Oct 8, 2009 7:08 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: Ron Book Makes A Call To Action
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
"Those people are not safe to be in a population with elderly people. I just can't even imagine that this is happening and nobody knew about it. You obviously have discovered it," says Ron Book, a man who walks where many wouldn't dare, the darkest den of homeless sex offenders who, created their own tent city under the famed Julia Tuttle Bridge.
But while Book has rolled up his sleeves to find them housing and close this colony, seeing the CBS4 I-Team investigation into how sex predators, registered offenders and violent felons are living in nursing homes and ALF'S with the most vulnerable elderly, left him, in his words, "shocked was probably an understatement, rage, anger. You know you see the world differently when you have a family member that has been victimized."
Her name is Lauren, a daughter who has grown into a force for change. As a child she kept a secret and lived the nightmare that the family's trusted live-in nanny was molesting her.
"They are abusing people, they are manipulating, they are controlling, they are hurting, they are harming, they are maiming. Nobody, nobody other than a family member can tell you about the impact that one of these people have on families other than somebody that been there done, that," Book tells Chief I-Team Investigator Michele Gillen.
"They try to harm and use power and control over people who are weaker than themselves," daughter Lauren tells Gillen as they walk together under the bridge. She
is now joining her dad in alarm over the CBS4 I-Team findings of elderly being raped and assaulted by nursing home residents with records.
"It's just outrageous, totally outrageous, we shouldn't, we can't, we can't do that to those, it's just like putting them live in a daycare facility, or kindergarten or first grade class. You can't do it. And we must do all we can do to have them removed and find compliant housing for those individuals as well," she declares.
Book points out that when a registered sex offender moves into a neighborhood, residents are alerted with flyers. Yet, in the CBS-4 investigation no facility owner interviewed told residents that there are registered sex offenders living among them.
Book found this most disturbing.
"You are not going to notify the people or the families of the nursing homes or ALF's? That is absurd, that is, in my opinion, a misinterpretation of what the law requires today. I think if you are in a residence, you are required to tell people, you are required to distribute those photos and if they are not doing it, they're likely to be in violation of the law. They should be required to do it and they should be no if ands or buts."
Father and daughter says they are baffled that the I-Team found most nursing homes don't conduct criminal background checks before admitting a resident, when many apartment buildings do, and as chairman of the Homeless Trust, Book knows -- even homeless shelters screen for a violent past.
"We don't let offenders and predators in, we do a background check, we don't let them in, why because we have children there, we have older people there, we don't want to expose them to the population," he explains to Gillen.
While he and daughter Lauren struggle to still find appropriate housing for the several dozen men under the bridge, expect to hear their voice asking for protection of the elderly along with children. Time, he says, for our political leaders to bring everyone to the table.
"They ought to be outraged by this, they ought to call public hearings, public meetings, they ought to summon the secretaries in those departments and there ought to be some answers," Book said. "Background checks, notification, straight prohibition, flyer notification, certified letters to family members and the like, the guardians and guardians ad litems," are among the suggestions some experts say should be considered. The public need to do that, email, the phone, and snail mail to get this message through to lawmakers, that something needs to be done and we are watching and we are going to hold you accountable."
Book says he needs no convincing that, "If you have a heart for the elderly, if you have a heart for your own family, your children, this issue ought to cause you deep, deep concern ."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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