Ugh. It was just rumor, but now it has hit the media. Which is a good thing, I guess. In the next town over from where I work, and where Mark's immediate family live, a sex offender is being released from jail. He has had *NO* therapy, and since he has completed his full term, they have no power to track, follow, or parole him. And they are saying that they are almost certain that he will do it again, it's just a matter of time. Doesn't that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside??
Here is the article from the local paper (sorry I don't have the link to it)
"Rapist's release worries citizens - Jun. 15, 2004
By BRENDAN McKENNA Southern Vermont Bureau
SPRINGFIELD - The Select Board is urging calm but caution in the face of concerns about the upcoming release of an untreated sex offender from prison.
Kenneth Dodge, an elderly Springfield resident, brought up the pending release of Daniel Emerson, 42, who was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison in 1984, at Monday's meeting.
He asked the board whether he should apply for some sort of pistol or revolver permit to protect himself.
Mary Helen Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Select Board, urged Dodge and any others who might consider such steps against any sort of vigilante attitude that might lead to the purchase of weapons but added the board could do little, even in the face of their "very grave concerns."
"They have no choice but to release him ... legally he cannot be held past the maximum sentence," Hawthorne said.
Hawthorne said that because Emerson is completing his maximum sentence, and not being released on parole, police and corrections officials also won't have any legal ability to supervise him.
Police said Emerson has indicated he plans to live in _Springfield when he is released sometime in July, but they were legally prevented from saying precisely where.
"We're very concerned, and we're informing the public to the degree we are legally allowed to," Hawthorne said. "We are trying to warn people of the potential danger."
"All we can do is warn of the potential danger and ask people to be prudent," she said.
Dodge said he understood, but wasn't reassured by the board's inability to act on the prospect of someone coming back to town and putting people in fear of their life.
"The punishment, it seems to me, should be life in prison," Dodge said. "What if he does it again?"
Police share Dodge's concern given Emerson's record of repeated rape-related convictions, his lack of treatment and pattern of attacks.
"Daniel Emerson is a dangerous man and the things that make him dangerous are the fact that he victimizes adult females of casual acquaintance, usually in their residence, gaining entrance under false pretext," Police Chief Douglas Johnston said in a written statement. "His last victim was an adult female who was unknown to him and approximately 40 years older (than Emerson) and a deadly weapon was used in the sexual assault."
Emerson was last convicted of raping a 60-year-old woman in May 1984. Police said he asked the North Springfield woman if he could use her phone as his vehicle had broken down.
When the woman allowed him in, Emerson grabbed her around the neck in a chokehold and threatened her with a large knife, police said.
Emerson dragged the victim to her bedroom as she struggled - cutting her fingers badly while attempting to grab the knife - and threw her on the floor and raped her, police said.
While in jail following that conviction Emerson failed to complete any program for sexual offenders. He was evaluated in 1991, as he approached his minimum sentence, for the violent offender program and a program called Cognitive Self Change, but failed to complete those 18-month programs, police said.
Emerson received 31 disciplinary reports in prison for offenses including assaults on staff and inmates, inappropriate sexual behavior towards a female staff member, drugs, and possession of contraband.
"The Springfield Police Department strongly encourages the citizens of Springfield not to walk alone, (and) do not let anyone into your residence to call for assistance; make the call for them," Johnston said.
Emerson was first convicted of attempted sexual assault in May 1980 and was sentenced to eight to 12 months in prison, police said.
A little more than two years later, in July 1982, Emerson broke into the Springfield home of a young mother, 26 at the time, and used physical force to control her while raping her twice that night, police said.
That crime earned Emerson a two- to eight-year prison sentence, police said, with all but two years suspended resulting in his release on probation in April 1984 - under two months from the day he would attack the elderly Springfield woman.
Police said Emerson is six feet, two inches tall with brown curly hair and hazel eyes. He weighs between 210 and 215 pounds and has a tattoo of the word "slish."
Contact Brendan McKenna at [email protected]. "
