More FloriDUH legislative quotes from Don Gaetz, His son Matt, and Eleanor Sobel

It is no surprise that the sex offender bills in FloriDUH are on the fast track to passing the next wave of sex offender legislation. It is almost like watching a caricature of the legislative process. It seems as if the legislators heard about the Shiitake Awards and decided they want to try to see who can make the dumbest quote of 2014. 

Today, three more Floridiots step up to the plate. Oh, and it should be no surprise that this is coming from the useful idiots at the Sun-SLANTinel: 

“These are real monsters and we’re going to put the monsters away for a long, long time. I don’t want to read about anymore of these kids dying because of sexual predators attacking and maiming and killing these kids in the most dreadful way." -- Eleanor Sobel. It seems Sobel has a shady past of her own, but that seems par for FloriDUH politics. 

“To me, if you have a plague, and that’s what sexually violent predators are, they are a human plague, if you have a plague, you want to know where it is and contain it." -- Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville. I am not surprised that Don "The Dope Boy" Gaetz wants to do what he can to detract from his own scandals, such as his marijuana running scandal and being investigated by the US Dept. of Justice over possible medicaid fraud. And I'm not even mentioning I can see where his son gets his stupidity. 

"There is a lot of questions in my mind whether there is value to treatment, but I know there is value to incarceration because when people are incarcerated they're not reoffending. And for the worst of the worst, I think we should lock them up and throw away the key." -- State Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach. You would think after Matt Gaetz's arrest for DUI, he would understand how fucked up the system can be. But no, his daddy helped get him off. I think he needs to go back. There is no cure for stupidity, but he can be contained. 

WI Gov. Scott Walker helps to get man fired with assistance from FloriDUH pol Matt Gaetz

 There is a meme known as Godwin's Law which states that an argument is officially over when someone invokes a Nazi reference. Maybe I should invent my own meme, Logue's Law. It goes something like this-- if you are a politician and you use sex offender issues as a platform for publicity, that politician must be trying to distract from some kind of political scandal. This tactic has been around a long time. Mark Foley, Elliot Spitzer, Rod Blagojavich and Anthony Weiner all tried this tactic. Add embattled Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to this list.

You see, Scott Walker has been in the news for a series of scandals, including racist emails and a campaign finance probe is just the tip of the iceberg. What better way to distract voters than with sex offender topics? Enter Daniel Montaldi, the scapegoat for last year's Cherish Perrywinkle fallout. Montaldi was head of FloriDUH's civil commitment program, until the Sun-Slantinel's Shiitake-worthy article accused Montaldi of being too "sympathetic" to registered persons and **gasp** stating sex offenders have low recidivism rates. So he was sacrificed as a scapegoat.

So Montaldi moved on to find a job in Wisconsin. But then a Floridiot legislator commented on the hire, and Gov. Walker added his two cents in. I sincerely hope Montaldi sues both of these individuals for this unnecessary interference in a hire of an individual who happens to believe in rehabilitation and low recidivism.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/scott-walker-looking-to-fire-new-sex-offender-administrator-b99209079z1-246164901.html

Madison — Gov. Scott Walker's administration Wednesday dropped a controversial new hire charged with evaluating sex offenders for release back into Wisconsin communities, a move that came only hours after Walker said he opposed the psychologist.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported on the hire of Daniel Montaldi as "evaluation director" at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center, a state facility for sex predators. Montaldi, who was to evaluate sex offenders and recommend to court officials which ones should be released, resigned from his post running Florida's sex predator program six months ago because he was seen as being too sympathetic to offenders.

"The Department of Health Services has rescinded the verbal offer of employment made to Daniel Montaldi for the Psychologist Supervisor-Chapter 980 (Evaluation Unit Director) position at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center," agency spokeswoman Stephanie Smiley said late Wednesday.

Smiley said Montaldi hasn't received any salary or payment from the state.

"The department will continue to protect the public by operating the program with existing resources as it has during this vacancy. Next steps for recruitment of this position have yet to be determined," she said.

Only hours before on Wednesday morning, Walker told reporters he wasn't happy about the hire of Montaldi and said it would be tricky firing him since he wasn't a political appointee under his direct control.

"I wasn't pleased with it. It's a civil service hire so ... the last two days we've been looking at what legal means we have to try to seek an alternative there," Walker said. "My hope is we'll have an answer by the end of today to do that."

Walker made that statement just as Wisconsin lawmakers began to look critically at the Montaldi hire.

Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc), chairman of the Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice, said late Tuesday that he hadn't researched Montaldi and didn't know him or his record beyond news accounts.

But "what I have read about him would give me extreme pause about whether he's the right person to ensure serious sex offenders are kept off the streets and away from our children," Kleefisch said.

Florida state Rep. Matt Gaetz said this week that he admired Walker but didn't think much of the Montaldi hire.

"This is a guy who has a catch-and-release approach to violent sexual predators," said Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach Republican and chairman of the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee. "Mr. Montaldi is a bad egg. We're just glad he's out of Florida."

Smiley said earlier this week that the governor and his staff weren't involved in the selection of Montaldi and that he was chosen as part of a civil service hiring process.

Montaldi came under fire from Gaetz and other Florida lawmakers last year when the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel wrote a three-part series examining problems in the state's sex predator program.

The newspaper found the number of potential predators identified by the state dropped by more than 50% under Montaldi's leadership. The paper also publicized an essay that Montaldi wrote in which he said he believes sex offenders as a group are "statistically unlikely to reoffend."

Wisconsin officials at first defended their decision to hire him, referring to the problems in Florida as "an aberration that resulted from factors beyond his control." Initially, Walker's office referred questions about Montaldi to the state Department of Health Services.

Montaldi has not returned calls to his Florida phone number and didn't immediately return a phone call Wednesday.

On Monday, Gaetz — whose father is president of the Florida Senate — said Montaldi resigned shortly after his chief of staff was informed that Montaldi was being called before the Criminal Justice Subcommittee to answer for recent failures in the state's violent sex offender program.

Montaldi does have an impressive résumé, Gaetz said. But Montaldi's track record should be apparent to anyone interested in hiring him, the Florida lawmaker said.

FloriDUH State Rep. Matt Gaetz wants us to forgive his past while condemning others

FloriDUH state rep Matt Gaetz has a mugshot online from a 2008 DUI arrest. Of course, he got off without enduring the same sanctions as the rest of us would for refusing a breathalyzer.

And yet, while Gaetz wants us to ignore his own past, he is using sex offenders as his platform for his reelection campaign.

Matt Gaetz already has a nomination for dumbest quote, but now that he is blatantly using sex offenders as a political platform, in addition to a recent article criticizing Wisconsin's hire of the former director of FloriDUH's SVP program, who was forced out after last year's Shiitake-worthy Sun-Slantinel article. Matt Gaetz should probably focus on not drinking and driving, or maybe his support of medical marijuana. I can see FloriDUH being the next state to legalize pot. They're obviously high down there.

http://www.wxow.com/story/24745692/2014/02/17/florida-lawmaker-says-dhs-should-face-tough-questions-about-its-new-sex-offender-evaluation-director#.UwPqZa8At_k.blogger

Florida lawmaker says DHS should face "tough questions" about its new sex offender evaluation director

Posted: Feb 17, 2014 4:00 PM EST
Updated: Feb 17, 2014 4:12 PM EST


MADISON (WXOW) -- The man hired to be the new sexual offender evaluation director for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) resigned from a similar position in Florida last September, after defending the rights of sex offenders and allowing the number of offenders tagged as "sexual predators" to drop by more than half under his watch.

A DHS spokesperson says the agency has selected Dr. Daniel Montaldi to head up sex offender evaluations at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston, but notes that the "hiring process is not complete."

Sand Ridge specializes in treatment services for offenders committed under Chapter 980, Wisconsin's sexually violent persons law.

Dr. Montaldi last served as the lead administrator for Florida's Sexually Violent Predator Program.

He resigned that position one day after the Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper wrote an article raising questions about is views and record.

As in Wisconsin, Florida law allows the state to keep sexual predators locked up after their prison sentences end.  Dr. Montaldi was in charge of the staff that would evaluate those offenders before they were released and recommend those likely to re-offend for continued confinement.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, the number of sex predator recommendations dropped considerably under Dr. Montaldi.  In the year before he became director, the program flagged 213 offenders as potential predators.  In the year under Dr. Montaldi's direction, that number dropped to 86.

"We learned that Florida had been releasing violent sexual predators under Mr. Montaldi's watch and that those violent sexual predators were re-offending, sometimes even the day or the same week they were released," Florida State Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-District 4) said on Monday.

Rep. Gaetz is the Chair of the Florida House Sub-Committee on Criminal Justice, who says he found not only Dr. Montaldi's record troubling, but also his comments on the civil rights of sex offenders.

The Sun-Sentinel reported that in an August 2013 email to members of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, Dr. Montaldi wrote:  "The value of liberty in a free society must also extend to society's most feared and despised members.  The civil rights of even sex offenders is still an important moral value."

"I think the people of Wisconsin should have a lot of questions about somebody that was essentially run out of the State of Florida because he used a position as an administrator with our sexually violent predator program to increase the propensity for releases for some very, very dangerous people," said Rep. Gaetz.

But in its statement, DHS downplayed those concerns.

"Dr. Montaldi has experience, expertise and philosophies that align with the Department's role under Chapter 980 with regard to the treatment and supervision of sex offenders as well as sex offender re-offense risk assessment.  He is widely recognized as a content expert in risk assessment and we are eager to have him join our staff," wrote DHS Spokesperson Stephanie Smiley. 

Smiley said that because the hire is not yet complete, she cannot confirm a start date or salary for Dr. Montaldi, but says the starting salary for the position was listed to go as high as $122,316 annually.

A year's worth of Shiitake-worthy quotes in one super fudge-packed article

Where to begin? Digesting this will give you mental constipation for a month. There are so many stupid quotes here, it is hard to pick the worst.

http://highlandstoday.com/hi/local-news/senator-sheriff-seek-greater-control-of-sex-offenders-20140123/

Senator, sheriff seek greater control of sex offenders
Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today 
Published: January 23, 2014   |   Updated: January 23, 2014 at 07:42 AM

SEBRING - The number of sex offenders in Highlands County is growing: 130 in 2010, compared with 139 in 2013.

Even worse, predators - who have committed sexually violent offenses - have nearly doubled, from 14 three years ago to 23 in October 2013, according to Sheriff Susan Benton.

That's one reason why Sen. Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, has sponsored SB 522.

"The current Sexually Violent Predator Program was found to have weaknesses that allowed some sexually violent predators to avoid evaluation and civil commitment," Grimsley said. "These weaknesses were raised in the Sun Sentinel series."

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported on Aug. 20, 2013 that nearly 600 sexually violent predators had been released, only to be convicted of more than 460 new child molestations, 121 rapes and 14 murders.

In an unusually bipartisan and bicameral effort last week, five bills moved through two House and two Senate panels, including the Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs, of which Grimsley is a member. The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee completed the effort by approving the proposals, which will be taken up by the full Legislature in the spring.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you're witnessing the beginning of landmark legislation," said Rep. Ray Pilon, R-Sarasota.

Lawmakers focused on the June murder of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle in Jacksonville. Donald Smith, 57, was accused of abducting, raping and strangling her just three weeks after being released from jail on another sex offense. This time, prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

"In the Perrywinkle case, let's be clear: the system failed," lobbyist Ron Book told the House panel.

After release from prison, the state already can civilly commit a sexual offender for treatment if he or she is likely to commit another offense. However, the five bills will plug holes in that civil process. First, said Grimsley, her SB 522 "expands the criteria for civil commitment consideration to include offenders who are serving a sentence in county jail and who have a history of committing a sexually violent offense.

"Second, in certain circumstances, the bill will allow placement of persons who have been inadvertently released from custody without evaluation into civil detention for evaluation," Grimsley said.

"Third, the multidisciplinary teams within the Department of Children and Families will be expanded to include assistant state attorneys, law enforcement officers, and victim advocates," Grimsley said. One must be a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist. The team weighs not just sexual offenses, but attempts, solicitations and conspiracies.

"This is intended to help the evaluation teams make better decisions as to whether the person is a sexually violent predator who is likely to commit new sexual crimes unless kept in secure confinement," Grimsley said. Finally, the bill requires that the local sheriff will be notified upon release of a predator back into the community.

"We are very involved with the monitoring of these offenders," Benton said. Deputy Cara Mosely tracks every offender, and the sheriff's office publishes an annual report of sexual offenders in the community and inserts a copy into newspapers.

"We also have Offender Watch, which is accessible from our website, where citizens can see everything and also sign up for email notices of any movement of offenders around whatever address they enter," Benton said. "It could be their home, their child's school or day care."

"If we've learned anything from the evidence, it's that many individuals who specifically go out and target the most vulnerable among us are simply wired differently," said Chairman Matt Gaetz, R-Shalimar. "And I would like to see them behind bars for 50 years - minimally."

"If there is an opportunity to give them the death penalty, I would be all for it," said Rep. Kionne McGhee, D-Miami.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this story

gpinnell@highlandstoday.com

863-386-5828