’s TV ad, is white.





Saturday, October 14, 2017

Garbage Patch Kids: The Patch frightens readers with annual FAKE NEWS fearfest, adds Dennis RoBLEHgh OpEd justifying their fake news fearfest

Lets address the bovine excrement in this article:

1. Lisa French was killed by someone with no prior sex offense record. A registry would not have saved her life.
2. This story was 40 years ago, while registries have only been around in most of the US in 20. Between 1971 and today, there have not been any other cases like this one, so to claim the registry had any impact on this once in a lifetime issue is ludicrous.
2. Recidivism is cloer to 1% than 25%. This clown needs better numbers.
3. The claim that "most sex crimes go underreported" is a bold-faced lie dragged straight from the truly scary myth of the satanic ritual abuse era, the mother of fake news reporting.
4. Dennis denies there have been protests at the homes of registered citizens. That alone shows he is completely ignorant about this issue. We've not only seen protests, we've seen people use the registry as hit lists. Apparently this clown never heard of Jeremy and Christine Moody, or Patrick Drum, or Stephen Marshall. It must be nice living in Dennis's fantasyland.

The Patch isn't a real news site anyways, it is a self-publisher. ANYONE can write for Patch, and unfortunately, they allow doucherags with zero journalistic skills and even less integrety write for them.

https://patch.com/us/across-america/then-i-see-delight-your-eyes-turn-fear

'Then I See The Delight In Your Eyes Turn To Fear'
This is why Patch publishes local sex offender maps.
By Dennis Robaugh (Patch National Staff) - Updated Oct 13, 2017 11:06 pm ET

I wonder what Lisa French would think if she could see her local sex-offender registry — the public record of addresses for every person convicted of a sex crime. Every fall for the last six years, Patch has plotted those places on local maps and shared the maps with our readers. What would Lisa French, as a mom, think about our effort to help parents easily see who lives in those dwellings?

At Halloween, would she find that map useful as she dressed her little ones like pirates or princesses and prepared to walk through their neighborhood in a gleeful hunt for candy?

We'll never know.

Lisa French isn't a mom. She never grew up to raise children of her own. Her life ended Oct. 31, 1973, at the hands of a man thereafter known as the "Halloween killer." Out trick-or-treating that evening, dressed as a little hobo, she knocked on a neighbor's door looking for a handful of sweets and chocolates, but that night she came face-to-face with evil.

The Halloween killer took her inside his home, took her innocence and took her life.

Lisa French was just 9 years old.

"I doubt that I could ever fully realize the terror you experienced at my hands," Gerald Turner wrote in a "letter" to his victim. The document is part of his parole file.

"I can still see you standing (in) the doorway with that felt hat beaming at having recognized me. Then I see the delight in your eyes turn to fear as I close the door behind you.

"The rest of my life I will have to live with what I did to you ..."

He stripped her, raped her, murdered her, stuffed her into a garbage bag, then dumped her in a field. He wore socks on his hands to try to avoid leaving fingerprints, according to the court record. A farmer found her nude body a few days later in a bag. The city of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, still mourns Lisa French.

Nine months later, detectives snared Turner and he confessed.

"It isn't the same here in Fond du Lac. Everybody that lives here always knows about Lisa French," the lead detective on the case, Melvin Heller, told WISN News recently. "What I like the parents to know is the possibility of this thing happening again is very realistic today, because those people aren't locked up forever today."

Turner wasn't locked up forever, either. Convicted in 1975, the Halloween killer was sentenced to 38 years in prison and paroled in 1992. His release prompted Wisconsin to enact a sexual predator law that gave the state power to keep a sexually violent person behind bars for treatment. Turner was imprisoned for a few more years because of the law, but the state again set him free in 1998. Five years later, he was returned to prison after authorities discovered he brought sexually violent pornography into his halfway house. He could be freed in February 2018.

We publish sex-offender maps because people deserve to know whether they live near someone like Turner who's preyed on the most vulnerable.

Every state now has a sex-offender registry. While there is no national database, the U.S. Justice Department maintains a national public offender sex registry website with links to lists for every state and territory. Laws have been passed barring registered sex offenders from passing out candy on Halloween or attending community Halloween celebrations.

In the days before kids trick-or-treat, many police and sheriff's departments visit their towns' sex offenders to remind them of the rules.

The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws, an advocacy group for sex criminals released back into society, objects to the publication of local sex-offender registry maps on Patch. The organization points to a lack of Halloween abductions and molestations in the last 20 years — since the advent of sex-offender registries — as a reason why we should not do this, arguing we unfairly demonize these criminals and even encourage community hysteria.

In all the years we've published sex-offender maps or sat in bond court, we've never heard of people marching with torches to a child predator's home. We have, however, seen many parents weep in court because their child was raped or molested.

Lisa French was taken from her parents and her community 44 years ago. She could have been a mom. If not for the Halloween killer, she might even now be walking door-to-door, beaming at her little costumed grandchildren.

Statistics and research may show children are at no greater risk of falling victim to pedophiles on Halloween than any other time of the year, but that doesn't mean children are not vulnerable. Some studies show there's a one-in-four chance a convicted sex offender will run afoul of the law again, but most sex crimes go unreported, which means the true recidivism rate among molesters and child rapists cannot be known.

We could very well publish these safety maps at the start of summer when kids are out and about playing, or the start of the school year when kids begin walking to the bus stops. We chose October, but the timing really doesn't matter. 

Parents across Patch communities repeatedly tell us how much they appreciate our culling through public information to assemble these maps as a public service. We will continue to do so. We present the information clearly and plainly, without hype or hysteria. Knowledge is empowering, and if we've helped parents know more about their neighbors, that's what matters.

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Nasty Neighbors butthurt over registrant's family receiving home repair asistance, complains with stupid signs




I'm willing to bet these asshats voted Trump.

http://www.oleantimesherald.com/news/neighbors-question-nonprofit-s-assistance-of-sex-offender-robert-washington/article_5f90751c-a658-11e7-92c3-2360fc0b9c87.html

Neighbors question nonprofit’s assistance of sex offender Robert Washington's home
By TOM DINKI and DANIELLE GAMBLE, Olean Times Herald Oct 1, 2017 Updated Oct 1, 2017 

OLEAN — Along Fountain Street, tall trees and manicured lawns are graced with flowers, trimmed hedges and American flags. And, in the yard next to convicted sex offender Robert Washington’s house, two lawn signs together read “Sexually molest a child and you get your home remodeled for free!”

The signs highlight not only a simmering feud between Washington and several of his neighbors, documented in several Olean Police Department reports over the last two years, but also a debate the neighbors would like to have: Should nonprofit assistance funds for the impoverished be used to help those with a criminal history of sexual abuse?

Neighbors of Washington are voicing concerns that the home shared by the former Olean High School special education teacher and his elderly mother received apparent repairs and remodeling services this summer from local nonprofit organizations that use government funds.

Washington, 38, was charged in June of 2016 with having sexual contact with a 13-year-old male student during non-school sanctioned tutoring sessions at both Washington’s 361 Fountain St. home and the victim’s home. He was fired by the Olean City School District shortly after.

Neighbors are questioning why taxpayer-funded programs were allowed to benefit Washington, who is currently serving a six-month sentence in Cattaraugus County Jail for a third-degree criminal sex act, a class E felony, and set be released in December.

“He’s sitting in jail for molesting a child and he’s going to come home to a brand new, remodeled house that the taxpayers paid for,” said Barbara Whiteman of 371 Fountain St., in whose yard the signs about free remodeling were posted. “Does that sound right to you?”

Washington’s Buffalo-based attorney Frank Housh said Washington is entitled to all rights except those forfeited as part of his sentencing, and that the neighbors’ argument is “not legitimate.”

“They don’t get to decide who gets the benefits of being a citizen in the United States and in the city of Olean,” Housh said. “The mob doesn’t get to decide which funds are available and which ones aren’t.”

When contacted by phone Friday, Washington’s 74-year-old mother, Helen Washington, said she received home improvements from local organizations, but that it was nobody else’s “business” what those improvements were and how much they cost.

“I was a single parent and I worked hard,” she said. “I didn’t have the extra cash to put into my home and these people have offered to do it.”

The nonprofits in question — Cattaraugus Community Action, Inc. and Chautauqua Opportunities, Inc. — both declined to say whether they provided any free or reduced-cost services to the Washingtons through their various housing improvement programs, citing confidentiality reasons. However, they added that eligibility requirements are set by various state and federal guidelines, not by the individual organizations.

Fountain Street residents say if that’s the case, state and federal guidelines need to be changed.

“Maybe there are rules (the nonprofits) have to follow and they couldn’t say no,” said Carrie Peters of 360 Fountain St., who lives directly across from the Washingtons, “but if that’s the case, our legislators need to know that this is not OK. It is not OK to spend our money on people like this.”

Home improvements

The collection of neighbors who reached out to the Olean Times Herald with their concerns include Whiteman, Peters, Todd and Janice Randall and Matthew Sage. In a group interview Aug. 30, they reported witnessing the Washingtons’ home receive several visits from vehicles with Cattaraugus Community Action and Chautauqua Opportunities insignias, and subsequent repairs that began in mid-August and wrapped up about a week and a half ago. They said those repairs appeared to include new windows, subflooring and installation, and that a new hot water tank was delivered to the home.

Both organizations provide home repair, as well as energy-saving and weatherization renovations to low-income people. Josiah Lamp, director of housing and community development for Chautauqua Opportunities, based in Dunkirk, said the organization tries to coordinate with Cattaraugus Community Action “as much as possible” to provide housing services in Cattaraugus County.

Both Lamp and Cattaraugus Community Action CEO Tina Zerbian declined to say if and what services the Washingtons received.

“All services that our agency provides to anyone in the community are held in confidence,” Zerbian said in an email.

Nonprofit agencies — even those that use government funds — are not subject to Freedom of Information Law or Freedom of Information Act requests.

Helen Washington said she applied for improvements, not her son, and they were for her benefit, not her son’s. Housh noted Helen Washington has not committed any crime and is entitled to whatever funds are legally made available to her, private or public.

However, both Washington and his mother are listed as owners of the property on Cattaraugus County Office of Real Property data and the city of Olean’s 2017 assessment roll. Officials with the city Assessor’s Office said, according to their records, Washington is the remainder of the property’s trust, meaning he will own the home when his mother dies.

“It’s mind-boggling that he’s sitting in (jail) and their property value is (increasing), meanwhile we surround them and our property value is (declining),” said Todd Randall of 341 Fountain St., whose property borders the Washingtons’.

“We’ll never be able to sell our house,” added his wife, Janice Randall.

Their concerns are valid, according to a study published by the American Economic Review in 2008. The study states houses within one-tenth mile of a sex offender’s home drop 4 percent in property value, while houses directly next to an offender’s home sell for about 12 percent less.

Washington was rated as a Level 2 sex offender during a Sex Offender Registration Act hearing last month, meaning his name and complete residence address are available on the state’s public registry.

Changing the policy

The county’s Community Action agency is a subsidiary of New York State Community Action Association. The state association’s website describes these agencies as “federally designated … frontline resource(s) for people living in poverty.”

Eligibility criteria for assistance programs are sometimes based solely on household income and are established on a case-by-case basis by the organization’s various funders, Zerbian said. Those funders include the Cattaraugus County, New York state and federal governments, as well as private entities.

For example, Cattaraugus Community Action received a $750,000 grant earlier this year from the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal to expand its weatherization and energy conservation program.

“We cannot withhold services from eligible clients based upon whether we, or anyone else, deems the client worthy above and beyond the eligibility criteria,” Zerbian stated. “ … Our mission is one of an anti-poverty organization. As such, we do not specifically outreach to persons with criminal backgrounds, nor do we typically deny services based solely upon a criminal record, although there are exceptions.”

Lamp gave a similar explanation in an interview Friday.

“Everything would need to be done in accordance to the law or specific regulations of a particular program,” he said.

Housh said if Washington’s neighbors take issue with the home receiving services, they should “seek remedy in the law.”

Todd Randall said he and his neighbors have reached out to local lawmakers, but many of them have not reached back. He believes some are “trying to bury this” because of the uncomfortable nature of the topic and because it could involve taking away resources from impoverished people.

“Regardless, it’s going to mean someone looks bad,” Randall said.

One of the lawmakers who did get back to them was a fellow Fountain Street resident, Cattaraugus County Legislator John Padlo, D-Olean.

Padlo said he spoke with Cattaraugus Community Action on behalf of his neighbors and was told the Washingtons qualified for the services they received; he said he has not heard of the Washingtons receiving services through Chautauqua Opportunities.

“Do I agree with it? No, I don’t, but if they fall in the criteria then they qualify for it,” he said. “I know what their point is: that there’s a convicted felon there. But Community Action’s point of view is those people qualify for it. They can’t discriminate.”

Padlo added that it’s his understanding the funds used to repair the Washingtons’ home came from the state and federal government, not Cattaraugus County. The majority of public funds received by Cattaraugus Community Action is from the state and federal government, said Padlo, adding the county sometimes acts as a “pass-through agency” for state and federal funds.

“Once we receive the money, we in turn pass the money through Community Action. Even then, the eligibility requirements can’t be changed or altered (by the county government),” he said. “Obviously, if it’s a law that can be done at county government, I’d certainly look into that.”

Neighbors said they are not against impoverished people receiving government assistance. They are concerned about the right people getting it.

“We don’t have anything against the volunteers for this community, the people who are working for it — it’s the rules on the process of the application and who they’re allowing to take this money,” Peters said.

A history of disputes

Helen Washington said she has lived in her home for over 50 years and never bothered anyone. She finds her neighbors’ issues with her home repairs “ridiculous.”

“I don’t think (my neighbors) should have their nose in my affair,” she said. “Every time I get company, or somebody is at the door, they run right out to see what’s going on.”

Olean police have responded to the Washingtons’ home for reports of neighbor disputes at least 10 times over the last two years, according to incident reports obtained by the Times Herald through a FOIL request.

The calls, made both by the Washingtons and against the Washingtons by their neighbors, mostly the Randalls, include complaints about loud music and plowing snow onto each other’s property. In two reports — one occurring just days after Washington’s arrest in June 2016 and the other a day before his sentencing in June of this year — neighbors allege Washington took cell phone pictures and video of them and their home. During the June 25 incident, Peters alleges Washington took pictures of her 5-year-old daughter playing in front of the house.

No one has been charged in any of the incidents.

Shortly after Washington’s arrest, neighbors who spoke with the Times Herald planted several signs on their own lawns that read “No excuse for child abuse” and “No pedophile zone.”

Neighbors said their signs are up not just to slam Washington.

“When (Washington was first arrested), we were more concerned that if someone were to take action into their own hands, are they going get the right house?” Peters said. “We were more concerned about our own safety.”

No incidents of vandalism to the Washingtons’ home have been reported, according to the police reports.

Housh considers the signs “harassment” and “vigilantism.”

Olean Police Chief Jeff Rowley said because the signs are not vulgar or threatening, they don’t break any laws.

“At least the signs that I saw, I really don’t have the authority to make them take them down or cover them up,” he said.

Housh said Olean police have failed to address neighbors’ alleged harassment of the Washingtons with the signs and ongoing neighborhood dispute. He said he has sent a letter about Olean police’s alleged lack of response to Rowley, Cattaraugus County Sheriff Timothy Whitcomb and New York State Police Superintendent George Beach, but heard nothing in response.

“At least according to my client, the Olean police are doing nothing, and by doing that they’re encouraging this kind of vigilante behavior,” Housh said.

Rowley said Olean police always respond when called by the Washingtons or their neighbors, and to say otherwise is inaccurate, noting he personally went to Fountain Street in the spring to listen to the Washingtons’ allegations.

Rowley said it’s difficult to press charges in neighbor dispute incidents, as offenses don’t necessarily warrant a charge, and often “something that may be annoying to you may not necessarily be illegal.”

“We’re just kind of hoping it resolves itself, and everybody grows up a little bit and leaves the other person alone,” he said.

Todd Randall said Housh’s accusations of vigilantism are an effort to deflect Washington’s guilt, adding that neighbors have never had a physical altercation with Washington.

With him being a softball coach at St. Bonaventure University, and his wife an owner of a Farmers Insurance agency, Todd Randall said he understands the public scrutiny that comes from pushing this issue and is not trying to be “inflammatory.”

He said his issue with the Washingtons was indeed the catalyst for his interest in this topic and “to pretend it didn’t start with them would be disingenuous.” But after several conversations with his neighbors, Randall said the concern among the neighbors expanded to a moral question.

“I keep thinking back to the victim,” said Peters, an OHS math teacher. “To see that the person who did this to you is sitting in jail but then getting all of these things done at their home — what are we teaching that child? That somebody can hurt him and then get free stuff?”

As far as the scope of what crimes should necessitate nonprofits to refuse services, Todd Randall has no answers, conceding that “everything is not black and white.”

“All I know is I’m looking next door and you’ve got the worst of the worst,” he said.

(Contact reporter Tom Dinki at tdinki@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @tomdinki. Contact City Editor Danielle Gamble at dgamble@oleantimesherald.com. Follow her on Twitter, @OTHGamble.)