I-Team Extras: Secrets in the Soil
May 15, 2009 12:19 am US/Eastern
I-Team: Face To Face With Sex Offenders
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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"It's been seven years. Seems like yesterday, hurts like today," said the still grief-stricken daughter.
They are faces you might not take a second look at as you visit a nursing home, but you might want to. Run a search on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Sexual Offender Registry and you will find a gallery of some of Florida's registered sex offenders and predators. But if you investigate and cross-check their home addresses as the
CBS4 I-Team did, you'll find scores of them are living in Florida nursing homes.
CBS4 Chief I-Team Investigator Michele Gillen has been calling, checking and visiting nursing homes and group homes for months to see who's living alongside our elderly.
"We are looking at different folks who are listed on the sexual registry list and you are registered as a sexual offender?"
Gillen asked as she visited an adult home where two offenders are living.
"Right," the 35-year-old gentleman who came to the door responded. He explained that the other residents in the home didn't know of his status.
Doing background checks on residents and making the results public is a mission of Wes Bledsoe, founder of A Perfect Cause. "We are warehousing these offenders with disabled elderly people who can't protect themselves and can't tell what happened to them."
A Perfect Cause tracks sexual offenders and a shocking trail of crimes some of them have committed while living in America's nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Some of them men and woman you might never suspect were a risk. "We've had individuals in wheelchairs, amputees, people where law enforcement said, 'they are incapacitated; they can not do harm to others.' Wrong," Bledsoe told
Gillen.
The I-Team brought Bledsoe to South Florida for a first-hand look at how sex offenders are being placed in nursing homes here, often at the request of the state.
One of the first visits was to the family-owned and -run Pines nursing home where that day the
I-Team noted there were two registered sex offenders living, according to the state sex offender registry.
Assistant Administrator Alyce Sica and owner Jules Ast welcomed the
I-Team into the home, a facility outfitted with an elaborate state of the art camera surveillance system. Both stressed they are extremely cautious of the type of sex offender they take in.
"We are within a school area. One block away is an elementary school, so if we take a sex offender, that offender cannot have the ability to self-propel; they must require total assistance with movement," Sica explained.
Here, Sica said, staff is informed who the sex offenders are. But what about the residents? "Do you tell them?"
Gillen asked.
"No," Sica responded.
She suggested anyone looking to place a family member in a home should check the state's sexual registry list. Our requests to interview the two sex offenders residing there were turned down by both men, one of whom was elected President of the Resident's Council.
Gillen was told that both men could not wander off on their own and managers do not consider them a risk to other residents.
Another stop for the
I-Team was Memorial Manor nursing home to request an interview with a 46-year-old listed on the state registry as a sexual predator. When
Gillen called for the operator to ask for him, she was told he was out of his room. Her request for an interview with management on their policy for housing sexual offenders and predators was turned down, along with her request for an interview with the resident. The nursing home did report to
Gillen that his treatment at the nursing home was court-ordered.
But not every sex offender turned down the
I-Team's request to discuss their housing and the tough questions it raises. At an adult living facility where two registered offenders were living they both agreed to
Gillen's request.
Gillen asked, "What about concerns about putting your grandmother in a home? Our question is: should people who are putting their loved ones in nursing homes and ACLFs be informed that they are living with registered offenders?"
"Yes, they should know," said one registered offender.
The other jumped in, agreeing, "I think so, too."
But did the other residents know of their background? "None of them know," they responded. "They don't know."
Tough questions and answers are being discovered; we've learned there are 80 registered sex offenders living in Florida nursing homes. "Ideally, should they be in a separate facility?"
Gillen asked Sica.
Ten years ago, Sica went to the state to encourage specialized housing be created for aging felons. "Ideally, yes. They need people who know how to deal with people who are dangerous."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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